About

Georg Jander is an adjunct professor at the School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Biology Section, and a professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI). His research employs genetic and biochemical approaches to study plant-insect interactions and plant amino acid metabolism, primarily using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system. His work focuses on understanding how plants interact with insects and how amino acids are metabolized within plants, contributing to the broader knowledge of plant biology and ecology. He holds a doctorate from Harvard Medical School obtained in 1995 and a Bachelor of Science from Washington University in 1987. His research has led to developments such as a soft robotic device that can inject leaves with sensors and genetic material, and his studies on plant biosynthesis pathways that could inform the development of new drugs. Jander's research is published and accessible through Google Scholar, and he is actively involved in advancing plant science through his work at BTI and his academic collaborations.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Botany
• Ecology
• Biochemistry
• Agronomy
• Evolutionary biology
• Biotechnology

Selected publications

• Persistent field soil legacies of cover crops influence maize quality and resistance to herbivory

  Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · 2026-04-23

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Unlocking the potential of Pseudomonas aeruginosa QS intermediates as antimicrobial synergists against three multidrug-resistant enteric bacteria

  Frontiers in Microbiology · 2026-03-05

  articleOpen access

  Introduction Antimicrobial resistance in the Enterobacteriaceae poses a global health concern by jeopardizing the effectiveness of antibiotics. The scarcity of new antibiotics has prompted increased interest in natural bioactive secondary metabolites derived from microbial sources and their co-action with existing antimicrobials. Methods In this study, we investigated the bioactivity of crude extracts from Pseudomonas aeruginosa MC9 (accession no. MK530186) and evaluated the in-vitro antimicrobial-augmenting efficacy of its quorum sensing (QS) effectors against multidrug-resistant strains of Salmonella Typhi ( S. Typhi-29C), Salmonella Typhimurium ( S. Typhimurium-W20), and Escherichia coli ( E. coli SS1). Mass spectrometry was used to identify secondary metabolites, and combination assays followed by growth curve analysis were performed to assess interaction effects under sub-inhibitory conditions. Results The MC9 extract exhibited inhibition zones of 26±1.5, 24±1, and 19±1.5 mm, with minimum inhibitory concentrations of 16, 32, and 256 mg/mL against S. Typhimurium-W20, S. Typhi-29C, and E. coli-E92, respectively. Mass spectrometric analysis revealed the presence of 5-methyl-1(5H)-phenazinone (pyocyanin), rhamnolipids, 4-hydroxy-2heptylquinoline (PQS), and 2-heptyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-quinolone (HHQ). Notably, pyocyanin and rhamnolipids exhibited significant antimicrobial activities across a concentration range from 0.04 mg/mL to 50 mg/mL, whereas HHQ and PQS showed no anti-Enterobacteriaceae activity up to 5 mg/mL. Combination assays demonstrated that all four QS effectors potentiate the activity of conventional antibiotics. Pyocyanin showed the highest synergistic effect, with a 300% increase in the inhibition zone when combined with sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (23.75/1.25 µg/mL) against S. Typhimurium-W20. Rhamnolipids exhibited a 106% increase in synergy with ceftriaxone (30 μg/mL) against E. coli -SS1, whereas HHQ (10 μg/mL) showed a 257% increase with ampicillin (10 μg/mL) against E. coli -SS1. PQS displayed the highest synergistic effect of 109% with amoxicillin clavulanic acid (30 μg/mL) against E. coli -SS1. Moreover, growth curve analysis revealed a dose-dependent reduction in bacterial growth with sub-inhibitory concentrations of antimicrobials, particularly for the combinations exhibiting the highest synergy across the QS effectors. Discussion These findings demonstrate the potential of the QS effectors in reducing the required dosage of antibiotics against resistant Enterobacteriaceae strains and highlight the need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms for the co-action of antimicrobials and QS mediators.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• In situ foliar augmentation of multiple species for optical phenotyping and bioengineering using soft robotics

  Science Robotics · 2025-06-11 · 4 citations

  article

  Precision agriculture aims to increase crop yield while reducing the use of harmful chemicals, such as pesticides and excess fertilizer, using minimal, tailored interventions. However, these strategies are limited by factors such as sensor quality, which typically relies on visual plant expression, and the manual, destructive nature of many nonvisual measurement methods, including the Scholander pressure bomb. By automating more intimate interactions with foliage in vivo, it would be possible to inject chemical and biological probes that reveal more phenotypes—such as water stress in response to varying environmental conditions and visible gene expression to measure the success of gene engineering applications. To address this, we developed a soft robotic leaf gripper and stamping-injection method to improve foliar delivery of nanoscale synthetic and biological probes. This allows for nondestructive, in situ, multispecies applications. We used two probes: Agrobacterium tumefaciens carrying the RUBY gene as a reporter system for plant transformation and nanoparticle hydrogels for measuring leaf water potential (ψ). Our hourglass-shaped design enabled the gripper to exert higher forces with reduced radial expansion compared with conventional designs, achieving an injection success rate above 91%. Studies on sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.) and cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) showed that our method achieved an average 12-fold increase in infiltration areas, with substantially less leaf damage—3.6% in sunflower and none in cotton—compared with the needle-free syringe method. Enabling long periods of successful in vivo phenotyping on both species after precise and safe foliar delivery underscores the potential of the leaf gripper for robotic plant bioengineering.

