Academic Staff

Professor Marc Knight, BSc. (Hons) Dunelm, PhD Glasgow

Contact Professor Marc Knight (email at m.r.knight@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

Plant Stress Signalling

There are three main areas of research in my lab:

1. The role of calcium in plant gene expression.

2. The molecular basis of freezing tolerance in Arctic plants (in collaboration with Bob Baxter)

3. The molecular basis of drought tolerance in Sorghum (in collaboration with ICRISAT and UNILEVER).

Related Links

• Lecture on my research

Research Groups

• Adaptation & Environment
• Durham Centre for Crop Improvement Technology

Publications

• 1: Whalley, H.J. & Knight, M.R. (2013). Calcium signatures are decoded by plants to give specific gene responses. New Phytologist 197(3): 690-693.
• 2: Oakenfull, R.J., Baxter, R. & Knight, M.R. (2013). A C-repeat Binding Factor Transcriptional Activator (CBF/DREB1) from European Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) induces Freezing Tolerance when expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS ONE IN PRESS.
• 3: Caroline S Moffat, Robert A Ingle, Deepthi L Wathugala, Nigel J Saunders, Heather Knight & Marc R Knight (2012). ERF5 and ERF6 Play Redundant Roles as Positive Regulators of JA/Et-Mediated Defense against Botrytis cinerea in Arabidopsis. PLoS ONE 7(4): e35995.
• 4: Knight, Marc. R. & Knight, Heather (2012). Low-temperature perception leading to gene expression and cold tolerance in higher plants. New Phytologist 195(4): 737.
• 5: Liu, J.L., Knight, H., Hurst, C.H., & Knight, M.R. (2012). Modelling and experimental analysis of the role of interacting cytosolic and vacuolar pools in shaping low temperature calcium signatures in plant cells. Molecular BioSystems 2012(8): 2205-2220.
• 6: Deepthi L. Wathugala, Piers A. Hemsley, Caroline S. Moffat Pieter Cremelie, Marc R. Knight & Heather Knight (2012). The Mediator subunit SFR6⁄MED16 controls defence gene expression mediated by salicylic acid and jasmonate responsive pathways. New Phytologist 195: 217-230.
• 7: Mehlmer N, Parvin N, Hurst CH, Knight MR, Teige M, & Vothknecht UC. (2012). A toolset of aequorin expression vectors for in planta studies of subcellular calcium concentrations in Arabidopsis thaliana. Journal of Experimental Botany 63(4): 1751-1761.
• 8: Sulaiman, Y., Knight, M. R. & Kataky, R. (2012). Non-invasive monitoring of temperature stress in Arabidopsis thaliana roots, using ion amperometry. Analytical Methods 4(6): 1656-1661.
• 9: Wathugala, Deepthi L., Richards, Shane A., Knight, Heather & Knight, Marc R. (2011). OsSFR6 is a functional rice orthologue of SENSITIVE TO FREEZING-6 and can act as a regulator of COR gene expression, osmotic stress and freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis. New Phytologist 191(4): 984-995.
• 10: Howden, Andrew J.M., Salek, Mogjiborahman, Miguet, Laurent, Pullen, Margaret, Thomas, Benjamin, Knight, Marc R. & Sweetlove, Lee J. (2011). The phosphoproteome of Arabidopsis plants lacking the oxidative signal-inducible1 (OXI1) protein kinase. New Phytologist 190(1): 49-56.
• 11: Whalley, H. J., Sargeant, A. W., Steele, J. F. C., Lacoere, T., Lamb, R., Saunders, N. J., Knight, H. & Knight, M. R. (2011). Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Calcium Regulation of Specific Promoter Motifs in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell 23(11): 4079-4095.
• 12: Galon, Yael, Aloni, Roni, Nachmias, Dikla, Snir, Orli, Feldmesser, Ester, Scrase-Field, Sarah, Boyce, Joy M., Bouche, Nicolas, Knight, Marc R. & Fromm, Hillel (2010). Calmodulin-binding transcription activator 1 mediates auxin signaling and responds to stresses in Arabidopsis. PLANTA 232(1): 165-178.
• 13: Knight, H, Mugford, SG, Ulker, B, Gao, DH, Thorlby, G & Knight, MR (2009). Identification of SFR6, a key component in cold acclimation acting post-translationally on CBF function. Plant Journal 58(1): 97-108.
• 14: Petersen, LN, Ingle, RA, Knight, MR & Denby, KJ (2009). OXI1 protein kinase is required for plant immunity against Pseudomonas syringae in Arabidopsis. Journal Of Experimental Botany 60(13): 3727-3735.
• 15: Okamoto, H, Gobel, C, Capper, RG, Saunders, N, Feussner, I & Knight, MR (2009). The alpha-subunit of the heterotrimeric G-protein affects jasmonate responses in Arabidopsis thaliana. Journal Of Experimental Botany 60(7): 1991-2003.
• 16: Aslam, SN, Newman, MA, Erbs, G, Morrissey, KL, Chinchilla, D, Boller, T, Jensen, TT, De Castro, C, Ierano, T, Molinaro, A, Jackson, RW, Knight, MR & Cooper, RM (2008). Bacterial polysaccharides suppress induced innate immunity by calcium chelation. Current Biology 18(14): 1078-1083.
• 17: Galon, Y, Nave, R, Boyce, JM, Nachmias, D, Knight, MR & Fromm, H (2008). Calmodulin-binding transcription activator (CAMTA) 3 mediates biotic defense responses in Arabidopsis. Febs Letters 582(6): 943-948.
• 18: Ulker, B, Peiter, E, Dixon, DP, Moffat, C, Capper, R, Bouche, N, Edwards, R, Sanders, D, Knight, H & Knight, MR (2008). Getting the most out of publicly available T-DNA insertion lines. Plant Journal 56(4): 665-677.