Biography Education Academic Positions Research Interests Present Research Present Students Courses Taught Memberships Grants Received Publications Back to Faculty

George Bowes, BSc, PhD, CBiol, FIBiol

Professor

• Physiology & Biochemistry
• 3157 McCarty Hall A
• (352) 392-7919
• gbowes@botany.ufl.edu
• Link to Bowes Lab Web Site

Biography

I was born and raised in London. My father was a Baptist minister and I inherited from him a love of teaching and Biblical theology. My grandfather loaded ships at the London Docks, but at heart was a naturalist and taxidermist. Even though the East End of London was not very "botanical", his collection of books and specimens exposed me to natural history, and piqued my biological interests. Botany was taught to me as an exciting and experimental discipline; so I majored in it at the University of London, with minors in zoology and chemistry. After obtaining a PhD studying the phytochrome responses of a salt-marsh plant, I decided to postdoc in the US to boost my biochemistry background. I spent three years at the University of Illinois working on the enzyme now called Rubisco. It was a very exciting time in photosynthesis research, producing a number of important findings, including our discovery that rubisco was an oxygenase and the raison d'être for C4 plants. It was at the U of I that I met a beautiful graduate student, Helen, who became my wife. I also owned a classic 1967 fastback mustang with a 0 to 100 mph time of 11 seconds. So life was fun. Subsequently I spent two years on a fellowship at Carnegie Institution at Stanford. The San Francisco Bay area with its mountains and rocky seashore was a great place for us to live, and I even managed to do some interesting research. Eventually I moved to the University of Florida, and have remained here apart from research or administrative stints in fascinating places such as Washington DC, Tokyo, Denmark, Israel, Sweden, and of course the UK. Gainesville has also proved to be a great place to live. Helen and I have two sons, one of whom is a freshman at UF. I still hanker after fast cars, but enjoy my spare time keeping an older house in one piece, serving as an Elder at Creekside Community Church, and traveling.

Education

• Ph.D. University of London, U.K. (Plant Physiology), 1967
• B.Sc. Queen Mary College, U.K. (Botany), 1963
• Ph.D. Dissertation Title: Studies on Seed Germination in Limonium vulgare.

Academic Positions

• 1966-68 Lecturer, Biology, Regents Street Polytechnic, London, UK
• 1968-71 Research Associate, Dept Agronomy and USDA, University of Illinois, Urbana IL
• 1971-72 Carnegie Research Fellow, Dept Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution, Stanford CA
• 1972- Assistant to Full Professor, Dept Botany, University of Florida, Gainesville FL
• 1991-92 Panel Manager, USDA/NRICG Photosynthesis Program, Washington DC
• 1993 Visiting Professor, Institute Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Denmark
• 1998- Chairman, Dept Botany, University of Florida, Gainesville FL

Research Interests / Major Research Achievements:

My Photosynthesis Research Laboratory investigates photosynthesis and photorespiration, predominantly the regulation of carbon assimilation. The research has facets which range from the molecular and biochemi-cal to ecophysiol-ogical, and agricultural concerns. Areas I am actively involved with include: global climate changes; CO2 concen-trating mechanisms in photoauto-trophs; the biochem-istry, physiology and molecular biology of novel C4 photosynthetic systems; regulation of the primary carboxylase enzymes in plants; and the ecophysiology of aquatic plants, including the management of weed species.

My earlier discoveries with WL Ogren that Rubisco is inhibited by O2, and acts as an oxygenase in photorespiration, and that PEPC is not inhibited by O2, opened up a new avenue of research in photosynthesis. They gave a biochemical basis for the major difference between C3 and C4 plants. In the 1980s my laboratory reported on the first C4 photosynthetic system that uniquely operates without Kranz anatomy. In the 1990s we discovered the most primitive C4-type system described to date, in a marine macroalga. Since 1980 we have been investigating the potential effects of global climate change, including elevated [CO2] and temperatures, on plants, especially crop species. I have written several major reviews on this topic.

Present Research

Regulation and kinetics of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase. CO2 concentrating mechanisms in aquatic plants and algae. Regulation of inducible C4-like photosynthetic systems. Effects of rising atmospheric CO2 on photosynthesis and growth. Ecophysiology of aquatic plants, especially weed species.

Present Students

Current

Gonzalo Estavillo (PhD)

Postdoc

Srinath Rao

Courses Taught:

• BOT 6576 Photophysiology of Plant Growth (graduate)
• BOT 5646 Ecology and Physiology of Aquatic Plants (graduate)
• BOT 3503 Introductory Plant Physiology (undergraduate)
• BSC 2010 Integrated Principles of Biology I (900 undergraduate majors)

Membership in Professional Organizations:

• Service on Editorial Boards: Plant Physiology, Photosynthesis Research.
• Editor-in-Chief: Aquatic Botany.
• Panel Member: NSF; USDA/NRI; USEPA,RITE, FDNR workshops. Panel Manager 1991-92 USDA/NRICGP
• Photosynthesis, Washington DC.
• Co-organizer: International Meeting on Aquatic Plants, Daytona Beach FL.
  Symposia organizer at various national and international meetings.
• American Society of Plant Physiologists;
• Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society;
• Aquatic Plant Management Society;
• Institute of Biology (UK);
• Society for Experimental Biology (UK)

