Hughes Mentor:  Gregory Martin

Department: Boyce Thompson Institute

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A Day in the Life of an Undergraduate in the Martin Lab

I found the Martin Lab using several very useful resources. Through searches on the biology website, perusal of the binders in the Office of Undergraduate Biology and talks with Laurel Southard, I made a list of labs in which I wanted to work. The lab environment is incredibly welcoming and warm, which is part of what drew me to it. As far as undergraduates go, they like people with a basic knowledge of biology and biochemistry, but the most important thing is to have an open mind and to be willing to work hard. Even a person with an extensive biological background will have to go through some amount of retraining and a period of acclimation, and thatís something to keep in mind when considering whether or not to do research.

The system that we use as a model is that of the tomato and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, one of tomatoís bacterial pathogens. Specifically, we are investigating the role that certain Pseudomonas proteins, called effectors, play in causing disease. The system is great for study because the bacteria grow quickly, and the plants that we use are easy to grow and are readily available. We also perform many experiments on a related plant, Nicotiana benthamiana, since it is easier to work with than tomato itself; its leaves are bigger and the plants grow faster. As a result, we do experiments using the plants ñ either tomato or N. benthamiana or both ñ and bacteria nearly every week.

A day in the lab is typically relaxed. People work all day long, but it never seems like theyíre in a hurry. We all work at a pace that fits us best, because thatís what produces good science. We listen to music, we talk, we eat lunch together, and we do science together. Everyone is very helpful and social, but weíre all productive too.

The techniques used in the lab vary greatly; on a given day I find myself doing anything from running a PCR to doing gel electrophoresis, to potting plants in the greenhouse and preparing plasmid DNA. However, the procedures that I use the most are those related to cloning and bacterial culture for experiments on plants. There are also many techniques used in the lab that I do not use myself, such as real time PCR and yeast two-hybrid assays. It all depends on the project, but regardless of what one is doing, there is sure to be a good amount of variety in a day.

I think that anyone would be a good fit for the Martin Lab, so long as s/he is willing to work hard, to learn, and to make mistakes. Even though plants and bacteria are the systems of choice here, the lab is a molecular biology lab and the techniques we use would be useful anywhere. For that reason, undergrads donít need to be plant or microbe-obsessed to be able to work here. All one really needs is a genuine interest in doing good science.

My experiences this summer have taught me a good deal about research and about myself. Research requires patience and creativity. Itís not uncommon to spend an entire day working on an experiment, only to find that something went wrong and that the process has to be repeated. But all of that work is completely worth it when things finally go right and valid results come through. On a day-to-day basis, the work can be tedious and feel unrewarding. After nine weeks of research, though, a look back on everything that has been accomplished brings about a sense of pride.

On a personal level, I have learned that I am a more patient person than I thought, and that I really do like researching. I held a research position once before and, while just as demanding as the work I am doing now, I did not find it to be as enjoyable. The major factor, I think, was the environment of the lab. Here in the Martin Lab, I am given a great deal of freedom when it comes to deciding what to do next with a project, so the project becomes my own very quickly. In many cases, I am expected to be able to work on my own and direct my own day, which makes me feel more independent and more responsible for myself. There are still instances in which I am not sure what I need to do, but there is almost always someone in the lab that can help and steer me on the right path. The essence of it all, I guess, is the need to find a place where you will be happy and comfortable. If those basic criteria are met, everything else will fall into place by itself.

A Day in the Life of the Martin Lab

I found the Martin lab listed among a plethora of other research labs in the Office of Undergraduate Biology website. There it listed the type of research the Martin lab does and the types of questions they strive to answer. I found the research summary exciting and immediately contacted the principal investigator, Dr. Greg Martin. He was very kind and agreed to meet with me and discuss my options.

The Martin lab focuses on plant-pathogen interactions, specifically between tomato plants and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) bacteria. The lab investigates issues ranging from biochemistry, such as the structure of avirulence proteins in the bacteria and how they bind to resistance proteins in the plant, to molecular biology and genetics. Because of the particular techniques used to explore the relationship between tomato and Pst, such as general cloning, protein blots, and a variety of assays, a general background in biochemistry is very helpful. Additionally, due to the plant nature of the lab, a background in botany is useful, but not necessary.

A day in the lab is full of surprises. As with any research lab, new discoveries (good and bad) are made every day, and with them comes the responsibility to learn from them and take the next step in the experiment. My research has taught me to be patient and to take everything one day at a time. It has also taught me the balance between trusting your abilities and knowing when you may have made an error.

As exciting as the research is, all the members of the lab are still able to take breaks from their experiments and talk with each other. Whether it is talk about new discoveries in lab or the music that’s been selected on the iPod, there’s always someone to talk to.

The students who work in this lab should really take pleasure in studying biology and should be prepared to put their share of effort into it. Even though all the graduate students and post-doctorate students enjoy their work immensely, they also take it very seriously. It is expected that the undergraduates feel the same way about their research. Students who work in the lab are also expected to respect other lab members, for example, by making more reagent after it has been used up, keeping public work areas clean, and promoting a friendly environment.

Meet a Cornell Researcher: an interview of Dr. Greg Martin

I sat down with Dr. Martin after he graciously agreed for me to interview him. My thanks go out to Dr. Martin for making himself available for this interview.

Dr. Martin became interested in biology as a boy, in Michigan, where he and his brother tried to identify all the plants in a forest. Later, he worked in a cornfield. To this day, he still enjoys the natural world, especially hiking.

