NASC: Director.

Prof. Sean. T. May

BSc (Sussex), D.Phil (Sussex)

voice : 0115 9513306
Fax : 0115 9513297

sean@arabidopsis.info

Administrative page


Research and Interests

Arabidopsis genomics

Genome research using model systems has been adopted by plant and animal biologists to rapidly define genome architecture, gene function and aid the discovery of fundamental biology. Arabidopsis thaliana has become one of the most favoured model systems for the study of many aspects of plant metabolism, development and disease resistance.

Arabidopsis is a typical flowering plant but has special characteristics that recommend it as an ideal model for research. These include its small size, small genome size, prolific seed production a nd the diverse array of available mutations. The entire sequence of the genome for the Columbia ecotype of Arabidopsis was completed in December 2000. A second ecotype (Landsberg) was shotgun sequenced commercially at the same time and has provided a valuable comparison reference. Since that point, many different varieties (putative ecotypes) have been sequenced, making arabidopsis one of the best models for natural variation.

The principle behind using Arabidopsis is that information obtained from this model species can be applied to other flowering plants, including crops. Hence important problems faced by industry and agriculture can be addressed through translation of the knowledge base generated from Arabidopsis research.

Tackling genome research requires a scientific infrastructure to coordinate research and to centralise the provision of biological and information resources. NASC is involved in the provision of biological resources as the primary European Arabidopsis Seed Centre, and in the provision of information relating to our stocks and Arabidopsis genome information in general. NASC operates in parallel with the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC) at Ohio State, providing a safe repository for over half a million accessions and distributing this material to the scientific community. For details of the stocks we distribute, take a look at http://arabidopsis.info. NASC currently distributes between 50-100,000 tubes of seed per year.

Please see our Wikipedia entry, our Twitter page (tweeting as @NascArabidopsis) and my OrcID profile.


Expanded details of the Group, Grants and publications (including abstracts) are below.

Current Members of Group

  • Marcos Castellanos (Senior Technical - NASC Operational Manager)

    (In alphabetical order by given name)

  • Dan Edge
  • Emma Wigmore
  • Iqbal Khan
  • Jasmine MacGilchrist
  • Nazia Nazar
Informal enquiries are welcome to: all@arabidopsis.info

Grants Held

Current
  1. BBSRC (BB/V018337/1): 2022 - 2027 The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (arabidopsis.info) £1.485 Million (fec)
  2. European Commission (Brussels, BE): 2023 - 2025 Promoting a Plant Genetic Resource Community for Europe Grant Number:101094738
Older Grants, now finished
  • BBSRC (BB/P024068/1): 2017 - 2022 The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (arabidopsis.info) £1.325 Million (fec)
  • BBSRC (BB/J018961/1): 2012 - 2017 The Arabidopsis.info germplasm service (NASC: V) £810,470
  • BBSRC (BB/L010100/1) [RA35ER]: 2014-2017 Arabidopsis Stock Centre Module (core bioinformatics grant) £638,396
  • EU FP7 (PGR-Secure): 2010-2014 (NASC part ~ £75K)
  • BBSRC (BBG01616X1): 2009-2014 BBSRC Centre For Sustainable Bioenergy (BSBEC): Programme 4: Lignocellulosic Conversion To Bioethanol (LACE) £5,349,450
  • BBSRC (BB/I001271/1): 2010-2013 Arabidopsis.info (core bioinformatics grant) £975,991)
  • BBSRC (BBD0196131): 2006 - 2011 Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (CPIB) £9,177,261
  • BBSRC (BB/E022758/1): 2007 - 2012 Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre IV (core germplasm grant) £1.46 Million
  • BBSRC (BBE01772X1): 2007 - 2010 GARNet III (core bioinformatics grant) £791,918
  • Horseracing Betting Levy Board (HBLB) 2008 - 2009
  • BBSRC (BBSB1356X): 2004 - 2009 UKcropnetIII £257,205
  • EU: 2006 - 2011 Agron-omics. 12.5 Million Euro- Theoretically we were part of this and were awarded the grant, but the project changed direction in the latter half and we were excluded.
  • BBSRC (G17764): 2002 - 2007, Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre; provision of Arabidopsis thaliana genetic resources to the research community. £798 928
  • BBSRC (G18881) 2003-2006, The GARNet Transcriptomics and bioinformatics service (continuation grant II). NASC award £392,064.
  • BBSRC (GAT11276): 1999 - 2004 UKCropNet99.  – A bioinformatics consortium including the John Innes Centre (Norwich); IGER (Aberystwyth) and the SCRI (Dundee). NASC award £831 352  (approximately 5/6ths   to be re-distributed amongst our consortium).
  • BBSRC (IGF12422): 2000 - 2004, NASC transcriptome project (array and bioinformatics facility) – a part of GARnet (genomics Arabidopsis resource net). NASC award £1 062 556.
  • BBSRC: 2001-2004, Prediction of protein function in plant genomes using data mining. A joint grant between IGER, the University of Wales - Aberystwyth, and NASC.
  • BBSRC (EGM16127): 2002-2005, Computational Approaches to identifying gene regulatory systems in Arabidopsis. A joint grant between John Innes Centre, University of Norwich and NASC. NASC award £123,556
  • EU: 2002-2005, PLANET, European Plant Genome Database Network. A joint grant between NASC, MIPS (Germany), INRA (France), VIB (Belgium), INFOBIOGEN (France), John Innes Centre (UK), Plant Research International (Holland), and CNB - CSIC (Spain). NASC award €210,975
  • BBSRC (G16319): 2001-2003, Oligo array service for the Arabidopsis community. NASC award £487,552
  • BBSRC (X08267): 1997 - 2002, Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre; provision of key Arabidopsis thaliana genetic resources to the research community. £725 656
  • BBSRC: 1999 - (Feb) 2001, Provision of SLAT collection to researchers. A joint grant between the University of York, NASC and the John Innes Centre. NASC award ~ £10 000.
  • Plant Sciences Research Fund - (1999-2000) Arabidopsis seed storage / longevity research project - collaboration with Wakehurst place (Kew Gardens)
  • BBSRC : 1996-1999, UK Crop Plant Bioinformatics Network, a consortia between NASC, Mike Gale (JIC, Norwich), Robbie Waugh and David Marshall (SCRI, Dundee), Helen Ougham (IGER, Aberystwyth), Martin Trick (JIC, Norwich). NASC award £103445
  • EU: 1995-1999, Arabidopsis Biotechnologial Resources, a consortium between NASC, Zoe Wilson (Uni Nott), Andy Pereira (CPRO-DLO Wageningen, Netherlands), George Pelletier (INRA, Versailles, France). NASC award ECU 206000
  • Gatsby: 1999, NASC stock database integration with external Arabidopsis datasets. NASC award £10,680
  • Gatsby: 1998 - 1999, Gatsby Foundation SLAT collection. NASC award £10000
  • University of Nottingham Research Opportunity fund, 1998 - 1999 Arabidopsis seed storage / longevity research project - collaboration with Wakehurst place (Kew Gardens).

