Florida Institute of Technology
High Tech with a Human Touch
PALMER, Andrew G
Assistant Professor
Biological Sciences Department, College of Science
Educational Background
2008 Ph.D., Biological Chemistry, Emory University
2001 B.S., Biochemistry, Florida State University
Recognition & Awards
2009 NIH Postdoctoral fellow
2005 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Teacher-Scholar
2005 Biological and Biomedical Sciences Award for Excellence in Presentation
2005 Osborne Quayle Award for Excellence in Research
Current Courses
BIO4210: Plant Physiology - The study of the physical, chemical, and molecular processes which occur in plants. Explores events at the molecular level as well as those phenomena which emerge on either the organismal or environmental scale. Provides a broader perspective on the common themes, as well as divergent strategies, for survival that are found in living systems. General topics include: (i) Plant Anatomy and Physiology, (ii) Plant Biochemistry, (iii) Medicinal and Ethnobotany, and (iv) Plant Biodiversity.
BIO5029: Chemical Ecology - The interdisciplinary field of Chemical Ecology (CE) couples elements of biology and chemistry to determine how small molecules regulate a variety of inter-organismal interactions. CE is a holistic field concerned with the entirety of the signaling process including signal generation, degradation, transmission, perception, and response. The primary goal of this course is to introduce you to the technologies and techniques available for research in CE along with potential applications (ex: novel antimicrobials). Each semester we will compare and contrast a variety of model systems, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic, in order to understand how they encode, transfer, and decode small molecule signals.
Professional Experience
2012 - Assistant Professor, Florida Institute of Technology
2011 Research Scientist, University of Wisconsin Madison
2009 - 2011 Postdoctoral fellow, University of Wisconsin Madison
Current Research
Kin Recognition - Plants display distinct growth responses not only to the presence of different species, but also to members of the same (kin) and different subspecies. Such complex social behaviors enhance our appreciation of the complexity of plants and is crucial to understanding the interplay betwen resouce competition and plant growth. By bringing together elements of molecular biology, analytical chemistry, and confocal microscopy we are elucidating this complex plant-plant signaling event.
Electrical Signaling - Like other eukaryotes, electrical signals play a variety of important roles in regulating plant responses to external stimuli including growth, circadian rhythms and gravitropism. However, many of these electrical signaling events are poorly understood. Utilizing voltage-sensitive fluorescent probes, microarray technology, and a variety of other analytical tools we are refining our understanding of the complex network of electrical signals at work in plants.
New strategies for improving modern agriculture - We are also interested in a variety of projects which focus on the development of new technologies for agriculture. This includes mass spectrometry based techniques for metabolic screening as well as high throughput screening strategies to inhibit plant pathogens.
Selected Publications
Palmer, A.G., Senechal A., Mukherjee, A., Much, E., Ané, J.M., Blackwell, H.E. “AHLs modulate plant growth and development through the activity of a fatty acid amide hydrolase” (In Preparation)
Palmer, A.G., Mukherjee, A., Stacy D., Ané, J.M., Blackwell, H.E. “Synthetic regulators of bacterial quorum sensing modulate nodulation in the Sinorhizobium meliloti-legume symbiosis” (In Preparation)
Praneenararat, T., Palmer, A.G., Blackwell, H.E."Chemical methods to interrogate bacterial quorum sensing pathways." Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry (2012) DOI: 10.1039/c2ob26353j
Palmer, A.G., Streng, E., Blackwell, H.E. “Attenuation of virulence in pathogenic bacteria using synthetic quorum-sensing modulators under native conditions on plant hosts” ACS Chemical Biology (2011), 6, 1348-1356
Palmer, A.G., Streng, E., Jewell, K., Blackwell, H.E. “Quorum Sensing in Bacterial Species that Use Degenerate Autoinducers Can Be Tuned Using Structurally Identical Non-Native Ligands” ChemBioChem (2011), 12, 138-147
Palmer, A.G., Chen, M.C., Kinger, N.P., Lynn, D.G. “Parasitic Angiosperms, Semagenesis and General Strategies for Plant–Plant Signaling in the Rhizosphere.” Pest Management Science (2009), 65, 512-519
Palmer A.G., and Blackwell, H.E. “Quorum Sensing, Host Recognition, and the Proto-language of Phenols.” Nature Chemical Biology. (2008), 4, 452-454
Palmer A.G., Liu Y., Adkins S.M., Zhang X., Wu I., Chen X., Lynn D.G. “The Molecular Language of Semagenesis” Plant Signaling and Behavior. (2008), 8, 560-561
Keyes, W.J., Palmer, A.G., Erbil, W.K., Taylor, J.V., Apkarian, R.P., Weeks, E.R., Lynn, D.G. “Semagenesis and the parasitic angiosperm Striga asiatica.” The Plant Journal (2007), 51, 707-716
Palmer A.G., Gao R., Maresh J., Erbil W.K., Lynn D.G. “Chemical Biology of Multi-Host/Pathogen Interactions: Chemical Perception and Metabolic Complementation.” Annual Reviews of Phytopathology (2004), 42, 439-64