Biology was my real focus in high school
and I truly enjoyed learning about the
intricacies of organisms. I went on to
attend McGill University in Montreal
and was fortunate to major in Plant
Science at the agriculture campus
(Macdonald College). My thought was
that the most important and practical
aspects of biology were related to agricul-
ture and plant development and that I
would pursue a career in this area. I was
drawn to learning about the interactions
between organisms, especially those
between plants and microbes. I found the
courses in plant pathology, microbiology
and microbial ecology particularly inter-
esting. Soil seemed to be where the real
action was. I went on to do graduate
work at Cornell University with Martin
Alexander, the noted soil microbiologist.
My research focused on aspects of the
nitrogen cycle and the organisms respon-
sible for converting ammonium to nitrate
in acid environments. As I was finishing
my degree, my goal was to continue on
in microbial ecology and hopefully
obtain a faculty position after a postdoc.
However, I had the good fortune of
meeting John Sanford and learned about
his concepts for genetic engineering of
crops. John worked at the New York
Agricultural Experimental Station in
Geneva, about 50 miles from Ithaca.
Driving home to Ithaca after our
meeting, I was convinced that he was on
to something totally new and extremely
exciting.
For the next three years, I worked with
John on the development and implemen-
tation of the gene gun for DNA delivery
to cells and tissues. Our process evolvedfrom using a real gun (air pistols and
rifles) to a specially designed apparatus
fabricated at Cornell’s Submicron
Facility with Nelson Allen and Ed
Wolf. We tried to deliver small tungsten
particles into anything that wouldn’t
move (onions, paramecia,Drosophila
eggs). This was before simple reporter
genes (such as GUS) with strong plant
promoters were available. Eventually
with the help of Ray Wu, we were able
to bombard onion cells and show that
genes could be delivered and expressed.
At that time, the goal of a number of labs
was to introduce genes into important
crop species such as corn, rice and
soybean. We went on to collaborate
with scientists at Pioneer to show that
maize cells could be transformed. After
working with John, I decided to do
additional postdoctoral work at the
Plant Gene Expression Center in
Albany, California with Mike Fromm.
These were exciting times with the
gene gun being applied to a number of
important biological questions. We
were able to directly deliver DNA into
intact tissues to study transcription
factors, phytochrome regulation of
gene expression, and tissue specific
expression. We were also able to stably
transform maize, an important break-
through for agriculture.
The gene gun is now an accepted tool in
biological research with many appli-
cations in animal cell biology.
Virtually all of the transgenic corn and
soybean grown by farmers was engin-
eered with the gene gun. So as should
be apparent, it is very difficult to
predict the course of one’s career.References
Agrawal PK, Kohli A, Twyman RM, Christou P (2005): Transformation of plants with multiple cas-
settes generates simple transgene integration patterns and high expression levels.Mol Breed
16 :247–260.
Altpeter F, Baisakh N, Beachy R, Bock R, Capell T, Christou P, Daniell H, Datta K, Datta S, Dix PJ,
Fauquet C, Huang N, Kohli A, Mooibroek H, Nicholson L, Nguyen TT, Nugent G, Raemakers K,
272 TRANSGENIC PLANT PRODUCTION