3649-08 IICB.indd - Faculty of Biological Sciences - University of ...

Celia Knight
BSc (Bristol);
PhD (Leeds);
Lecturer Leeds (1994);
Senior Lecturer Leeds (2001);
University Teaching Fellow (2003-4);
Academic Coordinator for Gatsby Plants (2004-);
Director of the Undergraduate School (2006-);
Director of the Institute of Life Science Education (2006-)
Contact: c.d.knight@leeds.ac.uk
Plant Developmental
Biology
I am interested in plant development,
particularly at the level of the cell and
the relatively simple decisions that the
cell makes. For most of my career I
have studied development in the moss
Physcomitrella patens because it has
simple cell structures and yet these
respond to light, gravity and hormones
as angiosperms do. I have published on
gravitropism and jointly published the
first report of stable transformation of
P.patens in 1991. I co-ran the BBSRCfunded
Physcomitrella EST Programme
(PEP) from 1999-2002 (with David Cove
and Andrew Cuming, Leeds), being
responsible for the transformation and
training service involving 5 international
training workshops on moss techniques.
PEP was part of an international effort
which has resulted in the complete
sequencing of the Physcomitrella
genome (draft sequence recently
released) as the first non-angiosperm
land plant. I am currently editing a book
on Physcomitrella to be published by
Blackwell in 2008.
Plant-Microbe Interactions
I am also interested in the ways that
plants and microbes produce and
perceive chemical signals, having
previously worked and published on
Rhizobium spp. nodulation. Working
with David G Adams (Leeds), I published
a method to detect chemotaxis in the
symbiosis between nitrogen-fixing
cyanobacteria and liverworts. This
has potential for the identification and
characterisation of plant compounds
from a range of host species, including
cereals, that are perceived by soil
nitrogen-fixing microbes.
Communicating Science
I am committed to developing ways
to inspire and inform students about
Biology, as well as assisting academics
to teach manageably within a research
environment. The Gatsby Plants project
runs an annual summer school for
high-achieving undergraduates from
UK Universities as well as developing a
web-based teaching resource. As part
of my teaching fellowship I have
developed an undergraduate e-
journal (Biolog-e) to showcase and
reward undergraduate research and
have established the first national
undergraduate research journal,
Bioscience Horizons, as part of a UK
University consortium and Oxford
University Press.
Funding for these projects has been
from BBSRC, NERC, EU and Gatsby.
Representative Publications
Lee, KJD, Sakata, Y, Mau, S-L, Pettolino,
F, Bacic, A, Quatrano, RS, Knight, CD, and
Knox, JP. (2005) Arabinogalactan Proteins
Are Required for Apical Cell Extension in the
Moss Physcomitrella patens. Plant Cell 17:
3051-3065
Knight, CD, Cove, DJ, Cuming, AC and
Quatrano, RS. (2002) Moss Gene Technology.
In: Plant Molecular Biology – a practical
approach. Eds. Gilmartin PM and Bowler C.
IRL Press.
http://www.gatsbyplants.leeds.ac.uk
http://www.biolog-e.leeds.ac.uk
http:www.biohorizons.oxfordjournals.org