Publications

2023

Hugh F. Williamson; Julia Brettschneider; Mario Caccamo; Robert P. Davey; Carole Goble; Paul J. Kersey; Sean May; Richard J. Morris; Richard Ostler; Tony Pridmore et al. (2023) F1000 Research. Data management challenges for artificial intelligence in plant and agricultural research. DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.52204.2

2022

Morgan, H. L., Furse, S., Dias, I. H., Shabir, K., Castellanos, M., Khan, I., May, S. T., et al. (2022) Paternal low protein diet perturbs inter-generational metabolic homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner in mice. Commun Biol, 5 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03914-8

Lujain A. Almousa; Andrew M. Salter; Marcos Castellanos; Sean T. May; Simon C. Langley-Evans (2022) The Response of the Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cell Transcriptome to Variation in Magnesium Concentration. Nutrients 14(17), 3586 DOI: 10.3390/nu14173586

James Wood; Salah Abdelrazig; Sergey Evseev; Catherine Ortori; Marcos Castellanos-Uribe; Sean T. May; David A. Barrett; Mohammed Diksin; Sajib Chakraborty; Dong-Hyun Kim et al. (2022) Lipoprotein Deprivation Reveals a Cholesterol-Dependent Therapeutic Vulnerability in Diffuse Glioma Metabolism. Cancers 2022, 14(16), 3873; DOI: 10.3390/cancers14163873

Joshua Branter; Maria Estevez-Cebrero; Mohammed Diksin; Michaela Griffin; Marcos Castellanos-Uribe; Sean May; Ruman Rahman; Richard Grundy; Surajit Basu; Stuart Smith. (2022) Genome-Wide Expression and Anti-Proliferative Effects of Electric Field Therapy on Pediatric and Adult Brain Tumors. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 23(4), 1982; DOI: /10.3390/ijms23041982

2021

Csaba Matta; Rebecca Lewis; Christopher Fellows; Gyula Diszhazi; Janos Almassy; Nicolai Miosge; James Dixon; Marcos C. Uribe; Sean May; Szilard Poliska et al. (2021) Transcriptome‐based screening of ion channels and transporters in a migratory chondroprogenitor cell line isolated from late‐stage osteoarthritic cartilage. Journal of Cellular Physiology 236, 11, 7421-7439 DOI: 10.1002/jcp.30413

Alexandra D. Rusu; Zoe E. Cornhill; Brenda Canales Coutiño; Marcos Castellanos Uribe; Anbarasu Lourdusamy; Zsuzsa Markus; Sean T. May; Ruman Rahman; Marios Georgiou (2021) CG7379 and ING1 suppress cancer cell invasion by maintaining cell–cell junction integrity. Open Biology 11, 9 DOI: 10.1098/rsob.210077

Alison Woodward; Alina Pandele; Salah Abdelrazig; Catherine A. Ortori; Iqbal Khan; Marcos Castellanos Uribe; Sean May; David A. Barrett; Richard G. Grundy; Dong-Hyun Kim et al. (2021) Integrated Metabolomics and Transcriptomics Using an Optimised Dual Extraction Process to Study Human Brain Cancer Cells and Tissues. Metabolites 2021, 11(4), 240 DOI: 10.3390/metabo11040240

2020

Castellanos-Uribe, M.; May, S.T.; Betsou, F. (2020) Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg-University of Luxembourg: University Biobanking Certificate. Biopreservation and Biobanking 18,1 DOI: 10.1089/bio.2019.0049

Geraint Parry; Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso; Daniel J Gibbs; Murray Grant; Andrea Harper; C Jill Harrison; Eirini Kaiserli; Sabina Leonelli; Sean May; Sarah McKim et al. (2020) How to build an effective research network: lessons from two decades of the GARNet plant science community. Journal of Experimental Botany 71, 22, 6881–6889 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eraa397

