Chris R. Somerville Explained

Christopher Roland Somerville is a Canadian-American biologist known as a pioneer of Arabidopsis thaliana research. Somerville is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley and a Program Officer at the Open Philanthropy Project.

Life and career

Somerville majored in Mathematics and completed a PhD in Genetics at the University of Alberta, and then did postdoctoral research in the laboratory of William Ogren before serving as a faculty member at U. Alberta and Michigan State University. He directed the Department of Plant Science at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University and then the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. He retired from the UC Berkeley faculty in 2017.^[1]

Somerville was co-founder and Executive Chairman of Mendel Biotechnology, Inc. and a co-founder of Poetic Genetics, LS9, Inc, and Redleaf Biologics.^[2] Somerville has contributed to societal debates on the value of transgenic crops^[3] and biofuels.

Together with Elliot Meyerowitz, Somerville was awarded the Balzan Prize in 2006 for his work developing the small mustard plant A. thaliana as a model.^{[4] [5] [6] [7]} His interest in this plant was partly stimulated by a review article^[8] written by George Rédei.^{[9] [10] [11]}

Many trainees from Somerville's lab have started independent labs, including Mark Estelle, Peter McCourt, George W. Haughn, John W. Schiefelbein, Christoph Benning, Clint Chapple, Wolf-Dieter Reiter, John Browse, Sean Cutler, Dominique Bergmann, Seung Y. Rhee, Staffan Persson, Wolfgang Lukowitz, and C. Stewart Gillmor.

Research highlights

• Pioneered ‘biochemical genetics’ approach to problems in plant metabolism, including photorespiration, lipid metabolism, and cellulose synthesis.
• First map-based cloning of an A. thaliana gene^[12]
• Lead development of The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) database and web resource

Selected publications

Review articles

• 2. 89–93. Estelle. M. A.. Somerville. Chris R.. The mutants of Arabidopsis. Trends in Genetics. 1986. 10.1016/0168-9525(86)90190-3.
• 10.1038/nrg927. 3. 11. 883–889. Somerville. Chris. Koornneef. Maarten. A fortunate choice: the history of Arabidopsis as a model plant. Nature Reviews Genetics. 2002. 12415318. 37515057.
• 10.1126/science.1102765. 306. 5705. 2206–2211. Somerville. Chris. Bauer. Stefan. Brininstool. Ginger. Facette. Michelle. Hamann. Thorsten. Milne. Jennifer. Osborne. Erin. Paredez. Alex. Persson. Staffan. Raab. Ted. Vorwerk. Sonja. Youngs. Heather. Toward a Systems Approach to Understanding Plant Cell Walls. Science. 2004-12-24. 15618507. 2004Sci...306.2206S. 1930301.
• 10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.010. 17. 4. 115–119. Somerville. Chris. Biofuels. Current Biology. 2007-02-20. 17307040. free.
• 10.1016/j.copbio.2017.03.027. 45. 184–190. Youngs. Heather. Somerville. Chris. Implementing industrial–academic partnerships to advance bioenergy research: the Energy Biosciences Institute. Current Opinion in Biotechnology. 2017-06-01. 28458111.

Interviews and historical pieces

• 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81680-3. 100. 1. 13–25. Somerville. Chris. The twentieth century trajectory of plant biology. Cell. 2000-01-07. 10647928. 22338154. free.
• 10.1104/pp.125.1.20. 125. 1. 20–24. Somerville. Chris R.. An early Arabidopsis demonstration. Resolving a few issues concerning photorespiration. Plant Physiology. 2001-01-01. 11154287. 1539316. free.
• 10.1016/j.cub.2004.09.064. 15498473. 14. 20. 872–873. Q & A: Chris Somerville . Current Biology. 2004-10-26. Somerville. Chris. free.

See also

• History of research on Arabidopsis thaliana

External links

• Faculty page, with links to CV and list of awards
• Google scholar profile
• Royal Society page
• Open Philanthropy Project page

Notes and References

1. Web site: College of Natural Resources Faculty Retirements. UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources. 2017-12-19.
2. Web site: About – RedLeaf Biologics. 2021-07-05.
3. 10.1104/pp.123.4.1201. 0032-0889. 123. 4. 1201–1202. Somerville. Chris. The Genetically Modified Organism Conflict. Plant Physiology. 2000-08-01. 10938338. 1539266.
4. Web site: Elliot Meyerowitz Christopher Somerville - Balzan Prize Plant Molecular Genetics . Milano Zurigo . December 20, 2017.
5. Web site: Christopher Somerville . Balzan Prizewinner Biography . October 11, 1947 . December 20, 2017.
6. Book: Studies . D.E.L. . Medicine . I. . Resources . B.A.N. . Sciences . B.L. . Health . C.E.M.T. . Oaks . S.C. . Shope . R.E. . Lederberg . J. . The National Plant Genome Initiative: Objectives for 2003-2008 . National Academies Press . 2002 . 978-0-309-16879-3 . December 20, 2017 . 63.
7. Book: (U.S.), National Science Foundation . Mosaic . The Foundation . 1991 . December 20, 2017.
8. 10.1146/annurev.ge.09.120175.000551. 1108762. 9. 1. 111–127. Redei. G P. Arabidopsis as a genetic tool. Annual Review of Genetics. 1975-12-01.
9. 10.1126/science.290.5489.32. 11183143. 290. 5489. 32–35. Pennisi. Elizabeth. Elizabeth Pennisi . Arabidopsis comes of age. Science. 2000-10-06. 82370817.
10. 10.1104/pp.125.1.20. 125. 1. 20–24. Somerville. Chris R.. An Early Arabidopsis Demonstration. Resolving a Few Issues Concerning Photorespiration. Plant Physiology. 2001-01-01. 11154287. 1539316.
11. Web site: Potter. Erik. From apathy to apogee. MIZZOU Magazine. 2014-08-22. 2014.
12. 10.1126/science.1455229. 258. 5086. 1353–1355. Arondel. V.. Lemieux. B.. Hwang. I.. Gibson. S.. Goodman. H. M.. Somerville. C. R.. Map-based cloning of a gene controlling omega-3 fatty acid desaturation in Arabidopsis. Science. 1992-11-20. 1455229. 1992Sci...258.1353A.