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Margaret L. (Marlee) Pierce
Oklahoma State University
Associate Research Biochemist, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Address: 246 Noble Research Center, OSU, Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-6381 Fax: 405-744-7799
Email: mpierce@biochem.okstate.edu
URL: http://opbs.okstate.edu/~pierce/homepage.html
Ph.D., Botany and Plant Pathology, 1981, Michigan State University Lab Photo
Postdoctoral: Biology of Nitrogen Fixation, 1980-1981, C.F. Kettering Research
Laboratory
Research Emphasis: Biology of bacterial pathogenicity and plant resistance; Plant functional genomics
Related Activities:
 
Research Description:

Since joining Oklahoma State University my research program has been closely allied with that of Dr. Margaret Essenberg. We have concentrated on the reactions of resistant cotton lines when challenged by the bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. malvacearum. The large array of sesquiterpenoid metabolites that cotton produces includes a number with antibacterial activity, and those accumulate quickly in infected leaves during a resistance reaction. Such compounds are termed phytoalexins. Their location precisely at the site of infection, their locally high concentrations, and the coincidence in timing of their appearance at all infection sites with inhibition of bacterial growth have led us to propose that in this host/pathogen system, phytoalexin accumulation is adequate to account for resistance. Current research is directed to the goal of identifying genes whose induction is necessary for an effective hypersensitive disease resistance response in cotton. For assessing which induced genes are the important ones, we have available near-isogenic cotton lines whose levels of resistance range from full susceptibility to near-immunity.
 
Recent Publications:

Naran R, Pierce ML, Mort AJ (2007) Detection and identification of rhamnogalacturonan lyase activity in intercellular spaces of expanding cotton cotyledons. The Plant Journal (in press).

Zhang Z, Pierce ML, Mort AJ (2007) Changes in homogalacturonans and enzymes degrading them during cotton cotyledon expansion. Phytochemistry (in press).

Taliercio E, Allen RD, Essenberg M, Klueva N, Nguyen H, Patil M, Payton P, Millena ACM, Phillips AL, Pierce ML, Scheffler B, Turley R, Wang J, Zhang D, Scheffler J (2006) Analysis of ESTs from Multiple Gossypium hirsutum Tissues and Identification of SSRs. Genome 49, 306-319.

Udall JA, Swanson JM, Haller K, Rapp RA, Sparks ME, Hatfield J, Yu Y, Wu Y, Dowd C, Arpat A B, Sickler BA, Wilkins TA, Guo JY, Chen XY, Scheffler J, Taliercio E, Turley R, McFadden H, Payton P, Allen R, Zhang D, Haigler C, Wilkerson C, Suo J, Schulze SR, Pierce ML, Essenberg M, Kim H, Llewellyn DJ, Dennis ES, Kudrna D, Wing R, Paterson AH, Soderlund C, Wendel JF (2006) A Global Assembly of Cotton ESTs. Genome Research 16, 441-450.

Patil MA, Pierce ML, Phillips AL, Venters BJ, Essenberg M (2005, in print in 2006) Identification of genes up-regulated in bacterial-blight-resistant upland cotton in response to inoculation with Xanthomonas campestris pv. malvacearum. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 67, 319-335.

Kangatharalingam N, Pierce ML, Essenberg M (2003) A Technique for Precise Inoculation of the Internal Phyllosphere of Cotton with Xanthomonas campestris pv. malvacearum. Phytopathology 93, 1204-1208.


 
Selected Additional Publications:

Mort AJ, Pierce ML (2002) Preparation of carbohydrates for analysis by HPLC and HPCE. In Carbohydrate Analysis by Modern Chromatography and Electrophoresis, El Rassi Z, ed., Elsevier, Amsterdam (In press).

Kangatharalingam N, Pierce ML, Bayles MB, Essenberg M (2002) Epidermal anthocyanin production as an indicator of bacterial blight resistance in cotton. Physiol Mol Plant Pathol 61:189-195.

Abraham KJ, Pierce ML, Essenberg M (1999) The phytoalexins desoxyhemigossypol and hemigossypol are elicited by Xanthomonas in Gossypium cotyledons. Phytochemistry 52: 829-836.

Davis EM, Chen Y-S, Essenberg M, Pierce ML (1997) cDNA sequence of a (+)-delta-cadinene synthase gene (Accession No. U88318) induced in Gossypium hirsutum L. by bacterial infection. Plant Physiol (Plant Gene Register) 116: 1192.

Pierce ML, Cover EC, Richardson PE, Scholes VE, Essenberg M (1996) Adequacy of cellular phytoalexin concentrations in hypersensitively responding cotton leaves. Physiol Mol Plant Pathol 48: 305-324.

Pierce M, Essenberg M (1987) Localization of phytoalexins in fluorescent mesophyll cells isolated from bacterial blight-infected cotton cotyledons and separated from other cells by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Physiol Mol Plant Pathol 31: 273-290.

Pierce ML, Essenberg M, Mort AJ (1993) A comparison of the quantities of exopolysaccharide produced by Xanthomonas campestris pv. malvacearum in susceptible and resistant cotton cotyledons during early stages of infection. Phytopathology 83: 344-349.

Davis EM, Tsuji J, Davis, GD, Pierce ML, Essenberg, M (1996) Purification of (+)-delta-cadinene synthase, a sesquiterpene cyclase from bacteria-inoculated cotton foliar tissue. Phytochemistry 41: 1047-1055.

Zhang Z, Pierce ML, Mort AJ (1996) Detection and differentiation of pectic enzyme activity in vitro and in vivo by capillary electrophoresis of products from fluorescent-labeled substrate. Electrophoresis 17: 372-378.