Grants received

• Over $2 million from International, Federal, and State agencies. The following are current grants.
• 2002-03 $1,000 IFAS. Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plant Research. "Ecophysiology of Aquatic Plants"
• 2002-04 $200,000 US Department of Agriculture, National Research Initiatives Competitive Grants Program - Plant Biochemistry. " Hydrilla PEPC gene family: expression, metabolite control, and kinetic regulation".
• 2003-04 $1,000. IFAS. Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plant Research. "Ecophysiology of Aquatic Plants"
• 2004-05 $1,200. IFAS. Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plant Research."Ecophysiology of Aquatic Plants"
• 2005 $12,600 National Science Foundation Metabolic Biochemistry Program. Research Conference Application. Gordon Research Conference 2005. “CO 2 assimilation in plants: genome to biome.”

Selected Publications

Vu JCV, Allen LH Jr, Bowes G. 1987. Drought stress and elevated CO2 effects on soybean ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase activity and canopy photosyn-thetic rates. Plant Physiology, 83:573-578

Holbrook GP, Beer S, Spencer WE, Reiskind JB, Davis S, Bowes G. 1988. Photosyn-thesis in marine macroalgae: evidence for carbon limitation. Canadian Journal of Botany, 66:577-582

Salvucci ME, Holbrook GP, Anderson JC, Bowes G. 1988. NADPH-dependent metabo-lism of the ri-bulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase inhibitor 2-carboxyarabinitol 1-phosphate by a chloroplast protein. FEBS Letters, 231:197-201

Reiskind JB, Seamon PT, Bowes G. 1988. Alternative methods of photosynthetic carbon assimilation in marine macroalgae. Plant Physiology, 87:686-692

Reiskind JB, Berg RH, Salvucci ME, Bowes G. 1989. Immunogold localization of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxyl-ase in aquatic and C3-C4 intermediate plants. Plant Science, 61:43-52

Holbrook GP, Bowes G, Salvucci ME. 1989. Degradation of 2-carboxyarabinitol 1-phosphate by a specific chloroplast phosphatase. Plant Physiology, 90:673-678

Reiskind J, Bowes G. 1991. The role of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in a marine macroalga with C4-like photosynthetic characteristics. Proceed-ings of the National Academy of Science USA, 88: 2883-2887

Israel A, Beer S, Bowes G. 1991. Photosynthetic carbon acquisition in the red alga Gracilaria conferta. I. Gas exchange properties and the fixa-tion pathway. Marine Biology, 110:195-198

Rowland-Bamford AJ, Baker JT, Allen LH Jr, Bowes G. 1991. Acclimation of rice to changing atmospheric carbon dioxide concen-tration. Plant, Cell and Environment, 14: 577-583

Bowes G. 1991. Growth in elevated CO2: photosynthetic responses mediated through rubisco. Plant, Cell and Environment, 14: 795-806 (invited review)

Bowes G. 1993. Facing the Inevitable: Plants and Increasing Atmospheric CO2. Annual Reviews of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology, 44: 309-332 (invited review)

Giordano M, Davis JS, Bowes G. 1994. Organic carbon release by Dunaliella salina under different growth condi-tions of CO2, nitrogen, and salinity. Journal of Phycology, 30: 249-257

Holbrook GP, Campbell WJ, Rowland-Bamford A, and Bowes, G. 1994. Intra-specific variation in the light/dark modulation of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase activity in soy-bean. Journal of Experimental Botany, 45: 1119-1126

Madsen TV, Maberly SC, Bowes G. 1996. Photosynthetic acclima-tion of sub-mersed angio-sperms to CO2 and HCO3-. Aquatic Botany, 53: 15-30

Bowes G. 1996. Photosynthetic responses to changing atmo-spheric carbon dioxide concentration. In: Baker NR (ed) Photosynthesis and the Envi-ronment. Advances in Photosynthesis Series, Vol 5. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Nether-lands. Pp 387-407 (invited review)

Vu JVC, Allen LH Jr, Boote KJ, Bowes G. 1997. Effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on photosynthesis and rubisco in rice and soybean. Plant, Cell and Environment, 20: 68-76

Reiskind JB, Madsen TV, van Ginkel LC, Bowes G. 1997. Evi-dence that inducible C4-type photosynthesis is a chloroplastic CO2 concentrating mechanism in Hydrilla, a submersed monocot. Plant, Cell and Environment, 20: 211-220

Giordano M, Bowes G. 1997. Gas exchange and C allocation in Dunaliella salina cells in response to the N source and CO2 concen-tration used for growth. Plant Physiology, 115: 1049-1056.