He always wanted to research biology as a career. Initially, he wanted to work in plant breeding. However, after his undergraduate degree, Dr. Martin worked in Malawi for USAID. The disease outbreak there in beans and seeing its effects on the people there caused him to want to study plant pathology. He especially became interested in the molecular mechanisms of plant diseases.

The study of the molecular mechanisms of plant pathology lead directly into his research question:

The tomato is a model to study. He also studies tobacco in his lab, because of its close similarity to tomato. He was able to put plant breeding and its molecular mechanisms together by cloning a resistance gene of the tomato to the pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. Later, his study of how the gene recognizes the plant pathogen was published in Science.


Dr. Martin got his bachelors degree in Agronomy from Michigan State. Then, doing field research in Malawi, he got his masters degree. With his interests in the molecular mechanisms of plant disease, he got his PhD from Michigan State in molecular biology. Now he is both a professor of plant pathology at Cornell and a research scientist at the Boyce Thompson Institute for plant research, a privately funded research institution, first founded in New York City and now located on the Cornell campus.

In Malawi, he collected and studied the seeds a many bean varieties. What he found was there was more genetic diversity of beans in Africa than in South America, even though beans originated in South America. He found that beans, normally self-pollinated in South America, are sometimes cross-pollinated by bees in Africa, resulting in the higher diversity.

Dr. Martin came to Cornell, because Cornell and the Boyce Thompson Institute are the best places to study plant pathogens.

For undergrad researchers interested in his lab, Dr. Martin looks for students that are generally at least sophomores and have solid coursework, such as genetics/biochemistry. More importantly, though, he wants students who have a sincere interest in research. They need dedication, real curiosity, and a feeling that science “gets you up in the morning.”

Approximately 10-20% of the students who do research in his lab go on to medical school after graduation. The majority of the rest go to graduate school, often in projects different from their undergraduate research.

The main advice Dr. Martin had to offer was: Enjoy what you’re doing and then you’ll be successful, and then you’ll like what you’re doing even more.

Thank you very much Dr. Martin!

A Day in the Life of a Hughes Scholar in Martin Lab

Research in Martin Lab focuses on the interaction between tomato and the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. We use this interaction as a model system to study the molecular basis of plant disease resistance and how plants defend themselves from pathogen attack. When a resistant plant recognizes the bacterial pathogen, it mounts a defense known as the hypersensitive response, or HR. My project over the summer involved studying genes in the signal transduction pathway leading to the HR. We had a list of candidate genes thought to be important in the HR pathway and my job was to confirm their role in the HR and position them upstream or downstream from a protein in the pathway called MAP3Ka. I did this using a technique called virus-induced gene silencing, or VIGS for short. VIGS knocks down the mRNA transcripts of a gene in a mechanism similar to RNAi.

My project basically involved silencing each of the candidate genes in plants and seeing which plants became unable to mount an HR. Since silencing is a 4 week process, there wasn’t really a ‘typical day’ in Martin Lab, but here are some of the things I did: One thing you need to silence genes in 300+ plants is to repot a huge number of seedlings! I spent a lot of time in the greenhouse and the growth chamber repotting and taking care of my plants. We use Agrobacterium to introduce the silencing construct to the plants, so before I silenced a plant, I would streak each virus-gene construct on a plate a couple days before I inoculated broths. On days I silenced plants, I’d take the liquid cultures, resuspend them in buffer and use a spectrophotometer to adjust the ODs. Then I infiltrated the plants using a syringe. After 4 weeks of sitting in the growth chamber, the plants are ready and I assayed each silenced plant for its ability to mount an HR, scoring each one according to the strength of the HR elicited.

There is a lot of lag time associated with VIGS just waiting for your plants to grow so when I wasn’t working on plant stuff, I worked on a cloning project with my post-doc mentor in the lab. I did PCR, site-directed mutagenesis, sequencing, mini-preps, digests, gel electrophoresis, ligations, and electroporations. I also learned how to extract and purify protein from plants and how to do a Western blot. There’s always something to do in the lab, like pouring plates, making solutions, reading papers, or learning new techniques. I had an awesome experience working in the Martin Lab. It’s a really fun environment, we play music, and everyone has a great sense of humor. We also had activities outside of lab as a group. In a lab like this one, ten weeks of research go by quicker than you think.

I never thought I’d be working in a plant lab. I’m not even a plant biologist. My first experience in a real lab at Cornell was as a dishwasher in a microbiology lab. After a semester of being a lab assistant, I started doing undergraduate research with one of the grad students. I stayed there for a year, but decided the lab wasn’t a good fit for me. I knew I wanted to do Hughes over the summer, but I wanted to find a lab working on something I was more interested in. I was really apprehensive about finding a new lab on such short notice and I thought the process would be a lot more difficult than it really was. The hardest part was getting started. I emailed a bunch of professors using the Cornell biology website to find faculty and their interests. One of the professors I contacted was Dr. Martin. He was very approachable and I found him helpful, well organized, and easy to talk to. I had previous research experience and I had taken a lot of biology courses like biochemistry, microbiology, and human genetics, but I had never taken a plant course in my life. When looking for a lab, the most important thing is to find something you can get enthusiastic about. It doesn’t matter if it’s a plant pathology lab, Drosophila genetics in bio-tech, or cancer research in the vet school. Find someplace where you like the environment and where you think you’ll be happy, because in any case you’ll still learn the same basic lab techniques and the critical thinking skills it takes to be a scientist. Your time at college is short, and you’ll have plenty of time in graduate school to devote yourself to a single topic. Enjoy these years. Undergraduate research should be a fun experience. J