Janice Cooke

Research scientist University of Alberta Department of Biological Sciences CW405 Biological Sciences Building Edmonton AB T6G 2E9 Canada Phone : (780) 492-0412 Fax : (780) 492-9234 E-mail : Click here to email Janice Cooke Web page : Click here to access the Web page of Janice Cooke

Research Interests

Janice Cooke is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta.  She began her career in forest tree biology in 1989, and since that time has worked at research institutions in British Columbia, Washington State, Alberta, Florida, and Québec.

Dr. Cooke’s research programme seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms that play important roles in how forest trees respond to environmental cues, and how these responses condition tree growth and adaptation.  Currently, her group is investigating the molecular basis of budset, seasonal nitrogen cycling, and nitrogen resource utilization in forest tree species, including white spruce and poplar.  Budset and seasonal nitrogen cycling are critical adaptations associated with the acquisition of dormancy that enable perennial plants such as forest trees to survive Canada’s winters.  These two processes are also important determinants of growth and yield.  Dr. Cooke’s research aims to characterize cellular and metabolic events that constitute these biological phenomena, and to identify genes that direct these processes.  Her group employs a diverse suite of experimental approaches in these investigations, including genomics, physiology, biochemistry, and classical molecular biology.

Publications

• Pavy, N., Paule, C., Parsons, L., Crow, J.A., Morency, M.-J., Cooke, J., Johnson, J.E., Noumen, E., Guillet-Claude, C., Butterfield, Y., Barber, S., Yang, G., Liu, J., Stott, J., Kirkpatrick, R., Siddiqui, A., Holt, R., Marra, M., Seguin, A., Retzel, E., Bousquet, J., and MacKay, J. 2005. Generation, annotation, analysis and database integration of 16,500 white spruce EST clusters. BMC Genomics. 6: 144.
• Cooke, J.E.K., Martin, T.A., and Davis, J.M. 2005. Short term physiological and developmental responses to nitrogen availability in hybrid poplar.  New Phytologist 167: 41-52.
• Cooke, J.E.K. and Weih, M. 2005. Nitrogen storage and seasonal nitrogen cycling in Populus: bridging molecular physiology and ecophysiology. New Phytologist. 167: 19-30.
• Tarca, A.L., Cooke, J.E.K., and Mackay J.  2005.  Robust neural networks approach for spatial and intensity dependent normalization of cDNA microarray data.  Bioinformatics 21: 2674-2683.
• Cooke, J.E.K., Morse, A.M., and Davis, J.M.  2004.  Forestry.  In: Handbook of Plant Biotechnology.  H. Klee and P. Cristou, eds.  Wiley, Sussex.  pp. 881-904.
• Morse, A.M., Cooke, J.E.K., and Davis, J.M.  2004.  Functional genomics in forest trees.  Chapter 1 in: Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Forest Trees.  S. Kumar and M. Fladung, eds.  Haworth Press, New York.  450 pp. 
• Klimaszewska,^, K., Morency, F., Jones-Overton, C., and Cooke, J. 2004. Accumulation pattern and identification of seed storage proteins in zygotic embryos of Pinus strobus L. and in somatic embryos from different maturation treatments.  Physiol. Plant. 121: 682-690.
• Cooke, J.E.K., Brown, K.A., Wu, R. and Davis, J.M.  2003.  Gene expression associated with nitrogen-induced shifts in allocation in poplar.  Plant Cell Environ., 26: 757-770.
• Cooke, J.E.K., Cooke, B.J., and Gifford, D.J.  2002.  Loblolly pine seed dormancy: constraints to germination.  New Forests 23: 239-256.
• Davis, J.M., Wu, H., Cooke, J.E.K., Reed, M.J., Luce, K.S., and Michler, C.H.  2002.  Pathogen challenge, salicylic acid and jasmonic acid regulate expression of chitinase gene homologs in pine.  Mol. Plant Microbe Interactions 15: 380-387.
• Todd, C.D.¹, Cooke, J.E.K.¹, and Gifford, D.J.  2001.  Purification and properties of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) arginase from germinated seedlings.  Plant Physiol. Biochem. 39: 1037-1045.  ¹These authors contributed equally to this manuscript.
• Lawrence, S.D., Cooke, J.E.K., Greenwood, J.S., Korhnak, T.E., and Davis, J.M.  2001.  Vegetative storage protein expression during terminal bud formation in poplar.  Can. J. For. Res. 31: 1098-1103.
• Todd, C.D., Cooke, J.E.K., Mullen, R.T., and Gifford, D.J.  2001.  Regulation of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) arginase during germination and post-germinative growth.  Plant Mol. Biol. 45: 555-565.