University of Florida Homepage
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Biology
Make a Gift
Make a Gift

George E Bowes

gbowesEmeritus Professor

Ph.D. University of London, U.K., 1967

209 Rolfs Hall
(352) 392-7919

Research Interests

My Photosynthesis Research Laboratory investigates photosynthesis and photorespiration, predominantly the regulation of carbon assimilation. The research has facets which range from the molecular and biochemical to ecophysiological, and agricultural concerns. Areas I am actively involved with include: global climate changes; CO2 concentrating mechanisms in photoautotrophs; the biochemistry, physiology and molecular biology of novel C4 photosynthetic systems; regulation of the primary carboxylase enzymes in plants; and the ecophysiology of aquatic plants, including the management of weed species.

My earlier discoveries with WL Ogren that Rubisco is inhibited by O2, and acts as an oxygenase in photorespiration, and that PEPC is not inhibited by O2, opened up a new avenue of research in photosynthesis. They gave a biochemical basis for the major difference between C3 and C4 plants. In the 1980s my laboratory reported on the first C4 photosynthetic system that uniquely operates without Kranz anatomy. In the 1990s we discovered the most primitive C4-type system described to date, in a marine macroalga. Since 1980 we have been investigating the potential effects of global climate change, including elevated [CO2] and temperatures, on plants, especially crop species. I have written several major reviews on this topic.

