Edward Coe, Jr.  PI and Co-Director  CoeE@missouri.edu  (573) 882-2768

Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS,  and Professor of Agronomy 210 Curtis Hall Department of Agronomy University of Missouri -- Columbia Columbia, MO 65211-7020

Ph.D., Botany, University of Illinois, 1954; M.S., Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, 1951; B.S., Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, 1949
Experience: 1954-1955 Research Fellow in Biological Sciences, California Inst. Tech.; 1955-date Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS, Columbia, MO.; 1959-1964 Associate Professor of Field Crops, Univ. of Missouri; 1964-date Professor of Agronomy, Univ. of Missouri; 1977-1991 Research Leader, Plant Genetics Res. Unit, USDA-ARS.
Program Goals: Genetic mechanisms of maize and systems of control of plant development; Compile, summarize and interrelate genetic and genome information on maize, its relatives, and related species; Develop and establish continuity for a national-resource database for maize genetics, mapping, and the maize genome.
Membership in Professional Societies: Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Amer. Genetic Assoc., Bot. Soc. Amer., Crop Sci. Soc. Amer., Genetics Soc. Amer., Internat. Soc. Plant Molec. Biol.
Offices, Professional Service, and Activities: Editor, Maize Genetics Cooperation News Letter, 1975 to date; President, American Genetic Association, 1994.
Honors and Awards: Fellow, Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1963; Hill Visiting Professor, Univ. of Minnesota, September-October, 1983; Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal, Genetics Soc. Amer., 1992; Fellow, Crop Science Society of America, 1993; Area Senior Scientist of the Year, ARS-USDA, 1995.
 

Toward increasing the resource of basic knowledge about plants, Coe's laboratory examines the many sorts of mutants that occur in maize, and the underlying basis for their visible effects. In mutants, failure of the 'normal' event at the 'normal' time is sometimes lethal, sometimes simply abnormal, sometimes striking and intensely informative. The cause for mutant changes is studied by genetic analysis, by mapping, by characterization of mutant expressions, and by concurrent mapping with clones for biochemically defined functions. A central aspect of the role of any gene is its developmental timing. When the corn seed begins its growth, part of the few hundred embryo cells are already committed in their destiny, and the remaining commitments occur entirely in the first 2 to 3 weeks, progressing into the fully elaborated corn plant. In this progression, key genes (of perhaps 50,000 genes in corn) are called upon to function in the appropriate cells at the appropriate times (productivity itself can be much influenced by the harmony among these signals). Understanding of such events and such functions is aided by developmental and anatomical studies, by biochemical analysis, and by analysis of inheritance (including mapping concurrently with clones for biochemically defined functions), in progress on a comprehensive scale. As tools and resources increase for improvement of this major crop plant, new questions arise and new answers are discovered; effective access and use of this information calls for compiling and systematizing of genetic and molecular information. The Maize Genome Database, a pioneering Internet resource, is a major effort by this group, and contributes to the worldwide community's research capability.
aka: Prof. Ligate