image: Professor Cathie Martin view more
Credit: John Innes Centre
Professor Cathie Martin FRS MBE has been awarded the prestigious Rank Prize for Nutrition for her globally significant research in making fruit and vegetables more nutritious.
A Group Leader at the John Innes Centre and Professor of plant science at the University of East Anglia (UEA), Professor Martin will formally receive the award for 2022 at a ceremony early next year.
The award recognises those who have made a significant contribution to human and animal nutrition, where their ideas have been carried through to practical applications of benefit to humankind.
Professor Dale Sanders, Director of the John Innes Centre said: “The award of this prestigious prize to Cathie Martin gives wonderful recognition to the enormous impact that Cathie’s work has had in the field metabolic engineering.
“From fundamental discovery to innovative ways of improving human diet, Cathie’s research contributions have been inspirational.”
Professor Martin’s research into plant genetics and metabolism uses plant science tools to improve human diet and health with special emphasis on biofortification and using plant metabolic engineering to enhance foods nutritionally.
Reflecting on the award she said: “I was sitting in my office at home, locked down, but snug with a log fire even though it was April 1st, when I received an amazing email telling me I had been nominated for the Rank Prize. Bursting with excitement, I emailed my husband who replied, ‘Do you know what day it is?’ Fortunately, his cynicism proved unfounded, and receiving the Rank Prize is wonderful recognition that our research might have achieved something worthwhile.” The prize will be formally awarded at an event in London on January 17, 2022. This year will mark the 50th anniversary of Rank Prize, which has been celebrating outstanding scientific breakthroughs since 1972. Founded by Lord J. Arthur Rank, a British industrialist and philanthropist, the Rank Prize is awarded bi-annually in the fields of nutrition and optoelectronics; two areas Lord Rank built businesses upon.
Chair of Rank Prize’s nutrition committee, Professor John C. Mathers said: “Professor Martin’s outstanding research combines fundamental insights into the genetics of metabolic processes in plants and how we can use them to enhance the nutritional composition of human foods. She is a powerful advocate, and practitioner, of plant science for human health. As we tackle the twin challenges of increasing human health and protecting the health of the planet, her research is globally significant.”
Previous John Innes Centre winners of the Rank Prize for Nutrition are Professor Graham Moore who shared the award with Professor Keith Edwards of the University of Bristol in 2018; Professor Mike Gale FRS in 1997, and Professor Mike Bevan FRS in 1987.
Executive Chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Melanie Welham said: “For nearly 40 years, Cathie Martin’s work at the John Innes Centre – which BBSRC is proud to fund – has focused on how plant science can improve human diet and health”.
“Her work on biofortification of fruit and vegetables to help guard against chronic diseases in humans, has had a vast impact. We often hear about ‘super foods’ and ‘super drinks’, yet it is Professor Martin’s work on phenolic compounds that has underpinned these concepts with real science.”
“Cathie is a hugely deserved winner of the Rank Prize for Nutrition and I, along with everyone else at BBSRC, congratulate her on this fantastic recognition of all her achievements.”
Career file – Professor Cathie Martin FRS
Professor Martin’s early research focussed on understanding how plants regulate their flower pigmentation – specifically the biosynthesis and diversity of anthocyanins – the pigments that give plants their characteristic red, purple and blue colours. She identified the key genes that synthesise and regulate anthocyanin biosynthesis in plants, using the genetic model Antirrhinum majus. This allowed her to pinpoint several transcription factors (including members of the MYB class) that coordinate the expression of genes encoding anthocyanin biosynthetic enzymes.
Professor Martin then refocused her research on finding ways to increase the concentrations of these important dietary phytochemicals in edible plant parts – especially in tomatoes. Anthocyanins have been shown to protect against various forms of chronic, diet-related, human diseases. They also promote cardio-metabolic and cognitive health.
By expressing two transcription factors from Antirrhinum in tomato, her team created purple fruits with anthocyanin levels similar to those found in blackberries and blueberries. The fruits’ antioxidant capacity tripled. When these fruits were fed to cancer-susceptible mice, their lifespan increased by up to 30%.
Later research showed that fruit-specific expression of the transcription factor AtMYB12 increased flavonoid biosynthesis to the point where flavonols and hydroxycinnamates composed up to 10% of the fruits’ dry weight. This paved the way for an effective production system for many bioactives and high value nutritional compounds in fruits and vegetables.
In 2014 Professor Martin together with Dr Eugenio Butelli won a BBSRC Most Promising Innovator award for their development of purple tomatoes.
A spin out company Norfolk Plant Sciences, jointly set up by Professor Martin, is awaiting regulatory approval in North America to produce seed from purple GM tomato varieties, initially for home cultivation.
Her group has also produced a genetically modified tomato which contains an affordable source of the Parkinson’s disease drug L-dopa which has potential for use in developing countries.
Professor Martin’s team also studied the Sicilian blood orange – a citrus fruit with naturally high levels of anthocyanins. By examining the mutation involved in anthocyanin accumulation, they were able to explain the reason behind the cold-dependent pigmentation that limits cultivation of blood oranges. This understanding makes it possible to genetically modify other types of orange to produce high levels of fruit-specific anthocyanins in a wide range of growing conditions. This could prove the key to cultivating these fruits in subtropical and tropical regions.
Professor Martin’s recent collaborative research with research groups and individuals in China, focuses on Chinese medicinal plants, particularly those that produce anti-cancer metabolites for complementary therapies.
She was editor-in-chief of The Plant Cell (2008-2014) and is now an associate editor for Molecular Horticulture. She is the Janaki Ammal Chair, 2020 (extended to 2021 because of the pandemic) of the Indian Academy of Science for outstanding women in science. She is a member of EMBO and AAAS, a Fellow of the Royal Society and, in 2014, was awarded an MBE for services to Plant Biotechnology.
Professor Martin joined the John Innes Centre in 1983, to research transposable elements (also known as jumping genes) in Antirrhinum majus (garden snapdragon).
Later she was part of a team that successfully cloned the R locus in pea: this is the gene that determines whether the seed is round or wrinkled and was made famous by Gregor Mendel the founding figure of genetics.
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