Research

Major Scientific Interests: Adaptation processes, plant growth, genetic diversity, natural variations, light conditions, shade avoidance syndrome, plant biology, climate change, growth hormone auxin, phytochromes, brassinosteroids

Joanne Chory’s work has contributed to the identification of plant hormones. She investigates the natural variations in plant species and plant reactions to different light and temperature conditions. Her studies have helped us understand how plants adapt to climate change.

Individual members of the same plant species often thrive in very different environmental conditions. The model plant used by plant geneticists, thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), grows in many parts of the world – from northern Scandinavia to Central Africa. Chory’s team is researching the plant’s natural variants, searching for molecular clues to this adaptation process in the DNA. Her laboratory has made a significant contribution to decoding three important plant hormones. For example, she and her colleagues explained the previously unknown process of how plants produce the important growth hormone auxin.

Chory used thale cress to explain the well-known phenomenon of shade avoidance syndrome. Light-sensitive proteins in plants, called phytochromes, constantly measure ambient light conditions. If the plant’s surroundings are too crowded and shady, processes enabling it to shoot up quickly are activated. With the help of gene analyses, Chory’s team were able to localise growth genes that are responsible for shade avoidance syndrome. She also discovered that plants’ reactions to light conditions are controlled by genetic variations. These variations make plants in northern countries more light-sensitive than those at the equator. Chory’s analyses have also shown that a process involving many different interactions, rather than a linear signal transfer, is responsible for reactions to light conditions.

Chory’s laboratory also decoded the molecular signal chain of other hormones that help plants thrive. Brassinosteroids influence the activity of genes that control cell ageing processes as well as plant growth. Through additional research on brassinosteroids, Chory and her team hope to learn even more about the mechanism of plant growth and to find out how changes in the environment influence growth.

Career

• since 1999 Adjunct Professor, Biology Department, University of California (UC) San Diego, San Diego, USA
• since 1998 Director, Plant Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, USA
• 1997 Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, USA
• 1994-1998 Associate Professor, Plant Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, USA
• 1992-1994 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Biology Department, UC San Diego, San Diego, USA
• 1988-1994 Assistant Professor, Plant Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, USA
• 1984-1988 Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
• Ph.D. in Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, USA
• B.A. in Biology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, USA

Functions

• 2006 Associated Member, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)

Honours and Memberships

• 2022 Honorary Doctorate, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
• 2020 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, Rockefeller University, New York City, USA
• 2019 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, Princess of Asturias Foundation, Oviedo, Spain
• 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Rubenstein Communications Inc., New York         City, USA
• 2012 Genetics Society of America Medal, Genetics Society of America, USA
• 2011 Member, Royal Society, UK
• 2009 Member, Académie des Sciences, France
• since 2008 Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany
• 2005 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), USA
• 2004 Kumho Award in Plant Molecular Biology, Kumho Cultural Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
• 2003 Scientific American 50-Research Leader in Agriculture, USA
• 2000 L'Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNSECO) as well as Fondation L’Oréal, Clichy, France
• 1999 Member, National Academy of Sciences, USA
• 1998 Member. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, USA
• 1995 Charles Albert Shull Award, American Society of Plant Physiologists, USA
• 1994 Award for Initiatives in Research, National Academy of Sciences, USA