Jonathan Gershenzon

American biochemist (born 1955)

University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Texas (PhD 1984)

SpouseKimberly FalkChildrenTwo daughtersAwardsGerman National Academy of Sciences LeopoldinaScientific careerFieldsBiochemistry of secondary plant metabolitesInstitutions

Washington State University, Pullman
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena

Jonathan Gershenzon (born 1955) is an American biochemist.

Scientific career

After studying biology as an undergraduate at the University of California in Santa Cruz, Gershenzon received his PhD in botany from the University of Texas in 1984. From 1985 until 1997 he worked as a scientist at the Institute for Biological Chemistry, Washington State University in Pullman. Since 1997 he is a director and scientific member at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, where he heads the department of biochemistry.^[1] He was appointed honorary professor at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 1999. He is married to Kimberly Falk and is the father of Camille and Julia Gershenzon.

Gershenzon studies the biochemistry of secondary plant metabolites, their mode of action on herbivores, the regulation of secondary metabolisms in plants and the evolution of pathways.^[2] Most of the work in his department focuses on two major groups of plant defenses: glucosinolates and terpenoids.

Awards and honors

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, University of Texas, 1978
Robert A. Welch Graduate Fellow, University of Texas, 1981
Haarman and Reimer Lecturer, Washington State University 2000
Duane LeTourneau Lectureship, University of Idaho 2000
Elected Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2012 ^[3]
Elected Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 2021 ^[4]

Selected publications

Scholia has a profile for Jonathan Gershenzon (Q1506580).

Gershenzon, J. (1994). Metabolic costs of terpenoid accumulation in higher-plants. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 20(6), 1281–1328. doi:10.1007/BF02059810
Lambrix, V., Reichelt, M., Mitchell-Olds, T., Kliebenstein, D. J., Gershenzon, J. (2001). The Arabidopsis epithiospecifier protein promotes the hydrolysis of glucosinolates to nitriles and influences Trichoplusia ni herbivory. The Plant Cell, 13(12), 2793–2807. doi:10.1105/tpc.010261
Pichersky, E., Gershenzon, J. (2002). The formation and function of plant volatiles: perfumes for pollinator attraction and defense. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 5(3), 237–243. doi:10.1016/S1369-5266(02)00251-0
Wittstock, U., Agerbirk, N., Stauber, E. J., Olsen, C. E., Hippler, M., Mitchell-Olds, T., Gershenzon, J., Vogel, H. (2004). Successful herbivore attack due to metabolic diversion of a plant chemical defense. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101(14), 4859–4864. doi:10.1073/pnas.0308007101
Dudareva, N., Andersson, S., Orlova, I., Gatto, N., Reichelt, M., Rhodes, D., Boland, W., Gershenzon, J. (2005). The nonmevalonate pathway supports both monoterpene and sesquiterpene formation in snapdragon flowers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(3), 933–938. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407360102
Rasmann, S., Köllner, T. G., Degenhardt, J., Hiltpold, I., Toepfer, S., Kuhlmann, U., Gershenzon, J., Turlings, T. C. J. (2005). Recruitment of entomopathogenic nematodes by insect-damaged maize roots. Nature, 434, 732–737. doi:10.1038/nature03451
Halkier, B. A., Gershenzon, J. (2006). Biology and biochemistry of glucosinolates. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 57, 303–333. doi:10.1146/annurev.arplant.57.032905.105228
Gershenzon, J., Dudareva, N. (2007). The function of terpene natural products in the natural world. Nature Chemical Biology, 3(7), 408–414. doi:10.1038/nchembio.2007.5
Wouters, F.C., Reichelt, M., Glauser, G., Bauer, E., Erb, M., Gershenzon, J., Vassão, D.G. (2014). Reglucosylation of the benzoxazinoid DIMBOA with inversion of stereochemical configuration is a detoxification strategy in lepidopteran herbivores. Angewandte Chemie − International Edition, 53(42), 11320–11324. doi:10.1002/anie.201406643

References

^ MPI for Chemical Ecology Website
^ Production of Mustard Oils: On the Origin of An Enzyme MPG News March 17, 2011
^ AAAS Members Elected as Fellows AAAS News and Notes, Science 30 November 2012
^ Member page at https://www.leopoldina.org, retrieved on October 4, 2021