E-mail:
Professor, Rice University
Chair, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
B.S., Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1980
Ph.D., Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Sloan-Kettering Division, NY, 1985
Postdoc, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 1985-86
Postdoc, Stanford University, CA, 1986-90
Molecular and developmental responses of plants to environmental stresses
How plants perceive and respond to diverse environmental stimuli is critical for survival and reproduction, especially because of the inability of plants to relocate to less stressful surroundings. We use genetic, biochemical and cell biological approaches to elucidate how plants sense dynamic features of their environment, including daily rhythms, temperature and light changes, mechanical forces, fungal pathogens, and insect herbivores and react in ways to tolerate or acclimate to their environment. These fundamental plant cell biological and physiological responses reveal the complexity of plant homeostatic mechanisms and the evolved physiological plasticity that facilitate plant coping with diverse and dynamic environmental stress.
Selected Publications
Iliev E, Xu W, Polisensky DH, Oh M-H, Torisky RS, Clouse SD, Braam J (2002) Transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of Arabidopsis TCH4 expression by diverse stimuli: roles of cis regions and brassinosteroids. Plant Physiology 130:770-783.
Lee D, Polisensky DH, Braam J (2005) Genome-wide identification of touch- and darkness-regulated Arabidopsis genes: a focus on calmodulin-like and XTH genes. New Phytologist 165:429-444.
Delk NA, Johnson KA, Chowdhury NI, Braam J (2005) CML24, regulated in expression by diverse stimuli, encodes a potential Ca2+ sensor that functions in responses to abscisic acid, daylength, and ion stress. Plant Physiology 139:240-253.
Becnel J, Natarajan M, Kipp A, Braam J (2006) Developmental expression patterns of Arabidopsis XTH genes reported by transgenes and Genevestigator. Plant Molecular Biology 61:451-467.
Chehab EW, Eich E, Braam J (2009) Thigmomorphogenesis: a complex plant response to mechano-stimulation. Journal of Experimental Botany 60:43-56.
Ji J, Braam J (2010) Restriction site extension PCR: a novel method for high-throughput characterization of tagged DNA fragments and genome walking. PLoS One 5:e10577.
Van Ree K, Gehl B, Chehab EW, Tsai YC, Braam J (2011) Nitric oxide accumulation in Arabidopsis is independent of NOA1 in the presence of sucrose. Plant Journal 68:225-233.
Chehab EW, Kim S, Savchenko T, Kliebenstein D, Dehesh K, Braam J (2011) Intronic T-DNA insertion renders Arabidopsis opr3 a conditional jasmonic acid-producing mutant. Plant Physiology 156:770-778.
Chehab EW, Yao C, Henderson Z, Kim S, Braam J (2012) Arabidopsis touch-induced morphogenesis is jasmonate mediated and protects against pests. Current Biology 22:701-706.
Tsai YC, Koo Y, Delk NA, Gehl B, Braam J (2013) Calmodulin-related CML24 interacts with ATG4b and affects autophagy progression in Arabidopsis. Plant Journal 73:325-335.
Contact Information
Janet Braam, Ph.D.
Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Rice University
W-200P George R. Brown Hall
6100 S. Main
Houston, Texas 77005-1892, U.S.A.
Lab Website
Tel: (713) 348-5287 and 348-4015
Fax: (713) 348-5154
E-mail: