Allan Caplan

My work deals with the molecular genetics of plants. I am  especially interested in plant defenses against biotic and abiotic challenges. My current research involves identifying novel defenses against plant parasitic nematodes used by previously unstudied species, and investigating whether these defenses can be transferred to crops such as potatoes.

• Garcia, A.-B., de Aleida Engler, J., Iyer, S., Geerts, T., Van Montagu, M., and Caplan, A. 1997. Effects of osmoprotectants upon salt stress in rice. Plant Physiol.115: 159-169.
• Iyer, S. and Caplan, A. 1998. Products of proline catabolism can function as pleiotropic effectors in rice. Plant Physiol. 116: 203-211.
• Garcia, A.-B., de Aleida Engler, J., Claes, B., Villaroel, R., Van Montagu, M., Geerts, T., and Caplan, A. 1998. The expression of the salt-responsive gene salT from rice is regulated by hormonal and developmental cues. Planta 207: 172-180. 
• Noventa-Jordao, M. A. , Couto, R. M. , Goldman, M. H. S. , Aguirre, J., Iyer, S., Caplan, A., Terenzi, H. F., and Goldman G. H. 1999. Catalase activity is necessary for heat-shock recovery in Aspergillus nidulans germlings. Microbiology 145: 3229-3234.
• Cortese, M., Caplan, A., and Crawford, R. 2002. Structural, functional, and evolutionary analysis of moeZ, a gene encoding an enzyme required for the synthesis of the Pseudomonas metabolite, pyridine-2,6-bis(thiocarboxylic acid). BMC Evolutionary Biology 2: 8.
• Sripo T, Phongdara A, Wanapu C, Caplan A.B. 2002. Screening and characterization of aldehyde dehydrogenase gene from Halomonas salina strain AS11. J Biotechnol 95:171-179.
• Wu, X., Li, F., Kolenovsky, A., Caplan, A., Cui, Y, Cutler, A, and Tsang, E.W.T. 2009. A mutant deficient in S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase in Arabidopsis shows defects in root hair development. Botany 87: 1-14.
• Dziedzic, S.A. and Caplan, A.B., 2011. Identification of autophagy genes participating in zinc-induced necrotic cell death in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Autophagy 7: 490-500.
• Dziedzic, S.A. and Caplan, A.B., 2012. Autophagy proteins play cytoprotective and cytocidal roles in leucine starvation induced cell death in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Autophagy 8: 731-738.
• Ouyang, B., Fei, Z., Joung, J.G., Kolenovsky, A., Koh, C., Nowak, J., Caplan, A., Keller, W.A., Cui, Y., Cutler, A.J., Tsang, E.W.T., 2012. Transcriptome profiling and methyl homeostasis of an Arabidopsis mutant deficient in S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase 1 (SAHH1). Plant Molecular Biology 79: 315-331.