the leaves of transgenic soybean plants
due to the introduction of a silencing
suppressor. Upon finishing my masters,
I plan to start a Ph.D. that will focus
on understanding the molecular mechan-
isms of cold tolerance in cereals like
wheat, barley and rye.
Genes are generally introduced to study
their function in heterologous systems.
However, the biology of any living
system is so complex that things don’t
always work according to our predic-
tions. We generally end up dealing
with the “side-effects”, and this is how
our knowledge about living systems
increases. The more we try to explore,
the more there is left unexplored. For
instance, I introduced a silencing sup-
pressor,p19in soybean plants with the
aim to stabilize the expression of the
green fluorescent protein(gfp) gene.
However, introduction ofp19did not
help in stabilizinggfpexpression, but
instead resulted in an abnormal leaf
phenotype in soybean plants. Some
additional results have created doubts if
such silencing suppressors can lead to
genome instability in plants. In the nearfuture, I would like to explore this poss-
ible function ofp19. But I also hope
that we can find a permanent solution to
stabilize transgene expression in plants.
Stable transformation of plants is of
least value if the expression of the trans-
gene in not uniform across clones.
In the long run, I hope to hear about and
contribute towards another “green revolu-
tion” or may be a “biotechnology-based
green revolution” in which the yield of
cereal crops can be tremendously
increased to serve the needs of present
day world population. I also hope that
government regulations on the public dis-
tribution of transgenic crops are eased,
especially in developing countries where
cereal crops like wheat, rice and corn
form the staple food of a majority of
people. All the scientific advances would
be of no good unless they are accessible
to the general public. I hope to use bio-
technology to improve the quality of life
of the people and to bridge the gap
between the poor and the rich, since we
all equally deserve the right to live and
the right to the basic necessities of life,
the foremost being food.LIFE BOX 16.2. JOSHUA YUANJoshua Yuan, PhD Student and Genomics Scientist, University of
Tennessee
Joshua Yuanby the microarray printer at
the Gallo Center of UCSF.
I became interested in plant research
during my college years when I
worked as an undergraduate assistant
with Prof. Pifang Zhang in Fudan
University, Shanghai, China. After
graduation, I was enrolled as a masters
student in the University of Arizona,
where I met many elite plant biologists
including David Galbraith, who later
became the advisor for my masters
thesis studying the expression of ice
plant water channel promoters in
Arabidopsis and developing the
MANTRA (Microarray Analysis of
Nuclear TRAnscriptome) technology.LIFE BOX 16.2. JOSHUA YUAN 367