| Name: |
| Allan Caplan |
| Title: |
| Associate Professor |
| Degree: |
| Ph.D., 1980, University of Iowa |
| Phone: |
| (208) 885-9441 |
| Fax: |
| (208) 885-6518 |
| Email: |
| acaplan@uidaho.edu |
| Lab/Office Location: |
| Gibb Hall, Room 130 |
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| Research Interests: |
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| My lab is currently pursuing two very different programs. |
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| One involves several lines of research involving metabolic engineering of plants for phytoremediation. |
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Many areas of the world are heavily contaminated with run-off from mining and industrial sites. These ions can be removed from the
environment but only at great expense using a variety of in situ chemical extraction processes. The sole alternative to this entire
approach uses the natural ability of plants to accumulate free ions and concentrate them internally. Phytoremediation, as this
process is called, can be done for as little as 1/10th of the cost of conventional techniques. The method, however, depends on the
capabilities and tolerances of naturally occurring plants. The program in my lab is designed to identify ways to improve the
performance of phytoremediative species in order to make this restorative operation more effective. We have been isolating genetic
components of the abiotic defenses of rice, a model organism with inherent advantages over many more exotic species for use in
phytoremediation. The contributions of two of these genes, called salT and rezA, are being studied by manipulating
their expression in transgenic plants. A complementary, and possibly more direct approach towards enhancing the accumulation of zinc
is to develop new chelating agents to protect parts of the cell that are most sensitive to metal damage. Using what is known about
zinc-binding amino acid motifs, we are currently attempting to create artificial metal-binding proteins with novel protective
characteristics for this purpose.
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| A second project involves identifying novel biocontrol agents in soil microbial populations. |
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Despite extensive use of a variety of control measures, soil nematodes continue to cause crop losses approaching $ 8 billion dollars
annually in this country alone. Many of the chemicals used to control these animals are toxic to both birds and mammals and are not
always effective once nematodes have invaded their host. We have isolated a novel soil bacterium that is able to kill the model
nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. By studying how this bacterium kills C. elegans, we hope to uncover toxins capable
of killing plant parasitic nematodes. By identifying the host targets affected by the bacterium, we hope to identify proteins that
may eventually be targeted by pharmaceuticals capable of affecting nematodes without harming other animals in their ecosystem.
Finally, by augmenting the knowledge we now have about this well-studied organism with an examination of its antibacterial defenses,
we expect to learn much about the most basic antipathogen defenses in the animal kingdom.
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| Selected Publications: |
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Caplan, A.B., Van Montagu, M., and Schell, J. 1985. Genetic analysis of integration mediated by single T-DNA borders. J. Bacteriol. 161: 655-664.
Caplan, A., Berger, Ph.H., and Naderi, M., 1998. Phenotypic variation between transgenic plants: What is making gene expression unpredictable? In Somaclonal Variation and Induced Mutations in Crop Improvement. S. M. Jain, D.S.Brar, and B.S. Ahloowahlia (Eds.), Dorderecht, Kluwer Academic Press. pp. 541-564.
Garcia, A.-B., de Aleida Engler, J., Iyer, S., Geerts, T., Van Montagu, M., and Caplan, A. 1997. Effects of osmoprotectants upon salt stress in rice. Plant Physiol.115: 159-169.
Iyer, S. and Caplan, A. 1998. Products of proline catabolism can function as pleiotropic effectors in rice. Plant Physiol. 116: 203-211.
Garcia, A.-B., de Aleida Engler, J., Claes, B., Villaroel, R., Van Montagu, M., Geerts, T., and Caplan, A. 1998. The expression of the salt-responsive gene salT from rice is regulated by hormonal and developmental cues. Planta 207: 172-180.
Sripo T, Phongdara A, Wanapu C, Caplan AB. 2002. Screening and characterization of aldehyde dehydrogenase gene from Halomonas salina strain AS11. J Biotechnol 95:171-179.
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