About

Patrick Masson is a Professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He holds a Ph.D. from Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques de l'état in Gembloux, Belgium, obtained in 1986, and completed postdoctoral research at the Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore, from 1986 to 1991. His research focuses on the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying root growth behaviors and polyamine responses in Arabidopsis thaliana and Brachypodium distachyon. His laboratory investigates how roots develop specific growth patterns in response to environmental parameters such as gravity, touch, light, temperature, humidity, ions, chemicals, and oxygen, utilizing molecular genetic strategies. Additionally, he studies the role of signaling compounds called polyamines in regulating root growth behavior and root system architecture under biotic and abiotic stressors.

Research topics

• Biology
• Cell biology
• Biochemistry
• Botany
• Biophysics
• Genetics
• Materials science
• Horticulture
• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Low-Speed Clinorotation of Brachypodium distachyon and Arabidopsis thaliana Seedlings Triggers Root Tip Curvatures That Are Reminiscent of Gravitropism

  International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2023-01-12 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Clinostats are instruments that continuously rotate biological specimens along an axis, thereby averaging their orientation relative to gravity over time. Our previous experiments indicated that low-speed clinorotation may itself trigger directional root tip curvature. In this project, we have investigated the root curvature response to low-speed clinorotation using Arabidopsis thaliana and Brachypodium distachyon seedlings as models. We show that low-speed clinorotation triggers root tip curvature in which direction is dictated by gravitropism during the first half-turn of clinorotation. We also show that the angle of root tip curvature is modulated by the speed of clinorotation. Arabidopsis mutations affecting gravity susception (pgm) or gravity signal transduction (arg1, toc132) are shown to affect the root tip curvature response to low-speed clinorotation. Furthermore, low-speed vertical clinorotation triggers relocalization of the PIN3 auxin efflux facilitator to the lateral membrane of Arabidopsis root cap statocytes, and creates a lateral gradient of auxin across the root tip. Together, these observations support a role for gravitropism in modulating root curvature responses to clinorotation. Interestingly, distinct Brachypodium distachyon accessions display different abilities to develop root tip curvature responses to low-speed vertical clinorotation, suggesting the possibility of using genome-wide association studies to further investigate this process.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Brachypodium distachyon Seedlings Display Accession-Specific Morphological and Transcriptomic Responses to the Microgravity Environment of the International Space Station

  Life · 2023 · 2 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Biology
  • Botany
  • Horticulture

  seedlings. However, organ- and accession-specific components of the response dramatically differ both within and between species. These results suggest a need to directly evaluate candidate-crop responses to microgravity to better understand their specific adaptability to this novel environment and develop cultivation strategies allowing them to strive during spaceflight.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Application of Cadaverine to Inhibit Biotin Biosynthesis in Plants

  BIO-PROTOCOL · 2022-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  seedlings can be quantified through an assay similar to a western blot, in which protein biotinylation is detected by a streptavidin probe. This technique provides a chemical means of inhibiting biotin synthesis, allowing for further characterization of biotin deficiency on a physiological and molecular level.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sharing Knowledge in Virology

  2021-06-30

  book-chapter

  Fragmentation of knowledge is peculiarity of virology and is due to the great diversity of virus entities: experts working on the influenza virus have very little interaction with those specialists in herpes viruses. Knowledge supports are traditionally encyclopedic books, publications, and websites often centered on one or a few viruses. Yet, associating a precise vocabulary with data is an essential step in digitizing and exploiting knowledge because it allows fixing concepts that are sometimes named too loosely. Overall, a global effort has been done in ViralZone to gather, share, and perpetuate general knowledge in virus molecular biology. Actually, many knowledge in virology comes from prediction, relying on similarity or models. Within a virus family, few strains are studied in laboratory and knowledge about other viruses is inferred by similarity. In bioinformatics, representation of knowledge relies on controlled vocabulary or ontologies, which is a concrete form of a conceptualization of a community's knowledge of a domain.