Suthaporn S; Jayaprakasan K; Thornton J; Walker K; Medrano JH; Castellanos M; May S; Polanski L; Raine-Fenning N; Maalouf WE (2020) Suboptimal mid-luteal progesterone concentrations are associated with aberrant endometrial gene expression, potentially resulting in implantation failure. Reproductive biomedicine online 42, 3, DOI: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2020.10.018

Clifford RL; Yang CX; Fishbane N; Patel J; MacIsaac JL; McEwen LM; May ST; Castellanos-Uribe M; Nair P; Obeidat M et al.(2020) TWIST1 DNA methylation is a cell marker of airway and parenchymal lung fibroblasts that are differentially methylated in asthma. Clinical Epigenetics 12, 145 DOI: 10.1186/s13148-020-00931-4

2019

Mehreen Ahmed; Nicholas Jinks; Roya Babaei-Jadidi; Hossein Kashfi; Marcos Castellanos-Uribe; Sean T. May; Abhik Mukherjee; Abdolrahman S. Nateri (2019) Repurposing Antibacterial AM404 As a Potential Anticancer Drug for Targeting Colorectal Cancer Stem-Like Cells. Cancers 12(1), 106 DOI: 10.3390/cancers12010106

International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium. (2019) Arabidopsis bioinformatics resources: The current state, challenges, and priorities for the future. Plant Direct Volume3, Issue1. e00109 DOI: 10.1002/pld3.109

2018

Nagappan, J., et al. (2018) Improved nucleic acid extraction protocols for Ganoderma boninense, G. miniatocinctum and G. tornatum. Biotechnol Lett 40: 1541. DOI: 10.1007/s10529-018-2603-7

James Wood et al.(2018) A GBM invasive region expression profile identified through a multi-region sampling approach. Neuro-Oncology, Volume 20, Issue suppl_1, pi16–i17. DOI: 10.1093/neuonc/nox238.073

Hernan P. Fainberg, et al. (2018) Transcriptional analysis of adipose tissue during development reveals depot-specific responsiveness to maternal dietary supplementation. Scientific Reports 8, 9628. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-27376-3.

Alaa T. Al-sandaqchi, et al. (2018) Metallome of cerebrovascular endothelial cells infected with Toxoplasma gondii using μ-XRF imaging and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Metallomics DOI: 10.1039/C8MT00136G

2017

Mazin Gh. Al-Asadi et al. (2017) A molecular signature of dormancy in CD34+CD38- acute myeloid leukaemia cells. Oncotarget. 8:111405-111418. 10.18632/oncotarget.22808

Hui Hui Chai, Wai Kuan Ho, Neil Graham, Sean May, Festo Massawe and Sean Mayes (2017) A Cross-Species Gene Expression Marker-Based Genetic Map and QTL Analysis in Bambara Groundnut Genes. 8(2), 84. doi:10.3390/genes8020084

2016

Anneke Kroes, Colette Broekgaarden, Marcos Castellanos Uribe, Sean May, Joop J. A. van Loon, Marcel Dicke (2016) Brevicoryne brassicae aphids interfere with transcriptome responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to feeding by Plutella xylostella caterpillars in a density dependent manner. Oecologia DOI 10.1007/s00442-016-3758-3

Georgiou EX, Lei K, Lai PF, Yulia A, Herbert BR, Castellanos M, May ST, Sooranna SR and Johnson MR, (2016). The study of progesterone action in human myometrial explants. Molecular human reproduction. 22(8), 877-89

Al-Asadi, M. G. H., Castellanos, M., May, S. T., Russell, N. H., Seedhouse, C. H. and Pallis, M., 2016. Molecular signature of dormancy in CD34+CD38-acute myeloid leukaemia cells. British Journal of Haematology. 173, 14-14

Marina Eremina, Simon J. Unterholzner, Ajith I. Rathnayake, Marcos Castellanos, Mamoona Khan, Karl G. Kugler, Sean T. May, Klaus F. X. Mayer, Wilfried Rozhon, and Brigitte Poppenberger (2016) Brassinosteroids participate in the control of basal and acquired freezing tolerance of plants PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1611477113

Shalini Ojha, Hernan P. Fainberg, Victoria Wilson, Giuseppe Pelella, Marcos Castellanos, Sean T. May, Attilio A. Lotto, Harold Sacks, Michael E. Symonds, Helen Budge (2016) Gene pathway development in human epicardial adipose tissue during early life. JCI Insight Volume: 1, Issue: 13 DOI:10.1172/jci.insight.87460

Olena Poretska , Saiqi Yang , Delphine Pitorre , Wilfried Rozhon , Karin Zwerger , Marcos Castellanos Uribe , Sean Tobias May , Peter McCourt , Brigitte Poppenberger , Tobias Sieberer (2016) The small molecule hyperphyllin enhances leaf formation rate and mimics shoot meristem integrity defects associated with AMP1 deficiency Plant physiology 05/2016; DOI:10.1104/pp.15.01633

C. Matta, R. Lewis, R. Barrett-Jolley, F.H. Labeed, M.P. Hughes, M.C. Uribe, S. May, N. Miosge, A. Mobsheri (2016) Ion channel expression and function in a chondrogenic progenitor cell line derived from osteoarthritic cartilage. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 04/2016; 24:S141. DOI:10.1016

Venkata Suresh Bonthala , Katie Mayes, Joanna Moreton, Martin Blythe, Victoria Wright, Sean Tobias May, Festo Massawe, Sean Mayes, Jamie Twycross (2016) Identification of Gene Modules Associated with Low Temperatures Response in Bambara Groundnut by Network-Based Analysis. PLoS ONE 11(2): e0148771. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148771

Sean T May, The walking dead of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies UoN Blog (Feb 2016).