Representative Publications

  • Vu JCV, Allen LH Jr, Bowes G. 1987. Drought stress and elevated CO2 effects on soybean ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase activity and canopy photosynthetic rates. Plant Physiology, 83:573-578
  • Holbrook GP, Beer S, Spencer WE, Reiskind JB, Davis S, Bowes G. 1988. Photosynthesis in marine macroalgae: evidence for carbon limitation. Canadian Journal of Botany, 66:577-582
  • Salvucci ME, Holbrook GP, Anderson JC, Bowes G. 1988. NADPH-dependent metabolism of the ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase inhibitor 2-carboxyarabinitol 1-phosphate by a chloroplast protein. FEBS Letters, 231:197-201
  • Reiskind JB, Seamon PT, Bowes G. 1988. Alternative methods of photosynthetic carbon assimilation in marine macroalgae. Plant Physiology, 87:686-692
  • Reiskind JB, Berg RH, Salvucci ME, Bowes G. 1989. Immunogold localization of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in aquatic and C3-C4 intermediate plants. Plant Science, 61:43-52
  • Holbrook GP, Bowes G, Salvucci ME. 1989. Degradation of 2-carboxyarabinitol 1-phosphate by a specific chloroplast phosphatase. Plant Physiology, 90:673-678
  • Reiskind J, Bowes G. 1991. The role of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in a marine macroalga with C4-like photosynthetic characteristics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 88: 2883-2887
  • Israel A, Beer S, Bowes G. 1991. Photosynthetic carbon acquisition in the red alga Gracilaria conferta. I. Gas exchange properties and the fixation pathway. Marine Biology, 110:195-198
  • Rowland-Bamford AJ, Baker JT, Allen LH Jr, Bowes G. 1991. Acclimation of rice to changing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Plant, Cell and Environment, 14: 577-583
  • Bowes G. 1991. Growth in elevated CO2: photosynthetic responses mediated through rubisco. Plant, Cell and Environment, 14: 795-806 (invited review)
  • Bowes G. 1993. Facing the Inevitable: Plants and Increasing Atmospheric CO2. Annual Reviews of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology, 44: 309-332 (invited review)
  • Giordano M, Davis JS, Bowes G. 1994. Organic carbon release by Dunaliella salina under different growth conditions of CO2, nitrogen, and salinity. Journal of Phycology, 30: 249-257
  • Holbrook GP, Campbell WJ, Rowland-Bamford A, and Bowes, G. 1994. Intra-specific variation in the light/dark modulation of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase activity in soy-bean. Journal of Experimental Botany, 45: 1119-1126
  • Madsen TV, Maberly SC, Bowes G. 1996. Photosynthetic acclimation of submersed angio-sperms to CO2 and HCO3-. Aquatic Botany, 53: 15-30
  • Bowes G. 1996. Photosynthetic responses to changing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. In: Baker NR (ed) Photosynthesis and the Environment. Advances in Photosynthesis Series, Vol 5. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands. Pp 387-407 (invited review)
  • Vu JVC, Allen LH Jr, Boote KJ, Bowes G. 1997. Effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on photosynthesis and rubisco in rice and soybean. Plant, Cell and Environment, 20: 68-76
  • Reiskind JB, Madsen TV, van Ginkel LC, Bowes G. 1997. Evidence that inducible C4-type photosynthesis is a chloroplastic CO2 concentrating mechanism in Hydrilla, a submersed monocot. Plant, Cell and Environment, 20: 211-220
  • Giordano M, Bowes G. 1997. Gas exchange and C allocation in Dunaliella salina cells in response to the N source and CO2 concentration used for growth. Plant Physiology, 115: 1049-1056.
  • Magnin NC, Cooley BA, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 1997. Regulation and localization of key enzymes during the induction of Kranz-less, C4-type photosynthesis in Hydrilla verticillata. Plant Physiology, 115: 1681-1689
  • Vu JCV, Baker JT, Pennanen AH, Allen LH Jr, Boote KJ, Bowes G. 1997. Elevated CO2 and water deficit effects on photosynthesis, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase, and carbohydrate metabolism in rice. Physiologia Plantarum, 103: 327-339
  • Gesch RW, Boote KJ, Vu JCV, Allen LH Jr, Bowes G. 1998. Changes in growth CO2 result in rapid adjustments of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase small subunit gene expression in expanding and mature leaves of rice. Plant Physiology, 118: 521-530
  • Vu JCV, Gesch, RW, Allen LH Jr, Boote KJ, Bowes G. 1999. CO2 enrichment delays a rapid, drought-induced decrease in rubisco small subunit transcript abundance. Journal of Plant Physiology, 155: 139-142.
  • Hussain MW, Allen, LH Jr, Bowes G. 1999. Up-regulation of sucrose phosphate synthase in rice grown under elevated CO2 and temperature. Photosynthesis Research, 60: 199-208.
  • Van Ginkel LC, Bowes G, Reiskind JB, Prins HBA. 2001. A CO2 flux mechanism operating via pH polarity in Hydrilla verticillata plants with C3 and C4 -type photosynthesis. Photosynthesis Research 68: 81-88.
  • Vu JCV, Gesch RW, Pennanen AH, Allen LH, Boote KJ, Bowes G. 2001. Soybean photosynthesis, Rubisco and carbohydrate enzymes function at supraoptimal temperatures in elevated CO2 . Journal of Plant Physiology 158: 295-307.
  • Bowes G, Rao SK, Estavillo GM, Reiskind JB. 2002. C4 mechanisms in aquatic angiosperms: comparisons with terrestrial C4 systems. Functional Plant Biology 29: 379-392 (Invited, refereed review).
  • Rao SK , Magnin NC, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 2002. Photosynthetic and other phospho enol pyruvate carboxylase isoforms in the single-cell, facultative C4 system of Hydrilla verticillata. Plant Physiology 130: 876-886.
  • Gesch RW, Vu JCV, Boote KJ, Allen LH Jr, Bowes G. 2002. Sucrose phosphate synthase activity in mature rice leaves following changes in growth CO2 is unrelated to sucrose pool size. New Phytologist 154: 77-84.
  • Gesch RW, Kang I-H, Gallo-Meagher M, Vu JCV, Boote KJ, Allen, LH Jr, Bowes G. 2003. Rubisco expression in rice leaves is related to genotypic variation of photosynthesis under elevated CO2 and temperature. Plant,Cell & Environment 26: 1941-1950.
  • Gesch RW, Kang I-H, Gallo-Meagher M, Vu JCV, Boote KJ, Allen, LH Jr, Bowes G. 2003. Rubisco expression in rice leaves is related to genotypic variation of photosynthesis under elevated CO2 and temperature. Plant,Cell & Environment 26: 1941-1950.
  • Bowes G, Rao SK, Reiskind JB. 2003. PEPC expression and regulation in a same-cell C4 -system. Plant Physiology Abstract No. 370.
  • Bowes G, Rao SK, Reiskind JB. 2003 . PEPC expression and regulation: studies with a C4 model system for C3 crop transformation. Plant Physiology Abstract No. 18003.
  • Estavillo G, Rao SK, Bowes G. 2003. Characterization of NADP-ME in a C4 system that lacks Kranz anatomy. Plant Physiology Abstract No. 406
  • Bowes G. 2003. “Characterization of NADP-malic enzyme in a unique Kranz-less C4 system”. Annual report submitted to the USDA National Research Initiatives Competitive Grants Photosynthesis and Respiration Program.
  • Bowes G. 2003. “Genotypic Adaptation and Phenotypic Acclimation to Elevated CO2 and Temperature” .US Department of Agriculture, National Research Initiatives Competitive Grants Plant Responses to the Environment Program.
  • Rao VS, Rao SK, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 2004. Carbonic anhydrase isoforms in the C4 CCM of Hydrilla . 13 th International Photosynthesis Congress. Abstract No. 688.
  • Rao SK, Davison NA, Estavillo GM, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 2004.   An upregulated pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase isoform in C4 Hydrilla leaves . Plant Physiology Abstract # 228.
  • Estavillo G, Rao SK, Bowes G. 2004. Activity, expression and localization of NADP-ME isoforms in a C4 system that lacks Kranz anatomy Plant Physiology Abstract No. 229..
  • Rao VS, Rao SK, Reiskind JB, Bowes G. 2004 An isoform of carbonic anhydrase isolated from C4 Hydrilla leaves. Plant Physiology Abstract No. 230.
  • Bowes G. 2004. “ Hydrilla PEPC gene family: expression, metabolite control, and kinetic regulation”. Annual report submitted to the USDA National Research Initiatives Competitive Grants Program.
  • Elzenga JTM, van Ginkel LC, Bowes G. 2004. In Memoriam. Aquatic Botany 78: 1-2.
  • Bowes G, Rao SK, Reiskind JB. 2004. Photosynthetic acclimation of rice to global climate change: will a same-cell C4 system help? International Rice Research Institute, The Philippines.