Michael Neff
Assistant Professor / Scientist
371 Johnson Hall
PO Box 646420
Pullman WA 99164-6420 USA
Phone 509-335-7705
FAX 509-335-8674
mmneff@wsu.edu
Education
B.S. Botany 1988 University of Washington
Ph.D. Botany 1995 University of Washington
Curriculum Vitae, March 2008 (pdf)
Research
Our lab uses molecular, genetic and biochemical approaches to uncover and describe the interactions between various signaling pathways that modulate plant development. Specifically, we use seedling development in the plant Arabidopsis as a tool for addressing the question: How do signaling pathways modulated by light interact with each other and with those regulated by endogenous hormones to control plant development? Arabidopsis is perfect for this approach due to its small size, rapid lifecycle and completely sequenced genome. Our lab’s research relates to the goal of increasing yield in agricultural crops by studying the photomorphogenic and hormone signaling pathways that regulate plant stature.
Selected Publications
Chen H, Zhang J, Neff MM, Hong S-W, Deng XW and Xiong L (2008) Integration of light and abscisic acid signaling during seed germination and early seedling development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (in press)
Street IH, Shah PK, Smith AM, Avery N, and Neff MM (2008) The AT-Hook Containing Proteins SOB3/AHL29 and ESC/AHL27 are Negative Modulators of Hypocotyl Growth in Arabidopsis. Plant Journal doi:10..1111/j.1365-313X.2007.03393.x
Nemri A, Neff MM, Burrell M, Jones JDG and Studholme DJ (2007) Marker development for the genetic study of natural variation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Bioinformatics 23 3108-3109
Zhang J, Wrage EL, Vankova R, Malbeck J, and Neff MM (2006) Overexpression of SOB5 suggests the involvement of a novel plant protein in cytokinin-mediated development. Plant Journal 46 834-848
Neff MM, Street IH, Turk EM, Ward JM (2006) Chapter 21: Interaction of light and hormone signalling to mediate photomorphogenesis In E. Schäfer, F. Nagy, eds, Photomorphogenesis in Plants and Bacteria 3rd Ed., 439-473. Springer, Netherlands
Ward JM, Smith AM, Shah PK, Gallanti SE, Yi H, Demianski AJ, van der Graaff E, Keller B and Neff MM (2006) A New Role for the AP2 Transcription Factor, LEP, in Gibberellin-Induced Germination is Revealed by the Mis-Expression of a Homologous Gene, SOB2/DRN-like. Plant Cell 18 29-39
Turk EM, Fujioka S, Seto H, Shimada Y, Takatsuto S, Yoshida S, Wang H, Torres QI, Ward JM, Murthy G, Zhang J, Walker JC and Neff MM (2005) BAS1 and SOB7 Act Redundantly to Modulate Arabidopsis Photomorphogenesis via Unique Brassinosteroid Inactivation Mechanisms. Plant Journal 42 23-34
Ward JM, Cufr CA, Denzel MA and Neff MM (2005) The Dof transcription factor, OBP3, modulates phytochrome and cryptochrome signaling in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 17 475-485
Turk EM, Fujioka S, Seto H, Shimada Y, Takatsuto S, Yoshida S, Denzel MA, Torres QI and Neff MM (2003) CYP72B1 Inactivates Brassinosteroid Hormones: An Intersection Between Photomorphogenesis and Plant Steroid Signal Transduction. Plant Physiology, 133 1643-1653
Neff MM, Turk E and Kalishman M (2002) Web-based Primer Design for Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Analysis. Trends in Genetics, 18 613-615
Weigel D, Ahn JH, Blázquez MA, Borevitz J, Christensen SK, Fankhauser C, Ferrándiz C, Kardailsky I, Malancharuvil EJ, Neff MM, Nguyen JT, Sato S, Wang Z, Xia Y, Dixon RA, Harrison MJ, Lamb CJ, Yanofsky MF and Chory J (2000) Activation tagging in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology, 122 1003-1013
Neff MM, Fankhauser C and Chory J (2000) Light: An indicator of time and place. Genes and Development, 14 257-271
Neff MM, Nguyen SM, Malancharuvil EJ, Fujioka S, Noguchi T, Seto H, Tsubuki M, Honda T, Takatsuto S, Yoshida S and Chory J (1999) BAS1: A gene regulating brassinosteroid levels and light responsiveness in Arabidopsis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 96 15316-15323
Neff MM and Chory J (1998) Genetic interactions between phytochrome A, phytochrome B and cryptochrome 1 during Arabidopsis development. Plant Physiology, 118 27-36
Neff MM, Neff JD, Chory J and Pepper AE (1998) dCAPS, a simple technique for the genetic analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms: experimental applications in Arabidopsis thaliana genetics. Plant Journal, 14 387-392
Chory J, Chatterjee M, Cook RK, Elich T, Fankhauser C, Li J, Nagpal P, Neff MM, Pepper A, Poole D, Reed J and Vitart V (1996) From seed germination to flowering, light controls plant development via the pigment phytochrome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 93 12066-12071
Blum DE, Neff MM and Van Volkenburgh E, (1994) Light-stimulated cotyledon expansion in the blu3 and hy4 mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiology 105: 1433-1436
Neff MM and Van Volkenburgh E (1994) Light-stimulated cotyledon expansion in Arabidopsis seedlings: The role of phytochrome B. Plant Physiology 104: 1027-1032
Geiser JR, van Tuinen D, Brockerhoff SE, Neff MM and Davis TN (1991) Can calmodulin function without binding calcium? Cell 65: 949-959
Biotechnology: Food for thought
A career in biotechnology is exciting, but the subject can be controversial. In this New Scientist article, WSU crop biotechnologist Michael Neff believes communication is the key. Read more.
Separating Truth from Myth: Understanding Biotechnology
New class is designed to help students develop an understanding of biotechnology in the 21st century. Read more.
Heading using the h3tag
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.