2015

Hugh Shanahan, Andrew Harrison and Sean Tobias May (2015). Teaching Data Science and Cloud Computing in Low and Middle Income Countries. Adv Tech Biol Med 2015, 3:150. 3:3, (2015) DOI:10.4172/2379-1764.1000150

Sean T May, Designer dragons and transgenic triffids UoN Blog / Popular Culture Lecture Series (Nov 2015).

Sean T May, Zombie Genomics - Sean on the Dead UoN Blog / Popular Culture Lecture Series (Oct 2015).

Sean T May, Sean on the Dead - SciBar Halloween talk in The Vat and Fiddle

Seguela-Arnaud Mathilde, Smith Caroline, Uribe Marcos, May Sean, Fischl Harry, McKenzie Neil, Bevan Michael (2015). The Mediator complex subunits MED25/PFT1 and MED8 are required for transcriptional responses to changes in cell wall arabinose composition and glucose treatment in Arabidopsis thaliana. BMC Plant Biology.2015, 15:215 DOI: 10.1186/s12870-015-0592-4

Phenomics and genomics tools for facilitating brassica crop improvement (2015). B. Vosman, K. Pelgrom, G. Sharma, R. Voorrips, C. Broekgaarden, J. Pritchard, S. May, S. Adobor, M. Castellanos-Uribe, M. van Kaauwen, B. Janssen, W. van Workum and B. Ford-Lloyd. Crop wild relative. Issue 10 February 2015. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1494.3204

Zsuzsanna Bodi, Andrew Bottley, Nathan Archer, Sean T. May, Rupert G. Fray (2015). Yeast m6A Methylated mRNAs Are Enriched on Translating Ribosomes during Meiosis, and under Rapamycin Treatment. PLoS ONE 10(7): e0132090. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0132090

T. Parr, S. Al-Doski, K. Hemmings, Z. Daniel, D. Brown, C. Lu, C. Hodgman, S. May, J. Brameld (2015) Increased expression of serine biosynthetic pathway genes is associated with skeletal muscle hypertrophy in sheep. Proceedings of The Nutrition Society 01/2015; 74(OCE2). DOI:10.1017/S0029665115002013

2014

Alkurashi MM, May ST, Kong K, Bacardit J, Haig D, Elsheikha HM. (2014) Susceptibility to experimental infection of the invertebrate locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) with the apicomplexan parasite Neospora caninum. PeerJ 2:e674 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.674.

Emeli M Nilsson, Hernan P Fainberg, Siew S Choong, Thomas C Giles, James Sells, Sean May, Fiona J Stansfield, William R Allen, Richard D Emes, Alison Mostyn, Nigel P Mongan, Lisa Yon (2014) Molecular Characterization of Adipose Tissue in the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana). PLOS ONE 9 (3), e91717 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091717.

Hung-Ming Lai, Sean T. May and Sean Mayes (2014) Pigeons: A Novel GUI Software for Analysing and Parsing High Density Heterologous Oligonucleotide Microarray Probe Level Data. Microarrays 2014, 3(1), 1-23; doi:10.3390/microarrays3010001

2013

Hui Hui Cahi, Hung-Ming Lai, Hui Go, S. M. Basu, F Massawe, S. Azam-Ali, N. Graham, M. Broadley, S. May, S. Mayes. (2013) Developing XSpecies Approaches for Genomics and Transcriptomics - Using Resources Developed in Major Species for Research in Bambara Groundnut. ISBN: 978-90-66052-79-6 In book: II International symposium on underutilized plant species: crops for the future - beyond food security, Edition: Volume 979, Publisher: Acta Horticulturae, Editors: Massawe, F; Mayes, S; Alderson, P, pp.773-778

2012

Joao Paulo Fabi, Graham B Seymour, Neil S Graham, Martin R Broadley, Sean T May, Franco Maria Lajolo, Beatriz Rosana Cordenunsi, Roberto Oliveira do Nascimento. (2012). Analysis of ripening-related gene expression in papaya using an Arabidopsis-based microarray. BMC Plant Biology 12/2012; 12(1):242 DOI:10.1186/1471-2229-12-242. PMID: 23256600.

International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium.(2012) Taking the next step: building an Arabidopsis information portal. Plant Cell. 2012 Jun;24(6):2248-56. Epub 2012 Jun 29. doi: 10.1105/tpc.112.100669. PMID: 22751211.

Zsuzsanna Bodi, Silin Zhong, Surbhi Mehra, Jie Song, Hongying Li, Neil Graham, Sean May, Rupert George Fray (2012) Adenosine methylation in Arabidopsis mRNA is associated with the 3' end and reduced levels cause developmental defects. Front. Plant Sci. 3:48. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2012.00048. PMID: 22639649.

2011

C. Scotti, M. Carelli, O. Calderini, F. Panara, P. Gaudenzi, E. Biazzi, S. May, N. Graham, F. Paolocci and S. Arcioni (2011). Agronomic and molecular analysis of heterosis in alfalfa. Plant Genetic Resources, 9 , pp 288-290 doi:10.1017/S1479262111000621.

Carelli et al. (2011). Medicago truncatula CYP716A12 Is a Multifunctional Oxidase Involved in the Biosynthesis of Hemolytic Saponins The Plant Cell, Vol. 23: 3070-3081 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1105/tpc.111.087312. PMID: 21821776

Graham N., May S., (2011). Bioinformatics Resources for Arabidopsis thaliana. In: SCHMIDT R., BANCROFT I., ed. Genetics and Genomics of Brassicaceae. 1st ed. Springer, pp. 585-596 ISBN: 978-1-4419-7117-3

N.S. Graham, S.T. May, Z.C.T.R. Daniel, Z.F. Emmerson, J.M. Brameld and T. Parr (2011) Use of the Affymetrix Human GeneChip array and genomic DNA hybridisation probe selection to study ovine transcriptomes. Animal doi:10.1017/S1751731110002533.. PMID: 22440025.

Martins, Patil, Molinari, Andrade Dias, Martins, Quirino, Emmerson, Amos, May (2011) Expression profiling using Affymetrix GeneChip Microarrays in sugarcane during leaf senescence. Resumos do III Simpatica Molecular de Plantas

Hui Hui Chai, Hung-Ming Lai, Hui Guo, S.M. Basu, F. Massawe, S. Azam-Ali, N. Graham, M. Broadley, S. May, S. Mayes (2011). DEVELOPING XSPECIES APPROACHES FOR GENOMICS AND TRANSCRIPTOMICS - USING RESOURCES DEVELOPED IN MAJOR SPECIES FOR RESEARCH IN BAMBARA GROUNDNUT SHS Acta Horticulturae 979: II International Symposium on Underutilized Plant Species: Crops for the Future - Beyond Food Security

2010

International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium. (2010) An international bioinformatics infrastructure to underpin the Arabidopsis community. Plant Cell. Aug;22(8):2530-6. doi: 10.1105/tpc.110.078519. PMID: 20807877.

Love CG, Graham NS, O Lochlainn S, Bowen HC, May ST, et al. (2010) A Brassica Exon Array for Whole-Transcript Gene Expression Profiling. PLoS ONE 5(9): e12812. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012812 PMID: 20862292.

Brian Jones, Sara Andersson Gunneras, Sara V. Petersson, Petr Tarkowskib, Neil Graham, Sean May, Karel Dolezal, Goran Sandberg and Karin Ljung. (2010) Cytokinin Regulation of Auxin Synthesis in Arabidopsis Involves a Homeostatic Feedback Loop Regulated via Auxin and Cytokinin Signal Transduction. Plant Cell Advance Online Publication 10.1105/tpc.110.074856 PMID: 20823193.

Massonnet Catherine et al.(2010) Probing the reproducibility of leaf growth and molecular phenotypes: a comparison of three Arabidopsis accessions cultivated in ten laboratories. Plant physiology 2010;152(4):2142-57 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1104/pp.109.148338. PMID: 20200072.

Brian R. Gibson, Neil S. Graham, Chris A. Boulton, Wendy G. Box, Stephen J. Lawrence, Robert S. T. Linforth, Sean T. May, and Katherine A. Smart (2010). Differential Yeast Gene Transcription During Brewery Propagation. Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists. doi:10.1094/ASBCJ-2009-1123-01.

Neil S Graham, Abigail L Clutterbuck, Nicholas P James, Richard G Lea, Ali Mobasheri,Martin R Broadley, Sean T May (2010). Equine transcriptome quantification using human GeneChip arrays can be improved using genomic DNA hybridisation and probe-selection. The Veterinary Journal doi:10.1016/j.tvjl.2009.08.030 PMID: 19786357.

2009

On-line video of Drosophila whole adult brain dissection YouTube

Ana I. Fernandez, Nicolas Viron, Moftah Alhagdow, Mansour Karimi, Matthew Jones, Ziva Amsellem, Adrien Sicard, Anna Czerednik, Gerco Angenent, Donald Grierson, Sean May, Graham Seymour, Yuval Eshed, Martine Lemaire-Chamley, Christophe Rothan, and Pierre Hilson (2009). Flexible tools for gene expression and silencing in tomato. Plant Physiology Preview Published on October 7, 2009; DOI: 10.1104/pp.109.147546 PMID: 19812183.

Mark W Davey, Neil S Graham, Bartel Vanholme, Rony Swennen, Sean T May and Johan Keulemans (2009). Heterologous oligonucleotide microarrays for transcriptomics in a non-model species; a proof-of-concept study of drought stress in Musa. BMC Genomics 2009, 10:436 doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-436. PMID: 19758430.

Graham J. G. Upton; Olivia Sanchez-Graillet; Joanna Rowsell; Jose M. Arteaga-Salas; Neil S. Graham; Maria A. Stalteri; Farhat N. Memon; Sean T. May; Andrew P. Harrison (2009). Briefings in Functional Genomics and Proteomics 8: 199-212 On the causes of outliers in Affymetrix GeneChip data. Briefings in Functional Genomics and Proteomics. doi: 10.1093/bfgp/elp027. PMID: 19734302.

Dawe A, Bodhicharla, Graham N, May S, Reader T, Loader B, Gregory A, Swicord M, Bit-Babik G, de Pomerai D. (2009) Low-intensity microwave irradiation does not substantially alter gene expression in late larval and adult Caenorhabditis elegans. Bioelectromagnetics. Published Online: Jun 16 2009 DOI: 10.1002/bem.20515. PMID: 19533680

2008

M. R. Broadley, P. J. White, J. P. Hammond, N. S. Graham, H. C. Bowen, Z. F. Emmerson, R. G. Fray, P. P. M. Iannetta, J. W. McNicol and S. T. May (2008) Evidence of neutral transcriptome evolution in plants. New Phytologist Vol. 180, no. 3 (p 587-593). DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02640.x. PMID: 18801004

...Reviewed in 'Editors' Choice: Neutral Plantings - Science 3 October 2008; Vol. 322. no. 5898, p. 17' DOI: 10.1126/science.322.5898.17b.

