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Dr Luis Mur

Deputy Leader of Bio-renewables & Environmental Change Research Division
Photograph of Dr Luis Mur.

Contact

Email: lum@aber.ac.uk
Office: B2.03, Edward Llwyd Building, Penglais
Phone: 01970 622981

Responsibilities

I hold the Chair of the University Genetic Manipulation and Safety Committee. 

I am Biological Safety Officer for the IBERS Penglais. 

I hold and supervise all the current Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) licenses allowing the use of plant pathogens and the genetic manipulation of both plants and their pathogens.

Teaching Areas

Degree Scheme Co-ordinator for

Biology (C100)

Biology and Sports Science (CC16)


Module coordinator for

BS22120 : Evolution and Molecular Systematics

BB23410 : Cancer Biology

BS32020 : Plant Interactions with Pests and Pathogens.

I also contribute towards

BS23720 Applied Molecular Biology; BS25020 Microbes and Disease and BS34820 Gene Expression and Developmental Genetics.

Research

I am interested in developing our understanding of the genetic and biochemical events associated with plant responses to stress and in identifying sources of tolerance/resistance. This work is based on the use of model plant species, Arabidopsis and Brachypodium distachyon and also crop-models, tomato (Solanum esculentum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare).  In addition, I am developing projects investigating how stress could influence biomass yields and other key traits in BioFuel crops such as Miscanthus.

My Research is supported by grants from the BBSRC, The Royal Society, the Welsh Assembly, the EU and the A.U. Research Fund. My major research interests are as follows:

  1. Plant-Pathogen interactions
    • How are plants resistant to pathogens and how are disease conditions are promoted by the invading organisms?

      Resistance to pathogens is often associated with the elicitation of a localized necrotic “lesion” - a form of programmed cell death known as the hypersensitive response (HR). I have on-going projects which are investigating the control of cell death in model species. A parallel project based on model and crop plants is examining how a localised reinforcement of the plant cell wall apposition - the papilla – prevents pathogen penetration.
      We are currently concentrating on the roles of Nitric Oxide (NO) and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). More widely, we examine how NO and ROS influence the generation and effects of other defence signals - ethylene, salicylic acid and jasmonates.

  2. Abiotic stress tolerance
    • How do plant tolerance drought or increase temperature?
    • How do plants cope with multiple stresses?

      Several pathogen associated “defence” signals have now shown to confer tolerance to abiotic stress. I am investigating the roles of such signals in heat and drought stress in model and crop species.
      It is particularly important to understand how common sets of signals are co-ordinated to lead to different plant responses. I am particularly interested how responses to pathogen attack influence the gated openings in the plant leaves known as stomata.  In certain cases, stomatal function can be perturbed following pathogen attack with severe consequences for drought tolerance.

  3. Metabolomic
    • How are plants metabolically reprogrammed during plant defence and disease development?

      Another interest of my group is in the employment of metabolomics (a systematic study of metabolite profiles associated with specific cellular processes), to examine plant reprogramming by the pathogen to suppress defences, initiate disease and exploit its host. We are examining such reprogramming of Arabidopsis by bacterial pathogens or the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea (the causal agent of Grey Mould) and of grasses by the Rice-Blast pathogen (Magnaporthe grisea). Some of these processes are being correlated with transcriptome and proteomic projects, Via collaboration with University of North Bengal, metabolomic changes are being described in tea and rice following pathogen and insect attack.

    • Can metabolomics be employed to detect early biochemical changes associated with lung cancer?

      I am also part of a larger study which is trying to find a new way of screening for lung cancer (MEDLUNG). Doctors usually diagnose lung cancer after somebody develops symptoms or has an abnormal chest X-ray but by that time, it can be quite advanced. We are screening “sputum” (mucus and other matter brought up from the lungs, bronchi and trachea) samples for metabolite “biomarkers” which are linked to early stage lung cancer. If it can be found earlier, treatment is more likely to be successful.

  4. Brachypodium distachyon

    I am also involved in developing the functional genomic tools to allow the analysis of pathogenic interactions involving the model grass species, Brachypodium distachyon. B. distachyon has a small (for a grass species) genome size at ~350Mbp and whose genome has been recently sequenced. For more information consult Brachypodium.org.