  PublisherDOI

• A combination of cry (Cry2Ab) and plant lectin (PTA) genes confers resistance against major sucking and chewing insect pests of cotton

  Molecular Biology Reports · 2025-10-16

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Identification of UDP-dependent glycosyltransferases in the wallflower cardenolide biosynthesis pathway

  Journal of Biological Chemistry · 2025-04-30

  articleOpen access

  value of 7.0 μM for digitoxigenin, while UGT73C45 displayed broader substrate specificity in vitro and could glucosylate diverse steroid and flavonoid substrates. Phylogeny and comparisons of structural models of UGT73C44 and UGT73C45 suggest that the enzymes have divergent active site architectures, which may account for their different substrate specificities. These data report the first plant-derived UGT specific to cardenolides, advancing our understanding of cardenolide biosynthesis and the enzymes that drive specialized metabolite diversity. These findings lay the foundation for future efforts to reconstitute the cardenolide pathway in heterologous systems and design cardenolide analogs with the potential for improved therapeutic properties.

  PublisherDOI

• <i>ZmPP2C45</i> and <i>ZmBELL4</i> suppress maize biochemical defense against insect herbivores

  New Phytologist · 2025-08-25 · 2 citations

  article

  Benzoxazinoids (BZX) are the most abundant defensive metabolites of maize (Zea mays). Genetic fine-tuning of BZX metabolism holds the potential to enhance maize resistance against insect herbivory. Natural variation in BZX abundance has been associated with genetic polymorphism in ZmPP2C45. Here, we demonstrate that ZmPP2C45 encodes a nucleocytoplasmic-localized protein phosphatase 2C. The total BZX content in maize leaves was elevated by more than threefold in Zmpp2c45 knockout lines, whereas overexpression of ZmPP2C45 had no effect. Insect herbivore growth was significantly hampered in the Zmpp2c45 mutants. Expression of BZX biosynthetic (BX) genes was upregulated in a Zmpp2c45 mutant. Comparative phosphoproteomic analyses, protein-protein interaction experiments, and ex situ dephosphorylation activity assays suggested that a homeodomain-containing transcription factor, ZmBELL4, could be a potential target of ZmPP2C45. Dual luciferase assays and transient gene silencing in maize seedlings supported that ZmBELL4 suppressed BX gene expression dependent on its own phosphorylation state and reduced BZX content. Our findings reveal ZmPP2C45 and its putative molecular target, ZmBELL4, as two suppressors of BZX metabolism. These results shed light on a novel regulatory pathway of maize biochemical defense and present ZmPP2C45 as a promising candidate for genetic enhancement of maize insect resistance.

  PublisherDOI

• 2-Oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases contribute to cardenolide biosynthesis in <i>Erysimum cheiranthoides</i> (wormseed wallflower)

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-04-16 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Summary Cardenolide biosynthesis evolved convergently in several plant lineages, including wallflowers ( Erysimum , Brassicaceae). Although the first steps of the biosynthetic pathway, which involve conversion of sterols to pregnane derivatives, have been characterized in Erysimum cheiranthoides and other species, key enzymes that catalyze the 14β- and 21-hydroxylation of the steroid core remained elusive. In this study, we used comparative transcriptomic analysis of different Erysimum species to identify 2-oxoglutarate dependent dioxygenases (2OGDs) that catalyze these reactions in E. cheiranthoides: Erche03g034150 ( CARDENOLIDE METABOLISM 5 ; CARD5 ), which is related to ALKENYL HYDROXYALKYL PRODUCING 1 ( AOP1 ), and Erche01g020322 ( CARDENOLIDE METABOLISM 6; CARD6 ), which arose from a duplication of DIOXYGENASE FOR AUXIN OXIDATION 1 ( DAO1 ). Knockout mutants of both genes are deficient in cardenolide biosynthesis and instead accumulate pathway intermediates. Based on transient expression and activity in Nicotiana benthamiana , and we identified CARD5 as the likely 14β-hydroxylase, and CARD6 as the 21-oxygenase. Finally, enzyme modeling and substrate docking identified key residues that may allow shifts to substrate recognition during neofunctionalization. The results of this research provide new insight into the evolution of cardenolide biosynthesis and have potential practical applications in the engineering of steroid-derived compounds for medical uses.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Success and limitations in adaptation of Fast-TrACC tissue culture-independent transformation in coffee, cotton, and tree tobacco