Magnin NC, Cooley BA, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 1997. Regulation and localiza-tion of key enzymes during the induction of Kranz-less, C4-type photosynthesis in Hydrilla verticillata. Plant Physiology, 115: 1681-1689

Vu JCV, Baker JT, Pennanen AH, Allen LH Jr, Boote KJ, Bowes G. 1997. Elevated CO2 and water deficit effects on photosynthesis, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase, and carbohy-drate metabolism in rice. Physiologia Plantarum, 103: 327-339

Gesch RW, Boote KJ, Vu JCV, Allen LH Jr, Bowes G. 1998. Changes in growth CO2 result in rapid adjustments of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase small subunit gene expression in expanding and mature leaves of rice. Plant Physiology, 118: 521-530

Vu JCV, Gesch, RW, Allen LH Jr, Boote KJ, Bowes G. 1999. CO2 enrichment delays a rapid, drought-induced decrease in rubisco small subunit transcript abundance. Journal of Plant Physiology, 155: 139-142.

Hussain MW, Allen, LH Jr, Bowes G. 1999. Up-regulation of sucrose phosphate synthase in rice grown under elevated CO 2 and temperature. Photosynthesis Research, 60: 199-208.

Van Ginkel LC, Bowes G, Reiskind JB, Prins HBA. 2001. A CO 2 flux mechanism operating via pH polarity in Hydrilla verticillata plants with C 3 and C 4 -type photosynthesis. Photosynthesis Research 68: 81-88.

Vu JCV, Gesch RW, Pennanen AH, Allen LH, Boote KJ, Bowes G. 2001. Soybean photosynthesis, Rubisco and carbohydrate enzymes function at supraoptimal temperatures in elevated CO 2 . Journal of Plant Physiology 158: 295-307.

Bowes G, Rao SK, Estavillo GM, Reiskind JB. 2002. C 4 mechanisms in aquatic angiosperms: comparisons with terrestrial C 4 systems. Functional Plant Biology 29: 379-392 (Invited, refereed review).

Rao SK , Magnin NC, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 2002. Photosynthetic and other phospho enol pyruvate carboxylase isoforms in the single-cell, facultative C 4 system of Hydrilla verticillata. Plant Physiology 130: 876-886.

Gesch RW, Vu JCV, Boote KJ, Allen LH Jr, Bowes G. 2002. Sucrose phosphate synthase activity in mature rice leaves following changes in growth CO 2 is unrelated to sucrose pool size. New Phytologist 154: 77-84.

Gesch RW, Kang I-H, Gallo-Meagher M, Vu JCV, Boote KJ, Allen, LH Jr, Bowes G. 2003. Rubisco expression in rice leaves is related to genotypic variation of photosynthesis under elevated CO2 and temperature. Plant,Cell & Environment 26: 1941-1950.

Gesch RW, Kang I-H, Gallo-Meagher M, Vu JCV, Boote KJ, Allen, LH Jr, Bowes G. 2003. Rubisco expression in rice leaves is related to genotypic variation of photosynthesis under elevated CO2 and temperature. Plant,Cell & Environment 26: 1941-1950.

Bowes G, Rao SK, Reiskind JB. 2003. PEPC expression and regulation in a same-cell C 4 -system. Plant Physiology Abstract No. 370.

Bowes G, Rao SK, Reiskind JB. 2003 . PEPC expression and regulation: studies with a C 4 model system for C 3 crop transformation. Plant Physiology Abstract No. 18003.

Estavillo G, Rao SK, Bowes G. 2003. Characterization of NADP-ME in a C 4 system that lacks Kranz anatomy. Plant Physiology Abstract No. 406

Bowes G. 2003. "Characterization of NADP-malic enzyme in a unique Kranz-less C 4 system". Annual report submitted to the USDA National Research Initiatives Competitive Grants Photosynthesis and Respiration Program.

Bowes G. 2003. "Genotypic Adaptation and Phenotypic Acclimation to Elevated CO 2 and Temperature" .US Department of Agriculture, National Research Initiatives Competitive Grants Plant Responses to the Environment Program.

Rao VS, Rao SK, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 2004. Carbonic anhydrase isoforms in the C 4 CCM of Hydrilla . 13 th International Photosynthesis Congress. Abstract No. 688.

Rao SK, Davison NA, Estavillo GM, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 2004.   An upregulated pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase isoform in C 4 Hydrilla leaves . Plant Physiology Abstract # 228.

Estavillo G, Rao SK, Bowes G. 2004. Activity, expression and localization of NADP-ME isoforms in a C4 system that lacks Kranz anatomy Plant Physiology Abstract No. 229..

Rao VS, Rao SK, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 2004 An isoform of carbonic anhydrase isolated from C 4 Hydrilla leaves. Plant Physiology Abstract No. 230. l

Bowes G. 2004. “ Hydrilla PEPC gene family: expression, metabolite control, and kinetic regulation”. Annual report submitted to the USDA National Research Initiatives Competitive Grants Program.

Elzenga JTM, van Ginkel LC, Bowes G. 2004. In Memoriam. Aquatic Botany 78: 1-2.

Bowes G, Rao SK, Reiskind JB. 2004. Photosynthetic acclimation of rice to global climate change: will a same-cell C 4 system help? International Rice Research Institute, The Philippines.

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