Staff Publications

Abiotic Stress

Clarke SN, Cristescu S.M.., Miersch, O. Harren, F.J.M and Wasternack C Mur LAJ (2008)  Jasmonates interact with salicylic acid to confer basal thermotolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. New Phytologist (in press)

Papp I, Mur LAJ., Dalmadi A, Dulai S and Koncz C A (2004) Mutation in the Cap Binding Protein 20 gene confers drought tolerance to Arabidopsis. Plant Mol Biol.  55: 679-686. (Abstract)

Scott I. M., Clarke S. M., Wood J. E., Mur L. A. J. (2004) Salicylate accumulation inhibits growth at chilling temperature in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 135: 1040-1049. (Abstract)

Clarke S. M., Mur L. A. J. , Wood J. E., Scott I. M.  (2004) Salicylic acid dependent signaling promotes basal thermotolerance but is not essential for acquired thermotolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J. 38: 432-447. (Abstract)

Brachypodium distachyon.

Garvin, D. F., Gu, Y. Q., Hasterok, R., Hazen, S. P., Jenkins, G., Mockler, T. C., Mur, L. A. J. and Vogel, J. P. (2008). Development of genetic and genomic research resources for Brachypodium distachyon, a new model system for grass crop research. Crop Science 48, S69-S84.

Routledge A. P. M., Shelley G., Smith J. V., Talbot N. J., Draper J., Mur L. A. J. (2004) Magnaporthe grisea interactions with the model grass Brachypodium distachyon closely resemble those with rice (Oryza sativa). Mol. Plant Pathol. 5,  253-265.

Mur L. A. J. , Xu R. L., Casson S. A., Stoddart W. M., Routledge A. P. M., Draper J. (2004) Characterization of a proteinase inhibitor from Brachypodium distachyon suggests the conservation of defence signalling pathways between dicotyledonous plants and grasses. Mol. Plant Pathol. 5, 267-280

Draper, J*; Mur , L.A.J*.., Jenkins, G., Ghosh-Biswas, Bablak, P., Hasterok, R. and Routledge, A.P. M. (2001) Brachypodium distachyon : A new model system for functional genomics in grasses. Plant Physiol. 127, 1539-1555 * joint first authors. (Abstract)

Ethylene

Moshkov. I.E*., Mur, L.A.J. *, Novikova, G.V.*, and Smith A.R. and  Hall, M.A (2003) Ethylene regulates monomeric GTP-binding protein expression and activity in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiol. 131:1727-1733 * joint first authors (Abstract)

Moshkov. I.E., Novikova, G.V., Mur, L.A.J. and Smith A.R. and Hall, M.A. (2003) Ethylene rapidly upregulates the activities of both monomeric GTP-binding proteins and protein kinase(s) in epicotyls of Pisum sativum L, Plant Physiol.  131: 1718-1726 .(Abstract)

Hall, M.A., Moshkov. I.E., Novikova, G.V., Mur, L.A.J. and Smith A.R. (2001) Ethylene signal perception and transduction: multiple paradigms? Cambridge Philosophical Society: Biological Reviews 76, 103-128. (Abstract)

Metabolomics

Ghosal, R., Lewis, K. E. L., Kloer, R., Mehta, R., Parry, D., Llewllyn-Jones, C., Mur, L.A.J , Blaser, J. and Lewis, P. D. (2008). Using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to evaluate metabolic markers in sputum in patients with and without lung cancer. Lung Cancer 60, S11-S11.

Johnson, H. E., Lloyd, A. J., Mur, L. A. J., Smith, A. R. and Causton, D. R. (2007). The application of MANOVA to analyse Arabidopsis thaliana metabolomic data from factorially designed experiments. Metabolomics 3, 517-530.

Lloyd, A. J., Smith, A. R. and Mur, L. A. J. (2007). Metabolomic approaches to understand ethylene mediated defenses in Arabidopsis thaliana against Botrytis cinerea. Adv in Plant Ethylene Research, 359

Allwood W. J., Ellis, D.I., Heald J. K., Goodacre R. and Mur L. A. J. (2006) Metabolomic approaches reveal that phosphatidic and phosphatidyl glycerol phospholipids are major discriminatory metabolites in responses by Brachypodium distachyon to challenge by Magnaporthe grisea. Plant Journal;46: 351-368. (Abstract)

Programmed Cell Death

Mur, L. A. J., Kenton, P., Lloyd, A. J., Ougham, H. and Prats, E. (2008). The hypersensitive response; the centenary is upon us but how much do we know? Journal of Experimental Botany 59, 501-520.

Ougham, H., Hortensteiner, S., Armstead, I., Donnison, I., King, I., Thomas, H. and Mur, L.A.J. (2008). The control of chlorophyll catabolism and the status of yellowing as a biomarker of leaf senescence. Plant Biology 10, 4-14.

