Abstract
We present here a Tribute to Klaus Apel (1942–2017), a photosynthesis pioneer—an authority on plant molecular genetics—in five parts. The first section is a prologue. The second section deals with a chronological discussion of Apel’s research life, prepared by the editor Govindjee; it is based on a website article at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) by Patricia Waldron (https://btiscience.org/explore-bti/news/post/bti-says-goodbye-klaus-apel/), as approved for use here by Keith C. Hannon and David Stern of BTI. The third section, which focuses on Apel’s pioneering work on singlet oxygen-mediated EXECUTER-dependent signaling in plants, is written by two of us (J-DR and CK). The fourth section includes three selected reminiscences, one from BTI and two from ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule). This tribute ends with section five, which is a very brief presentation of Klaus Apel’s personal life, by Wiebke Apel.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Source https://btiscience.org/explore-bti/news/post/bti-says-goodbye-klaus-apel/, reproduced with permission
Notes
As is normal in most universities for someone in an administrative position, Klaus was assigned a secretary; later, Klaus recalled: “I had never had a secretary, so I was asking myself, “What am I going to do with a secretary? This takes away a lot of my time just making sure the secretary has something to do”. Several other faculty members realized that Klaus was an inexperienced manager, and gave his secretary additional tasks to do. However, later, when Klaus had much administrative work, he had to stop this since he needed his secretary to help with his increasing work load.
References
Apel K (1979) Phytochrome-induced appearance of mRNA activity for the apoprotein of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein of barley (Hordeum vulgare). Eur J Biochem 97:183–188
Apel K, Bogorad L (1976) Light-induced increase in the activity of maize plastid DNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Eur J Biochem 67:615–620
Apel K, Schweiger HG (1972) Nuclear dependency of chloroplast proteins in Acetabularia. Eur J Biochem 25:229–238
Apel K, Schweiger HG (1973) Sites of synthesis of chloroplast-membrane proteins. Evidence for three types of ribosomes engaged in chloroplast-protein synthesis. Eur J Biochem 38:373–383
Becker W, Apel K (1993) Differences in gene expression between natural and artificially induced leaf senescence. Planta 189:74–79
Bohlmann H, Clausen S, Behnke S, Giese H, Hiller C, Reimann-Philipp U, Schrader G, Barkholt V, Apel K (1988) Leaf-specific thionins of barley-a novel class of cell wall proteins toxic to plant-pathogenic fungi and possibly involved in the defence mechanism of plants. EMBO J 7:1559–1565
Gollmer I, Apel K (1983) The phytochrome-controlled accumulation of mRNA sequences encoding the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Eur J Biochem 133:309–313
Kim C, Meskauskiene R, Zhang S, Lee KP, Lakshmanan Ashok M, Blajecka K, Herrfurth C, Feussner I, Apel K (2012) Chloroplasts of Arabidopsis are the source and a primary target of a plant-specific programmed cell death signaling pathway. Plant Cell 24:3026–3039
Melzer S, Kampmann G, Chandler J, Apel K (1999) FPF1 modulates the competence to flowering in Arabidopsis. Plant J 18:395–405
Meskauskiene R, Nater M, Goslings D, Kessler F, op den Camp R, Apel K (2001) FLU: a negative regulator of chlorophyll biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:12826–12831
Mosinger E, Batschauer A, Schafer E, Apel K (1985) Phytochrome control of in vitro transcription of specific genes in isolated nuclei from barley (Hordeum vulgare). Eur J Biochem 147:137–142
Wagner D, Przybyla D, Op den Camp R, Kim C, Landgraf F, Lee KP, Wursch M, Laloi C, Nater M, Hideg E et al (2004) The genetic basis of singlet oxygen-induced stress responses of Arabidopsis thaliana. Science 306:1183–1185
Wang L, Kim C, Xu X, Piskurewicz U, Dogra V, Singh S, Mahler H, Apel K (2016) Singlet oxygen- and EXECUTER1-mediated signaling is initiated in grana margins and depends on the protease FtsH2. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 113:E3792-3800
Zhang S, Apel K, Kim C (2014) Singlet oxygen-mediated and EXECUTER-dependent signalling and acclimation of Arabidopsis thaliana exposed to light stress. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 369:20130227
Acknowledgements
We thank Govindjee for taking the initiative for this tribute, for preparing the section on chronological development of Klaus’ research life., and for editing this Tribute meticulously. We also thank Keith C. Hannon and David Stern of the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for the use of the material from the BTI web site. Further, we are grateful to David Stern (of BTI), Wilhelm Gruissem (of ETH) and Nikolaus Amrhein for accepting Govindjee’s invitation and providing their reminescences.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Invited and edited by Govindjee, the outgoing editor of the History & Biography section of Photosynthesis Research. He is thankful to Marissa Zuckermann and Keith C. Hannon (of Boyce Thompson Institute, BTI, Cornell) for help in finalizing the second section of this Tribute. He is grateful to David Stern, Wilhelm Gruissem and Nikolaus Amrhein for sending him their reminescences. The accepted copy of this Tribute was approved for publication by Terry Bricker, Chief Editor of Photosynthesis Research.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rochaix, JD., Kim, C. & Apel, W. Klaus Apel (1942–2017): a pioneer of photosynthesis research. Photosynth Res 137, 153–159 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-018-0488-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-018-0488-x