New PhytologistVolume 220, Issue 1 p. 32-34 ProfileFree Access Colin Brownlee First published: 29 August 2018 https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15360AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat What inspired your interest in plant science? Growing up in the industrial North East of England, surrounded by shipyards and factories, close to the then highly polluted River Tyne, in a house without a garden and a street without trees, I never really noticed plants, though I was obsessed with insects, spiders and centipedes from a very early age. My nonscientist parents had the foresight to buy me a tiny microscope for my ninth birthday, opening up a whole new world. I discovered life in puddles, soil and, to my sister's horror, on the surface of the cheese that she had just eaten. At my secondary (then Jarrow Grammar) school, we had excellent biology, chemistry and physics teachers who collectively were instrumental in nurturing my interests. Two early botanical memories come to mind. The first, aged 11, was on a school field trip to a local rocky beach. In preparation we were told to find out about seaweeds and that there would be a quiz of the names of the species that we found. I diligently went to the local library and learnt the names of the common seaweeds by heart. I won the quiz. However, what stands out is the teacher holding up a species of the brown seaweed Fucus. ‘What's this one?’ he cried. ‘Fucus, Sir’, I replied. Unfortunately having only seen the name written in a book, I mispronounced it. I became an instant hero with my classmates and was treated with deep suspicion by the teacher, who soon after expelled me from biology club for dismantling a microscope – and marine biology definitely took a back seat. I also recall the class being given a winter weekend project to find something of interest to do with plants. I brought in a corm that I had dug up with my pen knife in a local patch of waste ground. Over the following weeks on the classroom window sill it grew into a magnificent plant with intricately branched leaves. I do not know what the plant was but I was struck by its ability to develop such a complex beautiful form from an apparently simple structure. I chose to do my undergraduate studies at the University of Sussex because of the broad and slightly unconventional Biology degree course offered there, with emphasis on process and mechanism, which I think stood me in good stead for a career in plant physiology. Sussex, as well as being regarded as ‘a bit alternative’, was also an inspirational place to be, with lectures and tutorials from the likes of Tom Blundell and Ray Dixon. John Maynard Smith's course on mathematical biology was also an inspiration. However, my interest in plant science was really fired by the field trips to various locations in Southern England, led by David Streeter, where I learnt to appreciate diversity and physiological ecology of plants. I still have my field course notes, carefully illustrated with pen and ink drawings! Box 1. Colin Brownlee graduated in Biology from the University of Sussex, UK. He moved to Newcastle upon Tyne to study for a PhD in plant physiology with Dr R. E. Kendrick. After completing his thesis he undertook postdocs in the laboratories of Prof. David Jennings (Liverpool University) and Sir David Read FRS (Sheffield University), where he studied mechanisms of long distance transport of sugars and nutrients in non-mycorrhizal and mycorrhizal fungi. Colin joined the scientific staff of the Marine Biological Association (MBA) in 1984 where he initiated a research programme on polarized growth and calcium signalling. This broadened to include more general aspects of biomineralization mechanisms and intracellular signalling in phytoplankton. Colin was Director of the MBA from 2007 until 2017 and has since moved back to full-time research as a Senior Research Fellow. His interests now focus on understanding the cell biology of the biomineralizing phytoplankton both in the laboratory and in natural populations in the ocean. Colin joined the New Phytologist Editorial Board in 2007. For more information on Colin, please visit http://www.mba.ac.uk/fellows/brownlee-group or contact Colin at cbr@mba.ac.uk. Why did you decide to pursue a career in research? My undergraduate research project on ion distributions in germinating peas gave me the first real taste for research. Until then I had vowed that I would never end up working in a laboratory, preferring to be outside as much as possible, and I imagined myself at sea (more on that later) or working as a forest ranger. However, the desire to understand physiological processes won out, though I had no real idea of what I wanted to do after graduating. I decided to return to the North of England and began a PhD in Dick Kendrick's laboratory in Newcastle upon Tyne. He gave me total freedom (and guidance when needed) in deciding and in determining the course of my project. I had a vague idea of combining studies of ion transport and phytochrome physiology. After