UBC Home Page -
UBC Home Page -UBC Home Page UBC Home Page -News Events Directories Search UBC myUBC Login
-
botany home

Photo: Elaine Simons
Fred Sack
Research | Teaching | Team | Publications

e-mail:fsack@interchange.ubc.ca
office phone: (604) 822-3554, 827-4564
lab phone: (604) 827-4510

Professor and Head, Dept. of Botany
B.A. Sociology (1969) Antioch University;
Ph.D. Plant Biology (1982) Cornell University;
Postdoctoral Researcher Boyce Thomson Institute;
Assistant Professor Ohio State University (1984);
Associate Professor (1990);
Professor (1997-2006 ),
Chair Dept. Plant Cell & Molec. Biology, Ohio State Univ. (2004-2006)

Research Interests:

Our lab studies the cellular and molecular biology of how stomata develop. Stomata are highly specialized structures made up of two guard cells surrounding a pore. The gating of this aperture in the leaf epidermis regulates the entry of carbon dioxide used in photosynthesis. Using a targeted genetic screen we identified genes critical for stomatal formation. TOO MANY MOUTHS encodes a receptor-like protein whose expression marks a stem cell compartment in the developing shoot epidermis. TMM regulates both the number and orientation of asymmetric divisions that produce stomata. FOUR LIPS encodes a MYB transcription factor that limits symmetric divisions later in the stomatal cell lineage.

Current work on the stomatal pathway (1) cell biology of divisions especially with respect to the cytoskeleton, (2) relationship between MYB function and cell cycling, and (3) the identification of other genes in the TMM and FLP pathways.

 
Courses Taught:

Biol 210 Vascular Plants (UBC)
PCMB 648 Plant Cell Biology (OSU)
PCMB 643 Plant Anatomy (OSU)

 

Research Team:

Current

Dr. EunKyoung Lee, postdoctoral researcher
Xuguang Liu, MS student
Sandra Keerthisinghe, MS student
Yana Eglit, undergraduate
Kelvin Chong, undergraduate
Fangyu ("Sherry") Chi, undergraduate
Jason Wong, undergraduate

Recent

Dr. Jie Le, postdoctoral researcher until January 2009, currently Professor, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing
Neela Bhave, Ph D 2007 OSU, currently PDF Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus
Jessica Lucas, Ph D 2006 OSU, currently PDF Indiana University, Biology, Bloomington

 
Selected Publications in Stomatal Development:

Xiong-Yan Chen, Lin Liu, Eunkyoung Lee, Xiao Han, Yeonggil Rim, Hyosub Chu, Seon-Won Kim, Fred Sack, and Jae-Yean Kim 2009 (in press) The Arabidopsis callose synthase gene, GSL8,is required for cytokinesis and cell patterning.
Plant Physiology

Bhave, NS, Veley, KM, Nadeau, JA, Lucas, JR, Bhave, SL, Sack, FD 2009 TOO MANY MOUTHS promotes cell fate progression in stomatal development of Arabidopsis stems. Planta, 229: 357-367

Sack FD, Chen JC 2009 Pores in place. Science 323:592-593, Invited Perspective

Bergmann D C, Sack FD 2007 Stomatal development. Annual Review Plant Biology
58: 163-181

Lucas JR, Nadeau JA, Sack FD 2006 Microtubule arrays and Arabidopsis stomatal development. J Experimental Botany 57: 71-79. (pdf)

Lien B. Lai, Jeanette A. Nadeau, Jessica Lucas, Eun-Kyoung Lee, Tsuyoshi Nakagawa, Liming Zhao, Matt Geisler, and Fred D. Sack (2005). The Arabidopsis R2R3 MYB Proteins FOUR LIPS and MYB88 Restrict Divisions Late in the Stomatal Cell Lineage. PLANT CELL 2005 17: 2754-2767. (pdf)

Falbel TG, Koch LM, Nadeau JA, Segui-Simarro, JM, Sack FD, Bednarek SY 2003 SCD1 is required for cytokinesis and polarized cell expansion in Arabidopsis. Development 130: 4011-24 (pdf)

Nadeau J,A and FD Sack 2003 Stomatal development: Cross talk puts mouths in place. Trends in Plant Science 8: 294-299 (pdf)

Geisler M, DO Deppong, JA Nadeau, FD Sack. 2003 Stomatal neighbor cell polarity and division in Arabidopsis. Planta 216: 571-579. (pdf)

Nadeau JA, Sack FD 2002a Stomatal development in Arabidopsis. In: Somerville CR, Meyerowitz EM (eds) The Arabidopsis book. Amer Soc Plant Biol, Maryland, doi/10.1199/tab.0066 (pdf - note 3MB)

Nadeau JA, FD Sack 2002 Control of stomatal distribution on the Arabidopsis leaf surface. Science 296: 1697-1700. (pdf)

Geisler M and Sack F 2002 Variable timing of developmental progression in the stomatal pathway in Arabidopsis cotyledons. New Phytologist 153:469-476. (pdf)

Geisler M, JA Nadeau, FD Sack. 2000 Oriented asymmetric divisions that generate the stomatal spacing pattern in Arabidopsis are disrupted by the too many mouths mutation. Plant Cell 12: 2075-86. (pdf)

Yang M, JA Nadeau, L Zhao, FD Sack 1999 Characterization of a cytokinesis defective mutant (cyd1) of Arabidopsis. J Experimental Botany 50: 1437-1446. (pdf)

Zhao L, FD Sack 1999 Ultrastructure of stomatal development in Arabidopsis (Brassicaceae) leaves. Amer J Botany 86: 929-39. (pdf)

Geisler M, M Yang, FD Sack 1998 Divergent regulation of stomatal initiation and patterning in organ and suborgan regions of the Arabidopsis mutants too many mouths and four lips. Planta 205: 522-530. (pdf)

Larkin J, MD Marks, J Nadeau, FD Sack 1997 Epidermal cell fate and patterning in leaves. Plant Cell 9: 1109-1120. (pdf)

Yang M, FD Sack 1995 The too many mouths and four lips mutations affect stomatal production in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 7: 2227-39. (pdf)

 
back to faculty top of page
Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, 3529-6270 University Blvd. Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 | Phone: 604-822-2133 Fax: 604-822-6089
© 2007 UBC Department of Botany | Feedback | Privacy statement | Terms of Use