Beronda L. Montgomery
Research Interests
Photosynthetic organisms possess the ability to finely tune their growth and developmental responses to changes 
in their ambient environment. The perception of light and the photomorphogenetic changes that occur as a response to light signals are among the most important adaptive responses. Our long-term research interest centers on elucidating the mechanisms utilized by photosynthetic organisms for adapting to changes in their photoenvironment. Biliproteins are light-absorbing pigments involved in both photosynthesis and the regulation of photomorphogenesis in cyanobacteria, algae and plants. In higher plants, the biliprotein phytochromes control many aspects of growth and development from seed germination through senescence. Functional phytochrome photoreceptors depend upon the convergence of two pathways - apoproteins are encoded by nuclear-localized genes, whereas the light-absorbing chromophore is synthesized in plastids (Figure 1).
Although a great deal has been discovered about the roles of individual phytochrome family members and the intracellular signaling mechanisms of phytochromes, our understanding of the distributions and mechanisms of localized pools of phytochrome, which define the sites of phytochrome photoperception and regulate organ-specific light responses within plants, is limited.
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Recent Publications
Jiao Y*, Rosa BA*, Oh S, Montgomery BL, Chen J, Qin W (2012) Detection and Decomposition: Treatment-Induced Cyclic Gene Expression Disruption in High-throughput Time-series Datasets. Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, doi:10.1142/S0219720012710023, in press. (*authors contributed equally)
Whittaker JA, Montgomery BL (2012). Cultivating diversity and competency in STEM: Challenges and remedies for removing virtual barriers to constructing diverse higher education communities of success, The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 10(3): in press.
Pattanaik B, Whitaker MJ, Montgomery BL. (2012) Light quantity affects the regulation of cell shape in Fremyella diplosiphon. Front Microbiol. 3:170. Link to article
Singh SP, Montgomery BL (2012). Reactive oxygen species are involved in the morphology-determining mechanism of Fremyella diplosiphon cells during complementary chromatic adaptation. Microbiology, 158(9): 2235–2245 Link to article
Rosa BA, Jiao Y, Oh S, Montgomery BL, Qin W, Chen J. (2012) Frequency-based time-series gene expression recomposition using PRIISM. BMC Syst Biol. 15;6(1):69. [Epub ahead of print]
Warnasooriya SN, Montgomery BL. (2011) Spatial-specific regulation of root development by phytochromes in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Signal Behav. 6(12):2047-50. Link to article
Pattanaik B, Whitaker MJ, Montgomery BL. (2011) Convergence and divergence of the photoregulation of pigmentation and cellular morphology in Fremyella diplosiphon. Plant Signal Behav. 6(12):2038-41. Link to article
Costigan, SE*, Warnasooriya, SN*, Humphries, BA, Montgomery, BL (2011). Root-Localized Phytochrome Chromophore Synthesis is Required for Photoregulation of Root Elongation and Impacts Root Sensitivity to Jasmonic Acid in Arabidopsis thaliana, Plant Physiol, 157(3): doi:10.1104/pp.111.184689. (*authors contributed equally) Link to article
Pattanaik, B*, Whitaker, MJ*, Montgomery, BL (2011). Regulation of Phycoerythrin Synthesis and Cellular Morphology in Fremyella diplosiphon Green Mutants, Biochem Biophys Res Commun 413(2): 182–188. (*authors contributed equally) Link to article
Oh, S, Montgomery, BL(2011). Identification of Proteins Associated with Spatial-specific Phytochrome-mediated Light Signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Gravit Space Biol, 25(1): 22–32.
http://gravitationalandspacebiology.org/index.php/journal/article/view/527
Singh, SP, Montgomery, BL. (2011) Temporal Responses of Wild-type Pigmentation and RcaE-deficient Strains of Fremyella diplosiphon during Light Transitions, Comm Integr Biol , 4(5): 503–510. Link to article
Warnasooriya, SN, Montgomery, BL (2011). Using Transgenic Modulation of Protein Synthesis and Accumulation to Probe Protein Signaling Networks in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Signal Behav 6(9): 1312–1321. Link to article
Singh, SP, Montgomery, BL (2011). Determining Cell Shape: Adaptive Regulation of Cyanobacterial Cellular Differentiation and Morphology, Trends Microbiol, 19(6): 278–285. Link to article
Warnasooriya, SN, Porter, KJ, Montgomery, BL (2011). Tissue- and Isoform-Specific Phytochrome Regulation of Light-Dependent Anthocyanin Accumulation in Arabidopsis thaliana, Plant Signal Behav, 6(5): 624-631. Link to article
Whitaker, MJ, Pattanaik, B, Montgomery, BL (2011). Characterization of Green Mutants in Fremyella diplosiphon Provides Insight into the Impact of Phycoerythrin Deficiency and Linker Function on Complementary Chromatic Adaptation, Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 404(1): 52–56. Link to article
Montgomery, BL (2011). Using Fremyella diplosiphon for Genetics-Based Laboratory Exercise on Mutant Generation, Phenotypic Characterization and Mutation Analyses. Bioscience Education, 17: no. 17-5. Link to article.
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