Prof. Mike Bevan，John Innes Centre
Professor, University of East Anglia, UK
Education and Research experiences
 BSc, MSc (Hons), University of Auckland, New Zealand
 PhD Cantab. 1979
 Postdoctoral research at Washington University in St Louis, Mo, USA, 1980-1982
 Postdoctoral research at Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, UK 1982-1985
Research interests
Sugar signalling and gene expression
Work in my group aims to understand how plant growth and development is integrated with the
supply of carbohydrate from photosynthesis. All organisms have intricate mechanisms that
regulate growth in response to available nutrients that are relatively well characterised. However
in plants only a few examples are known of regulatory and signalling systems that regulate
cellular responses to carbohydrates. We aim to define new regulatory pathways linking the
perception and transduction of metabolic signals to growth and developmental responses using
genetic screens in the model plant Arabidopsis.
Gene disruption and gene expression patterns in Arabidopsis
A large population of Ds gene trap insertion lines has been generated in Arabidopsis as part of the
Garnet and EXOTIC projects. The insertion sites and expression patterns from these lines has
been determined, together with insertion sites of single insertion lines (SM lines) of the dSpm
element in the SLAT lines made by Jonathan Jones and colleagues. These insertions are displayed
in the AtIDB database (http://www.atidb.org/). Currently a large number of these lines are being
screened systematically for a variety of growth and developmental phenotypes.
Genome Bioinformatics
Together with Sean Walsh and Matt Couchman in the Computational Biology Group at JIC we
have developed the AtiDB Arabidopsis functional genomics database (http://www.atidb.org/) as
part of the EC-funded Planet Consortium. Planet (http://www.eu-plant-genome.net/) is a
comprehensive integrated database of Arabidopsis genomics and functional genomics information.
It implements BIOMOBY services to compile, integrate and distribute the large amount of data
generated since completion of the genome sequence.
Defining Gene Expression Networks in Arabidopsis
Determining the regulatory networks governing gene expression in eukaryotic cells is one of the
major challenges facing biologists and mathematicians, because unlike the triplet code
determining protein sequence, the gene regulatory code is not universal. Experimental approaches
to determining gene regulatory circuits are exceptionally daunting in multicellular organisms with
large genomes and multiple transcription factors. Computational approaches that identify
regulatory motifs associated with expression patterns can be used to build predictive models of
gene expression that provide biologists with leads for experimentation and a conceptual
framework of gene regulation. The BBSRC Exploiting Genomics Initiative funded a collaboration
with Gavin Cawley in the Computing Sciences Dept at the University of East Anglia to use
machine learning methods to analyse Arabidopsis microarray data. We have developed a promoter
classification method using a Relevance Vector Machine that identified discriminatory features in
promoter sequences that correctly classified the expression patterns of over 70% of promoters
according to known and novel promoter sequences.
Recent Publications
Garvin D. F., McKenzie N., Vogel J. P., Mockler T. C., Blankenheim Z. J., Wright J., Cheema J. J.
S., Dicks J., Huo N., Hayden D. M., Gu Y., Tobias C., Chang J. H., Chu A., Trick M., Michael T.
P., Bevan M. W., Snape J. W. (2010)An SSR-based genetic linkage map of the model grass
Brachypodium distachyon. Genome 53 (1) 1-13
Thole V., Worland B., Wright J., Bevan M., Vain P. (2010) Distribution and characterization of
more than 1000T-DNA tags in the genome of Brachypodium distachyon community standard line
Bd21. Plant Biotechnology Journal 8 (6) 734-47
Wright J. M., Febrer M., McKenzie N., Byrne M. E., Walsh S., Higgins J., Bevan M. W. (2010)
Genome sequencing and analysis of the model grass Brachypodium distachyon. Nature 463 (7282)
763-768
Alves S. C., Worland B., Thole V., Snape J. W., Bevan M., Vain P. (2009) A protocol for
agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Brachypodium distachyon community standard line
Bd21. Nature Protocols 4 (5) 638-649
Febrer M., Wilhelm E., Al-Kaff N., Wright J., Powell W., Bevan M. W., Boulton M. I. (2009)
Rapid identification of the three homoeologues of the wheat dwarfing gene Rht using a novel
PCR-based screen of three-dimensional BAC pools. Genome 52 (12) 993-1000
Thole V., Alves S. C., Worland B., Bevan M. W., Vain P. (2009) A protocol for efficiently
retrieving and characterising flanking sequence tags (FSTs) in Brachypodium distachyon T-DNA
insertional mutants. Nature Protocols 4 (5) 650-661
Baier M., Hemmann G., Holman R., Corke f., Card R., Smith C., Rook F., Bevan M. W. (2004)
Characterization of mutants in Arabidopsis showing increased sugar-specific gene expression,
growth, and developmental responses. Plant Physiology 134, 81-91.
Bevan M. (2002) Genomics and plant cells: application of genomics strategies to Arabidopsis cell
biology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London B. 357, 731-736.