Nitric oxide

Mur, L. A. J., Laarhoven, L. J. J., , Harren, F. J. M. Hall, M. A. and Smith, A. R. (2008). Nitric oxide interacts with salicylate to regulate biphasic ethylene production during the hypersensitive response. Plant Physiology

Prats, E., Carver, T. L. W. and Mur, L. A. J. (2008). Pathogen-derived nitric oxide influences formation of the appressorium infection structure in the phytopathogenic fungus Blumeria graminis. Res Microbiol 159, 476-80.

Gaupels, F., Furch, A. C. U., Will, T., Mur, L. A. J., Kogel, K. H. and van Bel, A. J. E. (2008). Nitric oxide generation in Vicia faba phloem cells reveals them to be sensitive detectors as well as possible systemic transducers of stress signals. New Phytologist 178, 634-646.

Mur L.A.J , Carver T. L. W and Prats E.. (2006) NO way to live: The various roles of nitric oxide in plant pathogen interactions. J. Exp. Bot  57: 489-505. (pdf)

Prats E., .Mur L.A.J, Sanderson R. and Carver T. L. W. (2005) Nitric oxide contributes both to papilla-based resistance and the hypersensitive response in barley attacked by Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei Mol. Plant Pathol. 6: 65-71.

Mur, L.A.J. ; Santosa,  I. E.; Laarhoven LJJ; Holton, N. J, Harren, F. J. and Smith A. R. (2005).Laser photoacoustic detection allows in planta detection of NO in tobacco following challenge with avirulent and virulent Pseudomonas syringae pathovars. Plant Physiology 138: 1247-1258. “Breakthrough technology” paper. (Abstract)

Mur, L. A. J.; Santosa, I. E.; Laarhoven, L. J.J.; Harren, F. and Smith, A. R. (2003) A new partner in the danse macabre: The role of nitric oxide in the hypersensitive response. Bul. J. Plant Physiol. Special Issue, 110-123.

Reactive oxygen species

Mur L.A.J, Kenton P. and Draper J. (2005) In planta measurements of oxidative bursts elicited by avirulent and virulent bacterial pathogens suggests that H2O2 is insufficient to elicit cell death in tobacco. Plant Cell and Environment. 6: 65-78

Mur L. A. J , Sturgess F. J., Farrell G. G., Draper J. (2004) The AoPR10 promoter and certain endogenous PR10 genes respond to oxidative signals in Arabidopsis. Mol. Plant Pathol. 5, 435-451

Salicylate and Jasmonate action

Mur L. A. J ., Kenton P, Atzorn, R., Miersch O, Wasternack, C., (2006) The outcomes of concentration specific interactions between salicylate and jasmonate signaling include synergy, antagonism and oxidative stress leading to cell death. Plant Physiology 140: 249-262. (Abstract)

Clarke A, Mur L. A. J . Darby R.M and Kenton. P (2005) Harpin modulates the accumulation of salicylic acid by Arabidopsis cells via apoplastic alkalisation. J. Exp. Bot. 56: 3129-36. (Abstract)

Mur L.A.J. , Brown I.R., Darby R.M., Bestwick C.S., Bi Y.M., Mansfield J.W., Draper J. (2000). A loss of resistance to avirulent bacterial pathogens in tobacco is associated with the attenuation of a salicylic acid-potentiated oxidative burst. Plant J. 23, 609-621. (Abstract)

Kenton, P., Mur, L.A.J. , Wasternack, C., Atzorn, R. and Draper J. (1999). -(-) Jasmonic acid rises during the hypersensitive response in tobacco. Mol. Plant Path. Interact. 12, 74-78.

Mur, L. A. J. , Naylor, G., Warner, S. A. J., Sugars, J. M., White, R. F., and Draper, J. (1996). Salicylic acid potentiates defence gene expression in tissue exhibiting acquired resistance to pathogen attack. Plant Journal 9, 559-571.

Stomatal – pathogen Interactions

Prats E, Carver TLW, Gay A and Mur L.A.J, (2007). Enemy at the gates: Interaction-specific stomatal responses to pathogenic challenge. Plant Signaling and Behavior (addendum) 2, 275-277.

Prats, E., Gay, A. P., Mur, L. A. J., Thomas, B. J. and Carver, T. L. W. (2006). Stomatal lock-open, a consequence of epidermal cell death, follows transient suppression of stomatal opening in barley attacked by Blumeria graminis. Journal of Experimental Botany 57, 2211-2226.