David W Galbraith

David W Galbraith

Professor, Plant Science
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-9153

Work Summary

I examine the molecular functions of the different cells found in the tissues and organs of plants and animals and how they combine these functions to optimize the health and vigor of the organism.

Research Interest

David Galbraith obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, and postdoctoral training as a NATO Fellow at Stanford University. His first academic appointment was at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and he became Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona in 1989. His research has focused on the development of instrumentation and methods for the analysis of biological cells, organs, and systems. He is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the development and use of flow cytometry and sorting in plants, developing widely-used methods for the analysis of genome size and cell cycle status, and for the production of somatic hybrids. He also was among the first to develop methods for the analysis of gene expression within specific cell types, using markers based on Fluorescent Protein expression for flow sorting these cells, and microarray platforms for analysis of their transcriptional activities and protein complements. Current interests include applications of highly parallel platforms for transcript and protein profiling of minimal sample sizes, and for analysis of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that regulate gene expression during normal development and in diseased states, specifically pancreatic cancer. He is also funded to study factors involved in the regulation of bud dormancy in Vitis vinifera, and has interests in biodiversity and improvement of third-world agriculture. He has published more than 180 scholarly research articles, holds several patents, was elected a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 2002, and serves on the editorial board of Cytometry Part A. He is widely sought as a speaker, having presented over 360 seminars in academic, industrial and conference settings. He was elected Secretary of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry in 2016. Keywords: Plant and Animal Cellular Engineering; Biological Instrumentation; Flow Cytometry and Sorting

Publications

Bharathan, G., Lambert, G., & Galbraith, D. W. (1994). Nuclear DNA content of monocotyledons and related taxa. American Journal of Botany, 81(3), 381-386.
Ozturk, Z. N., Talame, V., Deyholos, M., Michalowski, C. B., Galbraith, D. W., Gozukirmizi, N., Tuberosa, R., & Bohnert, H. J. (2002). Monitoring large-scale changes in transcript abundance in drought- and salt-stressed barley. PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, 48(5), 551-573.
Grebenok, R. J., Galbraith, D. W., & Penna, D. D. (1997). Characterization of Zea mays endosperm C-24 sterol methyltransferase: One of two types of sterol methyltransferase in higher plants. Plant Molecular Biology, 34(6), 891-896.

PMID: 9290641;Abstract:

We report the characterization of a higher-plant C-24 sterol methyltransferase by yeast complementation. A Zea mays endosperm expressed sequence tag (EST) was identified which, upon complete sequencing, showed 46% identity to the yeast C-24 methyltransferase gene (ERG6) and 75% and 37% amino acid identity to recently isolated higher-plant sterol methyltransferases from soybean and Arabidopsis, respectively. When placed under GAL4 regulation, the Z. mays cDNA functionally complemented the erg6 mutation, restoring ergosterol production and conferring resistance to cycloheximide. Complementation was both plasmid-dependent and galactose-inducible. The Z. mays cDNA clone contains an open reading frame encoding a 40 kDa protein containing motifs common to a large number of S-adenosyl-L-methionine methyltransferases (SMTs). Sequence comparisons and functional studies of the maize, soybean and Arabidopsis cDNAs indicates two types of C-24 SMTs exist in higher plants.

Galbraith, D., & Galbraith, D. W. (2004). Nuclear dynamics in higher plants. Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology.
Johnston, J. S., Bennett, M. D., Rayburn, A. L., Galbraith, D. W., & Price, H. J. (1999). Reference standards for determination of DNA content of plant nuclei. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY, 86(5), 609-613.