Kamal Swarup, Eva Benkovai, Ranjan Swarup, Ilda Casimiro, Benjamin Paret, Yaodong Yang, Geraint Parry, Erik Nielsen, Ive De Smet, Steffen Vanneste, Mitch P. Levesque, David Carrier, Nicholas James, Vanessa Calvo, Karin Ljung, Eric Kramer, Rebecca Roberts, Neil Graham, Sylvestre Marillonnet, Kanu Patel, Jonathan D.G. Jones, Christopher G. Taylor, Daniel P. Schachtman, Sean May, Goran Sandberg, Philip Benfey, Jiri Friml, Ian Kerr, Tom Beeckman, Laurent Laplaze & Malcolm J. Bennett. 2008. The auxin influx carrier LAX3 promotes lateral root emergence. Nature Cell Biology 10, 946 - 954 (2008). doi:10.1038/ncb1754. PMID: 18622388.

Klara Hoyerova , Lucie Perry, Paul Hand , Martina Lankova , Tomas Kocabek , Sean May , Jana Kottova , Jan Paces , Richard Napier , and Eva Zazimalova. (2008) Functional characterization of PaLAX1, a putative auxin permease, in heterologous plant systems. Plant Physiology 146 (3): 1128. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1104/pp.107.109371. PMID: 18184737.

Mark W Davey, J Keulemans, N Graham, ST May, B Vanholme, R Swennen (2008) Assessing the Use of Heterologous Oligonucleotide Microarrays for Transcriptomics in a Non-Model Species; Application to the Study of Drought Stress in Musa. ISHS Acta Horticulturae 839: I International Symposium on Biotechnology of Fruit Species: BIOTECHFRUIT2008

2007

GRAHAM, BROADLEY, HAMMOND, WHITE, and MAY, 2007. Optimising the analysis of transcript data using high density oligonucleotide arrays and genomic DNA-based probe selection. BMC Genomics, 8(1), 344. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-8-344. PMID: 17908303.

BAKER, C., NIELSON, H.M., MINTHON, L., WRIGHT, H.T., CHAPPELL, S., OKYERE, J., MAY, S., MORGAN, K., KALSHEKER, N. and JANCIAUSKIENE, S.M., 2007. Effects of Alzheimer's peptide and a1_antichymotrypsin on astrocyte gene expression. Neurobiology of Aging, 28(1), 51-61.

Nick James, Neil Graham, Debbie Clements, Beatrice Schildknecht, and Sean May. 2007. AtEnsEMBL - A Post-Genomic Resource Browser for Arabidopsis in Plant Bioinformatics - Methods and Protocols (ed. Edwards, D) Humana Press. ISBN10:1-58829-653-9. PMID: 18287694

2006

Spaniolas S, May ST, Bennett MJ, Tucker GA. J Agric Food Chem. 2006 Oct 4;54(20):7466-7470. DOI: 10.1021/jf061164n Authentication of Coffee by Means of PCR-RFLP Analysis and Lab-on-a-Chip Capillary Electrophoresis. PMID: 17002409.

Love, C., Logan, E., Erwin, T., Kaur, J., Lim, G.A.C., Hopkins, C., Batley, J., James, N., May, S., Spangenberg, G. and Edwards, D. 2006. Integrating and interrogating diverse Brassica data within an ensembl structured database. Acta Hort. (ISHS) 706:77-82

Frank F Millenaar, John Okyere, Sean T May, Martijn van Zanten, Laurentius A C J Voesenek, Anton J M Peeters. BMC Bioinformatics 2006, 7:137 (15 March 2006) How to decide? Different methods of calculating gene expression from short oligonucleotide array data will give different results. doi:10.1186/1471-2105-7-137

(Awarded F1000) John P. Hammond, Helen C. Bowen, Philip J. White, Victoria Mills, Kevin A. Pyke, Alan J. M. Baker, Steven N. Whiting, Sean T. May and Martin R. Broadley New Phytol 2006 170(2):239-60 DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2006.01662.x A comparison of the Thlaspi caerulescens and Thlaspi arvense shoot transcriptomes. PMID: 16608451.

Philip Zimmermann, Beatrice Schildknecht, David Craigon, Margarita Garcia-Hernandez, Wilhelm Gruissem, Sean May, Gaurab Mukherjee, Helen Parkinson, Seung Rhee, Ulrich Wagner, Lars Hennig. Plant Methods 2006, 2:1 MIAME/Plant adding value to plant microarrray experiments. PMID: 16401339

2005

Crystal Baker, Henrietta M. Nielsen, Lennart Minthon, H.T. Wright, Sally Chappell, John Okyere, Sean May, Kevin Morgan, Noor Kalsheker and Sabina M. Janciauskiene. Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Dec 16. Effects of Alzheimer's peptide and alpha1-antichymotrypsin on astrocyte gene expression.

John P Hammond, Martin R Broadley, David J Craigon, Janet Higgins, Zoe Emmerson, Henrik Townsend, Philip J White, Sean T May. Plant Methods 2005, 1:10. Using genomic DNA-based probe-selection to improve the sensitivity of high-density oligonucleotide arrays when applied to heterologous species. doi:10.1186/1746-4811-1-10. PMID: 16280083.

Joke Allemeersch, Steffen Durinck, Rudy Vanderhaeghen, Philippe Alard, Ruth Maes, Kurt Seeuws, Tom Bogaert, Kathleen Coddens, Kirsten Deschouwer, Paul Van Hummelen, Marnik Vuylsteke, Yves Moreau, Jeroen Kwekkeboom, Andre H.M. Wijfjes, Sean May, Jim Beynon, Pierre Hilson, and Martin T.R. Kuiper. Benchmarking the CATMA microarray. A novel tool for 'Arabidopsis' transcriptome analysis. Plant Physiology (2005), Vol. 137, pp. 588 PMID: 15710687.

Sean Mayes, Kate Parsley, Roger Sylvester-Bradley, Sean May and John Foulkes. Annals of Applied Biology (2005), 146:223-237 Integrating genetic information into plant breeding programmes: how will we produce varieties from molecular variation, using bioinformatics? DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7348.2005.040086.x

2004

Swarup R., Kargul J., Marchant A., Zadik D., Rahman A., Mills R., Yemm A., May S., Williams L., Millner P., Tsurumib S., Moore I., Napier R., Kerr ID and Bennett MJ. Structure-Function Analysis of the Presumptive Arabidopsis Auxin Permease AUX1. The Plant Cell 16:3069-3083 (2004). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1105/tpc.104.024737. PMID: 15486104.

Craigon DJ., James N., Okyere J., Higgins J., Jotham J., May S. NASCArrays: A repository for Microarray Data generated by NASC's Transcriptomics Service. Nucleic Acids Research, (2004). volume 32, Database issue D575-D577. PMID: 14681484.

Okyere, J., Sun, G-a., Craigon, D.J., Higgins, J. and May, S.T. (2004). Cross-species Hybridization and Analysis using Affymetrix GeneChip. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 137A (3), S191-S197.

Janciauskiene, S., Minthon, L., Vincic, G., Sun, Y-X., Baker, C., Plummer, S., Okyere, J., May, S., Morgan, K. and Kalsheker, N. (2004) Gene expression profiles of primary human astrocytes exposed to Abeta and ACT/Abeta complexes assessed using a global DNA microarray. Neurobiology of Aging (25), Sup 2, p303-654.

2003

Schrader J, Baba K, May ST, Palme K, Bennett M, Bhalerao RP, Sandberg G. Polar auxin transport in the wood-forming tissues of hybrid aspen is under simultaneous control of developmental and environmental signals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. (2003) Aug 19;100(17):10096-101. Epub 2003 Aug 08. PMID: 12909722

John P. Hammond, Malcolm J. Bennett, Helen C. Bowen, Martin R. Broadley, Dan C. Eastwood, Sean T. May, Clive Rahn, Ranjan Swarup, Kathryn E. Woolaway, and Philip J. White (2003). Changes in Gene Expression in Arabidopsis Shoots during Phosphate Starvation and the Potential for Developing Smart Plants. Plant Physiology, Vol. 132, pp. 1.19. PMID: 12805589

Fiona R. Hay, Andrew Mead, Kirstine Manger and Fiona J. Wilson. (2003) One-step analysis of seed storage data and the longevity of Arabidopsis thaliana seeds. J. Exp Bot. 54: 384, pp993-1011 (NASC publication)

DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erg103. PMID: 12598570. May, S. (2003) NASC Affymetrix service and Data services. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A 134 (2003) S1.

2002

Chapter: Analysis of Medicago truncatula Aux1-Like Genes, Encoding Putative Auxin Influx Carriers: Are they Involved in Rhizobium-Induced Nodule Organogenesis? Nitrogen Fixation: From Molecules to Crop Productivity Volume 38 of the series Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture pp 263-263. Francoise de Billy, Cathy Grosjean, Sean May, Malcolm J. Bennett, Julie V. Cullimore.

Deeken R, Geiger D, Fromm J, Koroleva O, Ache P, Langenfeld-Heyser R, Sauer N, May S, Hedrich R (2002) Loss of the AKT2/3 potassium channel affects sugar loading into the phloem of Arabidopsis. Planta 216:334-344.

Michael Beale, Paul Dupree, Kathryn Lilley, Jim Beynon, Martin Trick, Jonathan Clarke, Michael Bevan, Ian Bancroft, Jonathan Jones, Sean May et al.(2002), GARNet, the Genomic Arabidopsis Resource Network, Trends in Plant Science, Volume 7, Issue 4, 1 April 2002, Pages 145-147.

Molecular Biotechnology (2002) 20, 209-221. Finding Your knockout. May, S.T., Clements, D., Bennett, M.J.

D. Craigon, L. Daugherty, P. Dennis, G. Gill, C. Hall, J. Higgins, E. Humphries, J. Jotham, J. Okyere, G.-an Sun, M. Topham, L. Zhang and S. May (2002) Standards in arraying. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology Volume 132, Supplement 1 , April 2002, Pages S139-S141.

Online: Genomics Meets Grid Meeting. Paper presented.

2001

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation (2001) 20, 217-225. Quick on the uptake: characterization of a family of plant auxin influx carriers. Parry,G., Marchant,A., May,S., Swarup,R., Swarup,K., James,N., Graham,N.S., Allen,T., Martucci,T., Yemm,A., Napier,R., Manning,K., King,G. and Bennett,M.J.

J. Kincaid, K. Bradnam, K. Searle, P. Dennis, C. Hall, S. Kitchingman and S. May (NASC) DNA arrays as a tool for investigating gene function.

Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. (2001) 14, 267-277. Expression studies on AUX1-like genes in Medicago truncatula suggest that auxin is required at two steps in early nodule development. De Billy, F., Grosjean, C., May, S.T., Bennett, M.J. and Cullimore, J.V.

2000

Sean. T. May, Deborah. Clements & Malcolm. J. Bennett. (2000) Reverse Genetics: Screening plant populations for gene knockouts. In. Plant Hormone Protocols - Methods in Molecular Biology (eds. Gregory A. Tucker & Jeremy A. Roberts) Humana Press.

BBC interview article (Dec 2000). Wild Weedy and Famous: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1070301.stm

Scholl RL, May ST, Ware DH. (2000) Seed and molecular resources for Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 124(4):1477-80

Bradnam K, May S. (2000) Website update: The UK Crop Plant Bioinformatics Network (UK CropNet). Yeast. 17(4):335-8.

Jo Dicks, Mary Anderson, Linda Cardle, Sam Cartinhour, Matthew Couchman, Guy Davenport, Jeremy Dickson, Mike Gale, David Marshall, Sean May, Hamish McWilliam, Andrew O Malia, Helen Ougham, Martin Trick, Sean Walsh, and Robbie Waugh. (2000) UK CropNet: a collection of databases and bioinformatics resources for crop plant genomics Nucleic Acids Res. 28: 104-107.

pre-2000

EMBO J 1999 Apr 15;18(8):2066-2073. AUX1 regulates root gravitropism in Arabidopsis by facilitating auxin uptake within root apical tissues: A. Marchant,J. Kargul, S.T. May, P. Muller, A. Delbarre, C. Perrot-Rechenmann, M.J. Bennett.

May S. (1999) Carrot brains NEW SCI 164 (2208): U1-U1 OCT 16

Plant J. 1998 Sep;15(6):843-51. Cell marking in A. thaliana and its application to patch-clamp studies: 15(6), 843-851. May S.T*., Maathuis F.J.M*., Graham N.S., Bowen H.C., Jellito T.C., Trimmer P., Bennett M.J., Sanders D., White P.J. *joint first authorship.

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. (1998) Sep 29;353(1374):1511-5. Going the distance with auxin: unravelling the molecular basis of auxin transport. Bennett MJ, Marchant A, May ST, Swarup R.

Laboratory News (1998) Latin studies of plant architecture. Sean May.

Science 1996 Aug 16;273(5277):948-50. Arabidopsis AUX1 gene: a permease-like regulator of root gravitropism. Bennett MJ, Marchant A, Green HG, May ST, Ward SP, Millner PA, Walker AR, Schulz B, Feldmann KA

Peptides. (1995) 16(1):95-104. Cellular colocalization of diuretic peptides in locusts: a potent control mechanism. Thompson KS, Rayne RC, Gibbon CR, May ST, Patel M, Coast GM, Bacon JP.

Online: Protocol**. Drosophila brain dissection (one of the first web publications in science - Dec 21st 1993).
Diagram

Online: Protocol**. Drosophila wholemount dissection (one of the first web publications in science - Dec 21st 1993).
Photomicrograph

The index at flybase captured by the Wayback Machine (because Flybase mislaid it *sigh*).

Also, a video of the procedure was made at the time and uploaded to YouTube in 2009.

**Summarised in May.S.T. and O'Kane. C.-.Neurogenetics (1993) 8 (4); 237-238

J Comp Physiol [A]. (1991) May;168(5):605-17 The vasopressin-like immunoreactive (VPLI) neurons of the locust, Locusta migratoria. I. Anatomy. Thompson KS, Tyrer NM, May ST, Bacon JP.

Thesis: Arthropod homologues of vasopressin. (1991) Sean Tobias May, Degree: D. Phil, Supervisor: Jonathan P. Bacon, University of Sussex. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2883.0565

Patents:

  • Method of using transactivation proteins to control gene expression in transgenic plants - Bennett, May & Ramsay - GB patent 9502456.8 ; US patents: US6127606; US5801027. [link]
  • Plant gene (encompassing all Aux-1 family sequences within higher plants) - Bennett, May & Marchant - GB patent 9523153.6
  • Cross-species Microarrays - WO2005093630

Public media appearances (live, newspaper & radio)

NASC publications prior to 1999

Arabidopsis. Annual Plant Reviews, Vol 1 (1998) eds Mary Anderson and Jeremy A. Roberts Sheffield Academic Press pp.407

Walsh, S., Anderson, M.L. and Cartinhour, S.W (1998) ACEDB a database for genome information. In Bioinformatics: A practical guide to the analysis of genes and proteins. (eds. F. Ouelette and A. Baxevanis) John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York pp. 299-318

Anderson, M. and Cartinhour, S. (1997) Internet resources for the biologist. In Biotechnology and Plant Genetic Resources eds J.A. Callow, B.V. Ford Lloyd and H.J. Newbury. p281-300 CABI International.

Anderson, M. (1997) Control of pests and diseases in Arabidopsis In Arabidopsis Protocols eds J. M. Martinez-Zapater and J. Salinas p19-26 Humana Press.

Mulligan, B and Anderson, M. (1995) Arabidopsis thaliana: a versatile plant for teaching and research projects in genetics and plant biology. Journal of Biological Education 29 , 259-269.

Related Web sites

Personal

Member of the UK Plant Genetic Resources Group.
MASC Co-Director & committee member (Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee).