Daniel V. Lynch

Photo of Daniel V. Lynch

Philip and Dorothy Schein Professor of Biology, Emeritus

[email protected]
At Williams since 1989

Areas of Expertise

Biochemistry

Scholarship/Creative Work

For all publications, see Daniel Lynch’s PubMed database listing.

  • Cahoon, E.B. and D.V. Lynch. 1991. Analysis of glucocerebrosides of rye leaf and plasma membrane. Plant Physiol. 95:58-68.
  • Lynch, D.V. 1993. Sphingolipids. In: Lipid Metabolism in Plants (TS Moore, ed.) CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 285-308.
  • Lynch, D.V. and S.R. Fairfield. 1993. Sphingolipid long-chain base synthesis in plants. Characterization of serine palmitoyltransferase activity in squash fruit microsomes. Plant Physiol. 103:1421-1429.
  • Crowther, G.J. and D.V. Lynch. 1997. Characterization of sphinganine kinase activity in corn shoot microsomes. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 337:284-290.
  • Lynch, D.V., A.K. Criss, J.L. Lehoczky and V.T. Bui. 1997. Ceramide glucosylation in bean hypocotyl microsomes: evidence that steryl glucoside serves as glucose donor. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 340:311-316.
  • Lynch, D.V. and P.E. Bromley. 1998. The structure and synthesis of inositolphosphorylceramides in plants. In: Advances in Plant Lipid Research (J. Sanchez, E. Cerda-Olmedo and E. Martinez-Force, eds) pp. 406-409. University of Seville Publications, Seville, Spain.
  • Vesper, H., E.M. Schmelz, M.N. Nikolova-Karakashian, D.L. Dillehay, D.V. Lynch and A.H. Merrill, Jr. 1999. Sphingolipids in food and the emerging importance of sphingolipids in nutrition. J. Nutrition 129:1239-1250.
  • Lynch, D.V. 2000. Enzymes of sphingolipid metabolism in plants. Meth. Enz. 311:130-149.
  • Cantatore, J.L., S.M. Murphy and D.V. Lynch. 2000. Compartmentation and topology of glucosylceramide synthesis. Biochem. Soc. Transactions 28 (part 6):750-752.
  • Wright, B.S., J.W. Snow, T.C. O’Brien and D.V. Lynch. 2003. Synthesis of 4-hydroxysphinganine and characterization of sphinganine hydroxylase activity in corn. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 415:184-192.
  • Bromley, P.E., Y.O. Li, S.M. Murphy, C.M. Sumner and D.V. Lynch. 2003. Complex sphingolipid synthesis in plants: characterization of inositolphosphorylceramide synthase activity in bean microsomes. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 417:219-226.
  • Lynch, D.V. and T.M. Dunn. 2004. An introduction to plant sphingolipids and a review of recent advances in understanding their metabolism and function. New Phytologist 161:677-702.
  • Dunn, T.M., D.V. Lynch, L.V. Michaelson and J.A. Napier. 2004. A post-genomic approach to understanding sphingolipid metabolism in higher plants. Annals of Botany 93:483-497.
  • Coursol, S., H. Le Stunff, D.V. Lynch, S. Gilroy, S.M. Assman and S. Spiegel. 2005. Arabidopsis thaliana sphingosine kinase and the effects of phytosphingosine-l-phosphate on stomatal aperture. Plant Physiol. 137:724-737.
  • Tsegaye, Y., C.G. Richardson, J.E. Bravo, B.J. Mulcahy, D.V. Lynch, J. Markham, J. Jaworski, M. Chen, E.B. Cahoon and T.M. Dunn. 2007. Arabidopsis mutants lacking long chain base phosphate lyase are fumonisin-sensitive and accumulate the trihydroxy 18:1 long chain base phosphate. J. Biol. Chem. 282:28195-28206.
  • Boss, W., D.V. Lynch and X. Wang. 2008. Lipid-mediated signaling. In: Annual Plant Reviews, Volume 33: Intracellular Signaling in Plants (Z. Yang, ed.) pp. 202-243. Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford, UK.
  • Wang, W., X. Yang, S. Tangchaiburana, R. Ndeh, J.E. Markham, Y. Tsegaye, T.M. Dunn, G.-L. Wang, M. Bellizzi, J.F. Parsons, D. Morrissey, J.E. Bravo, D.V. Lynch and S. Xiao. 2008. An inositolphosphorylceramide synthase is involved in regulation of plant programmed cell death associated with defense. Plant Cell 20:3163-3179.
  • Lynch, D.V., M. Chen and E.B. Cahoon. 2009. Lipid signaling in Arabidopsis: no sphingosine? No problem! Trends in Plant Science 14:463-466.
  • Lynch, D.V. 2012. Commentary: Evidence that sphingolipid signaling is involved in responding to low temperature. New Phytologist 194: 7-9.
  • Markham, J.E., D.V.Lynch, J.A. Napier, T.M.Dunn and E.B. Cahoon. 2013. Plant sphingolipids: function follows form. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. (in press, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2013.02.009)

Research Interests

Sphingolipids have been demonstrated to play important roles as both membrane components and as signaling molecules in animals and fungi and, most recently, in plants. Complex polar sphingolipids are quantitatively important components of specific plant membranes (especially the plasma membrane) and recent studies implicate particular sphingolipids in plant cell signaling. Previous work in the Lynch lab focused on the network of genes predicted to be involved in sphingolipid metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana. Most recently, we have initiated studies of sphingolipids in the moss Physcomitrella patens. As the first land plants, mosses occupy an evolutionarily important niche. They also have a life cycle and tolerances to abiotic stresses that are different from those of flowering plants. The Physcomitrella genome has been sequenced and reliable methods of altering gene expression using RNA interference have been developed, allowing us to explore the consequences of disrupting specific steps in sphingolipid synthesis on moss growth and behavior.