three years spent in a dark room measuring radioactive tracer fluxes I emerged with a rudimentary understanding of both plant membrane transport and photomorphogenesis. However, I decided to change fields somewhat and moved to Liverpool University where I studied the mechanism of long distance carbon and nutrient transport in fungal hyphae with David Jennings. This was a great learning experience, combining biochemical metabolite analysis with spatial movement of tracers for sugars and nutrients. From there I moved to Sheffield University, where I had the opportunity to apply this newly gained knowledge of fungal physiology to mycorrhizal transport in relation to forest tree carbon relations, joining David Read's laboratory. This path had given me a broad grounding in plant and fungal biology, and I had more or less avoided becoming too specialized. I applied for a position as an ‘Experimental Biologist’ at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) in Plymouth. I knew little about this organization (or marine biology) other than it was where Hodgkin and Huxley had done their Noble Prize winning research on the mechanisms of nerve impulse propagation and that its research programme was an interesting mix of cutting edge oceanography and physiology. I supported my application with a proposal to study mechanisms of polarized growth, using the Fucus embryo as a model system. During the interview, I must have got the pronunciation of Fucus right this time because I unexpectedly got the job, despite the Director Sir Eric Denton telling me that he did not like several aspects of my proposal. There was one condition attached to the job – I had to undertake to work at sea on research cruises ‘where required’. No sooner had I built my electrophysiology rig to study Fucus membrane physiology than I was sent onto a ship into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for what seemed like most of the summer. Once I had gotten over my seasickness, I actually began to enjoy life on board. The objective of this particular research cruise was to study a coccolithophore bloom on the edge of the continental shelf. At that stage in my career I was not quite sure what coccolithophores actually were. However, after a week of very nasty weather, the sea became totally calm and we steamed into the most strange turquoise–milky white water – an intense coccolithophore bloom. At the same time, Patrick Holligan, Chief Scientist on that particular cruise, was obtaining some of the first satellite images of phytoplankton and it was possible to visualize the vast extent of these blooms. From that point my interest in coccolithophores and other phytoplankton, which account for about half of global productivity, grew. While I continued for a further 20 years to study polarity in Fucus, phytoplankton have finally largely won out. What motivates you on a day-to-day basis? I am privileged to work in a research institute that has a focus on fundamental research. The freedom to pursue new avenues based on experimental findings is top of the list of the reasons I doggedly turn up on a daily basis. Returning to full-time research after 10 years as Director has made me appreciate even more the rewards that full-time research can bring. In the real world, of course, research is often frustrating and is definitely stressful but that is more than compensated for by the elation of discovery, no matter how small or infrequent. I am also privileged to work with friendly, stimulating and highly intelligent people. Not knowing how the day's work will turn out and the anticipation, always present, that something quite unexpected and exciting will be revealed is a key driver. It is my experience that the small observations that do not fit with expectations are generally the ones that lead to bigger discoveries. Finally, the MBA laboratory is in a beautiful location, overlooking the sea, an added bonus at any time of the year. Who do you see as your role model(s)? My scientific career has been shaped by many people. My role models fall into two overlapping categories: those who have stimulated my interest and those who have directly influenced the way in which I approach problems. Of the former, I have been particularly influenced by John Raven, whose inexhaustible flow of ideas and encyclopaedic knowledge have surely influenced many biologists around the world. John (sitting next to Enid MacRobbie) asked the first question in the first talk I ever gave (at a Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) meeting) and I was naive enough to think that I knew the correct answer – I didn't. My interest in coccolithophores and phytoplankton more generally was greatly influenced by Patrick Holligan, a biological oceanographer at the MBA. Patrick had the unusual combination of oceanographic skills and deep biological knowledge. He is one of the real pioneers of modern biological oceanography who showed close links between ocean physics and biological activity. I still benefit from the discussions that we continue to