  PublisherDOI

• Cadaverine regulates biotin synthesis to modulate primary root growth in Arabidopsis

  The Plant Journal · 2021 · 13 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Chemistry
  • Cell biology
  • Biochemistry

  Cadaverine, a polyamine, has been linked to modification of root growth architecture and response to environmental stresses in plants. However, the molecular mechanisms that govern the regulation of root growth by cadaverine are largely unexplored. Here we conducted a forward genetic screen and isolated a mutation, cadaverine hypersensitive 3 (cdh3), which resulted in increased root-growth sensitivity to cadaverine, but not other polyamines. This mutation affects the BIO3-BIO1 biotin biosynthesis gene. Exogenous supply of biotin and a pathway intermediate downstream of BIO1, 7,8-diaminopelargonic acid, suppressed this cadaverine sensitivity phenotype. An in vitro enzyme assay showed cadaverine inhibits the BIO3-BIO1 activity. Furthermore, cadaverine-treated seedlings displayed reduced biotinylation of Biotin Carboxyl Carrier Protein 1 of the acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase complex involved in de novo fatty acid biosynthesis, resulting in decreased accumulation of triacylglycerides. Taken together, these results revealed an unexpected role of cadaverine in the regulation of biotin biosynthesis, which leads to modulation of primary root growth of plants.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Gravity Signaling in Flowering Plant Roots

  Plants · 2020 · 30 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Biophysics
  • Biology
  • Cell biology

  Roots typically grow downward into the soil where they anchor the plant and take up water and nutrients necessary for plant growth and development. While the primary roots usually grow vertically downward, laterals often follow a gravity set point angle that allows them to explore the surrounding environment. These responses can be modified by developmental and environmental cues. This review discusses the molecular mechanisms that govern root gravitropism in flowering plant roots. In this system, the primary site of gravity sensing within the root cap is physically separated from the site of curvature response at the elongation zone. Gravity sensing involves the sedimentation of starch-filled plastids (statoliths) within the columella cells of the root cap (the statocytes), which triggers a relocalization of plasma membrane-associated PIN auxin efflux facilitators to the lower side of the cell. This process is associated with the recruitment of RLD regulators of vesicular trafficking to the lower membrane by LAZY proteins. PIN relocalization leads to the formation of a lateral gradient of auxin across the root cap. Upon transmission to the elongation zone, this auxin gradient triggers a downward curvature. We review the molecular mechanisms that control this process in primary roots and discuss recent insights into the regulation of oblique growth in lateral roots and its impact on root-system architecture, soil exploration and plant adaptation to stressful environments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Gravitropism of Plant Organs Undergoing Primary Growth

  2019-01-01 · 2 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• UniProtKB and Alzheimer’s Disease: Linking molecular defects to disease phenotype

  Faculty of 1000 Research Ltd · 2019-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• A new wrinkle in our understanding of the role played by auxin in root gravitropism

  New Phytologist · 2019-09-23 · 8 citations

  letterOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  This article is a Commentary on Zhang et al ., 224 : 761–774 .

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• DUAL BINDING SITE INHIBITORS OF ACETYLCHOLINESTERASEAS THERAPEUTIC TREATMENTS FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: ANY NEED FOR AN UPDATE?

  MMSL · 2018-09-02

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

Recent grants

• Proteomic and Reverse Genetic Approaches to the Study of Root Gravitropism

  NSF · $532k · 2007–2010

• An Integrated Analysis of Root Gravitropism

  NSF · $678k · 2011–2014

• Arabidopsis WWD2 and WDL Proteins Modulate Cell Expansion and Growth Behavior

  NSF · $450k · 2008–2012

• Molecular Genetic Investigations of Auto-straightening Using Brachypodium Roots as Model

  NSF · $1000k · 2020–2025

• NIH Grant R01GM048053

  NIH · $402k · 1995

Frequent coauthors

• Nina V. Fedoroff

  Pennsylvania State University

  65 shared

• Jo Ann Banks

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  35 shared

• Benjamin R. Harrison

  Arizona State University

  19 shared

• Jeffrey Kingsbury

  19 shared

• John C. Sedbrook

  17 shared

• Rujin Chen

  Lanzhou University

  13 shared

• John Stanga

  Mercer University

  12 shared

• Katherine Baldwin

  Connecticut Children's Medical Center

  10 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Genetics

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1990

• M.S., Genetics

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1986

• B.S., Genetics

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1983