Bevan M. (2002) Plant biology - The first harvest of crop genes. Nature 416, 590-591.
Bevan M., Mayer K., White O., Eisen J. A., Preuss D., Bureau T., Salzberg S. L., Mewes H-W.
(2001) Sequence and analysis of the Arabidopsis genome. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 4,
105-110.
Conlan RS, Hammond-Kosack M, Bevan M (1999) Transcription activation mediated by the bZIP
factor SPA on the endosperm box is modulated by ESBF-1 in vitro. Plant Journal 99 173-181
Cano-Delgado A., Penfield S., Smith C., Catley M., Bevan M. (2003) Reduced cellulose synthesis
invokes lignification and defense responses in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Journal 34, 351-362.
Copenhaver GP, Nickel K, Kuromori T, Benito MI, Kaul S, Lin XY, Bevan M, Murphy G, Harris
B, Parnell LD, McCombie WR, Martienssen RA, Marra M, Preuss D (1999) Genetic definition
and sequence analysis of Arabidopsis centromeres. Science 286 2468-2474
Li Y., Sorefan K., Hemmann G., Bevan M. W. (2004) Arabidopsis NAP and PIR regulate
Actin-based cell morphogenesis and multiple developmental processes. Plant Physiology 136,
3616-3627.
Mayer, K., et al (1999) Sequence and analysis of chromosome 4 of the plant Arabidopsis
thaliana. Nature 402 769-777
Mayer K., Murphy G., Tarchini R., Wambutt R., Volckaert G., Pohl T., Dusterhoft A., Stiekema W.,
Entian K-D., Terryn N., Lemcke K., Haase D., Hall C. R., van Dodeweerd A-M., Tingey S. V.,
Mewes H. W., Bevan M. W., Bancroft I. (2001) Conservation of microstructure between a
sequenced region of the genome of rice and multiple segments of the genome of Arabidopsis
thaliana. Genome Research 11, 1167-1175.
Meissner RC, Jin HL, Cominelli E, Denekamp M, Fuertes A, Greco R, Kranz HD, Penfield S,
Petroni K, Urzainqui A, Martin C, PazAres J, Smeekens S, Tonelli C, Weisshaar B, Baumann E,
Klimyuk V, Marillonnet S, Patel K, Speulman E, Tissier AF, Bouchez D, Jones JJD, Pereira A,
Wisman E, Bevan M. (1999) Function search in a large transcription factor gene family in
Arabidopsis: Assessing the potential of reverse genetics to identify insertional mutations in R2R3
MYB genes. Plant Cell 11 1827-1840
Pan X., Liu H., Clarke J., Jones J., Bevan M., Stein L. (2003) ATIDB: Arabidopsis thaliana
insertion database. Nucleic Acids Research 31, 1245-1251.
Patzlaff A., McInnis S., Courtenay A., Surman C., Newman L. J., Smith C., Bevan M. W.,
Mansfield S., Whetten R. W., Sederoff R. R., Campbell M. M. (2003) Characterisation of a pine
MYB that regulates lignification. Plant Journal 36, 743-754.
Patzlaff A., Newman L. J., Dubos C., Whetten R. W., Smith C., McInnis S., Bevan M. W.,
Sederoff R. R., Campbell M. M. (2003) Characterisation of PtMYB1, an R2R3-MYB from pine
xylem. Plant Molecular Biology 53, 597-608.
Penfield S., Meissner R. C., Shoue D. A., Carpita N. C., Bevan M. W. (2001) MYB61 is required
for mucilage deposition and extrusion in the arabidopsis seed coat. Plant Cell 13, 2777-2791.
Rook F., Bevan M. W. (2003) Genetic approaches to understanding sugar-response pathways.
Journal of Experimental Botany 54, 495-501.
Rook F., Corke F., Card R., Munz G., Smith C., Bevan M. W. (2001) Impaired sucrose-induction
mutants reveal the modulation of sugar-induced starch biosynthetic gene expression by abscisic
acid signalling. Plant Journal 26, 421-433.
Schwechheimer, C., Corke, F., Smith, C. and Bevan, M. (2000). Transactivation of a target gene
through feed-forward loop activation in plants. Functional and Integrative Genomics 1. 35-43
Tabata, S., Kaneko, T., Nakamura, Y. et al. (2000) Sequence and analysis of chromosome 5 of the
plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature 408: 823-826.
The Arabidopsis Genome Intiative (2000). Analysis of the genome sequence of the flowering plant
Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature 408: 796-815.
Wambutt, R., Murphy G., Volckaert, G., et al. (2000). Progress in Arabidopsis genome sequencing
and functional genomics. J. Biotechnology 78: 281-292.
Zourelidou M., de Torres-Zabala M., Smith C., Bevan M. W. (2002) Storekeeper defines a new
class of plant-specific DNA-binding proteins and is a putative regulator of patatin expression.
Plant Journal 30, 489-497.