have. David Read showed me how to approach science in a serious but also seriously enjoyable way and was the first to point out to me that an experiment that had ‘not worked’ had indeed shown something profoundly interesting. In the second category, I would list several of the biophysicists whom I have encountered, often as visiting scientists at the MBA. The late Peter Baker, world renowned squid axon physiologist, quickly destroyed several of my proposed experimental approaches during my early independent career. His words ‘That will never work’ still ring loud and clear in my ears. However, he was instrumental in advising me on approaches that could (and did) work. ‘I'll be in the lab on Sunday and I will show you then’ were the words I least wanted to hear from him on a Friday afternoon. I must also mention Alistair Hetherington, with whom I have collaborated on a number of occasions in the area of plant calcium signalling. Alistair is a gold mine of new ideas and has been a great sounding board for a number of my more outrageous ones. What are your favourite New Phytologist papers of recent years, and why? My choice reflects the multidisciplinary nature of New Phytologist – as an Editor I get to see papers within, and outside, my main areas of expertise. The recent paper by Gutermuth et al. (2018) is a tour de force of plant calcium signalling, combining electrophysiology, reverse genetics and calcium reporter technology to show how hyperpolarization-activated calcium channels regulate anion channel activity during polarized pollen tube growth. I also choose three key papers that have major implications for understanding phytoplankton growth in the oceans. The concentration of dissolved CO2 in the oceans is very low and phytoplankton have evolved an array of carbon concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) to overcome this limitation on primary productivity. The paper by Clement et al. (2016) addresses the long-standing debate of whether marine diatoms possess C4-type metabolism, providing evidence that, at least in the case of the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, a biophysical CCM based on active uptake of inorganic carbon, rather than a C4-type metabolism could explain their experimental results. This paper does not dispel the notion of C4 metabolism in diatoms but adds significantly to the debate. Diatoms also need to reproduce sexually in order to survive. Because of the mechanical constrains of the silicified diatom cell wall (frustule), generations of daughter cells following division get progressively smaller. After a critical minimum size, cells undergo meiosis and produce gametes. These need to find a partner so that fusion, cell growth and the mitotic vegetative divisions that underlie population growth can continue. Precious little is known about the basic processes underlying this life cycle. Basu et al. (2017) address this knowledge gap by identifying genes specifically involved in the sexual life cycle phase, opening new avenues for study of this important process. While the global importance of phytoplankton is undisputed, the limitations of phytoplankton growth are still poorly understood. Losh et al. (2013) addressed the key issue of nutrient limitation in relation to primary production by quantifying the Rubisco content of a number of microalgal species. It had long been assumed that high abundance of Rubisco was the major sink for nitrogen, as is the case in terrestrial plants. Surprisingly, this study showed that Rubisco does not account for the major fraction of cellular nitrogen in phytoplankton, forcing re-evaluation of hypotheses addressing the role of Rubisco in nitrogen-limited environments. What is your favourite plant, and why? My favourite plant is probably the Venus flytrap since it has remarkable physiology and can react as fast as any animal, although I have never had the opportunity to work on it. I would also include the cacti on my office windowsill since they survive weeks of neglect and continue to thrive. I have not considered the incredible coccolithophore and diatom phytoplankton that I work on since they are strictly not plants! References Basu S, Patil S, Mapleson D, Russo MT, Vitale L, Fevola C, Maumus F, Casotti R, Mock T, Caccamo M et al. 2017. Finding a partner in the ocean: molecular and evolutionary bases of the response to sexual cues in a planktonic diatom. New Phytologist 215: 140– 156. Clement R, Dimnet L, Maberly SC, Gontero B. 2016. The nature of the CO2-concentrating mechanisms in a marine diatom, Thalassiosira pseudonana. New Phytologist 209: 1417– 1427. Gutermuth T, Herbell S, Lassig R, Broshe M, Romeis T, Feijó JA, Hedrich R, Konrad KR. 2018. Tip localized Ca2+-permeable channels control pollen tube growth via kinase-dependent R- and S-type anion channel regulation. New Phytologist 218: 1089– 1105. Losh JL, Young JN, Morel FMM. 2013. Rubisco is a small fraction of total protein in marine phytoplankton. New Phytologist 198: 52– 58. Volume220, Issue1October 2018Pages 32-34 ReferencesRelatedInformation