Sarah Hake Interview
                           TRANSCRIPT
                 [Running time: 4 min. 48 sec]

My name is Sarah Hake. I am the center director at the Plant Gene Expression Center.
We're a center that focuses on fundamental questions in plant biology using genetics
and molecular techniques. 

I study plant development and I focus on corn. The corn is my favorite organism. It's
important in agriculture. The research I do is ask how a corn plant is put together. So,
basically what is the blueprint that lays out how a corn plant grows and develops. And,
so I focus on the architecture of the plant, on the reproductive parts and the leaves.

It all started with a particular mutant called knotted. Knotted was originally found by a
farmer in his cornfield, I think in the 1920s. It makes an odd looking corn plant. The
leaves have what we call knots in them that make it look like a knot of wood. 

 So we isolated the gene behind that trait and found that the gene functions in
meristems and if you're missing this gene the plant barely grows. It might not leave the
seedlings stage. If makes an entirely large plant, you don't have an ear. So, it's a really
fundamentally important gene.

The ear of corn is what is harvested for corn kernels and that ear starts out as a
meristem and I study meristems and so when it's only less than a centimeter big that's
when we really do our studies and if that small, little meristem is big you're going to get
more rows of kernels and if it grows longer you are going to get more kernels as well.
So, it's sort of fundamental developmental biology.
                    
When a farmer grows his corn he's wanting to have high yields. He wants to ... when
you harvest one ear you've got a number of kernels, many kernels on that, maybe a
thousand and the sorts of traits we work with affect how many kernels a farmer gets on
an ear of corn. 

I would venture to say there are maybe 50 labs that actively work on the knotted gene
family now around the world. Whether it's in--not so many in maize pretty much I
cornered the maze market--but rice, arabidopsis other species like tobacco, tomato ...
so every crop there is a group or a few groups working on the knotted-like genes in
other crops. 

The genes are conserved in animals and plants and play very fundamental roles in
plants and animals. The knotted-like proteins in animals specify whether your arm has
the different parts of an arm. 

Our work has mostly involved isolating genes. We start with a trait then we find the
gene and then we study how it works. And it took a long time to clone the first few
genes may be five years for knotted, three years for terminal ear and now a gene can
be cloned, with an undergraduate's help, in less than a year and that's thanks to the
fact that the genome is now sequenced and it's much better annotated and one can
compare all the different cereal genomes: rice, maize, sorghum--the genomes lineup
and, so it's much easier to make advances than it was in the past. 


What I love about my job is doing science, working with scientists and that thrill you get
when you make a discovery. You run a gel and you go in the next morning and you go
"Oh my gosh, there it is," the answer to the question that I've been asking for a long
time.     

I feel incredibly lucky to have the career I have. I have been able to know and work with
many, many students and post-docs and undergraduates all who have become inspired
to work in biology. I've also traveled a lot. It's been an amazing opportunity to see
different parts of the world and meet with scientists all over the scientific community.

As center director I only do it because someone has to do it and doing administrative
work is the least of my pleasures but I feel very strongly about the Plant Gene
Expression Center and so I'm glad to do my part in keeping it running and I hope to
attract new young people to the center so that it's stays a vibrant place which it has
been.

So I hope in my future that I get to continue to make wonderful discoveries. Every day
it's hard to sleep at night because there's something new on the burner that is exciting
to hear about when I come to work.