Dr. Norman Huner

Dr. N. Huner, Professor Plant Sciences, University of Western Ontario, pioneered the role of excitation pressure as an environmentally modulated signal in higher plants, green algae and cyanobacteria which regulates the expression of photosynthetic genes as well as controls plant and cell development. He also established that the novel thylakoid membrane fatty acid, 3-transhexadecenoic acid, was specifically required to stabilize the major, photosynthetic, light harvesting pigment-protein complex of higher plants. N. Huner's research has led to the discovery of specific physiological and biochemical markers important in environmental plant stress physiology particularly useful for predicting freezing tolerance in crops.