  PLoS ONE · 2025-05-15

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Plant transformation is a critical process for generating transgenic and genome-edited plants for use in research and agriculture. For most plant species, this process has traditionally involved genomic insertion of DNA in tissue culture and regeneration of transformed plants through hormonal induction. Recently, methods for plant transformation in a tissue culture-independent manner, through the expression of growth regulators, have been published. We attempted to adapt this promising approach to three woody species, coffee (Coffea arabica), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), and tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca), using a combination of Agrobacterium strains, plasmid systems, and different promoters driving the expression of ZmWUS2 and AtIPT, which were originally adapted for this purpose in Nicotiana benthamiana. We found that tree tobacco was amenable to tissue culture-independent transformation but had difficulty developing transgenic seeds. Coffee was not receptive to this transformation method, and cotton was amenable to callus formation but did not exhibit gene insertions in the newly-formed shoots. These limitations are partially technical, such as maize WUS not affecting coffee similarly to other plants, but are in part fundamental setbacks in the use of growth regulators to drive tissue culture-independent transformation. We suggest how these drawbacks can be overcome in the future through the use of inducible or tissue-specific promoters and other means.

  PublisherDOI

• Modification of Non-photochemical Quenching Pathways in the C ₄ Model Plant <i>Setaria viridis</i> Revealed Shared and Unique Photoprotection Mechanisms as Compared to C ₃ Plants

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-01-15 · 3 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Summary Light is essential for photosynthesis; however, excess light can increase the accumulation of photoinhibitory reactive oxygen species that reduce photosynthetic efficiency. Plants have evolved photoprotective non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) pathways to dissipate excess light energy. In tobacco and soybean (C 3 plants), overexpression of three NPQ genes, violaxanthin de-epoxidas e ( V DE), Photosystem II Subunit S ( P sbS), and zeaxanthin epoxidase ( Z EP), hereafter VPZ, resulted in faster NPQ induction and relaxation kinetics, and increased crop yields in field conditions. NPQ is well-studied in C 3 plants; however, NPQ and the translatability of the VPZ approach in C 4 plants is poorly understood. The green foxtail Setaria viridis is an excellent model to study photosynthesis and photoprotection in C 4 plants. To understand the regulation of NPQ and photosynthesis in C 4 plants, we performed transient overexpression in Setaria protoplasts and generated (and employed) stable transgenic Setaria plants overexpressing one of the three Arabidopsis NPQ genes or all three NPQ genes (AtVPZ lines). Overexpressing (OE) AtVDE and AtZEP in Setaria produced similar results as in C 3 plants, with increased or reduced zeaxanthin (thus NPQ), respectively. However, overexpressing AtPsbS appeared to be challenging in Setaria, with largely reduced NPQ in protoplasts and under-represented homozygous AtPsbS-OE lines, potentially due to competitive and tight heterodimerization of AtPsbS and SvPsbS proteins. Furthermore, Setaria AtVPZ lines had increased zeaxanthin, faster NPQ induction, higher NPQ level, but slower NPQ relaxation. Despite this, AtVPZ lines had improved growth as compared to wildtype under several conditions, especially high temperatures, which is not related to the faster relaxation of NPQ but may be attributable to increased zeaxanthin and NPQ in C 4 plants. Our results identified shared and unique characteristics of the NPQ pathway in C 4 model Setaria as compared to C 3 plants and provide insights to improve C 4 crop yields under fluctuating environmental conditions.

  PublisherDOI

• Trade-offs in Defense Allocation: How Soil Legacy Modulates Plant-Herbivore-Predator Dynamics

  Basic and Applied Ecology · 2025-10-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Cover cropping—the practice of cultivating non-cash crops between cash crop cycles—has been found to influence soil quality and suppress weed establishment. Recently, this practice was found to significantly impact pest performance via changes in phytochemistry. Although there is evidence that soil legacies affect plant chemistry, their specific influence on plant defenses and interactions with higher trophic levels remains poorly understood. We hypothesize that different cover crop plants produce distinct soil legacies that can significantly influence the defensive responses of successive plants to insect herbivory—at least in part through changes in plant chemistry—with some legacies promoting stronger direct defenses and others enhancing indirect defenses that rely on natural enemies of herbivores. We examined the effect of distinct cover crops ( Pisum sativum , Raphanus sativus , × Triticosecale , and fallow soils) on both direct and indirect defenses against chewing herbivores in maize. We measured levels of herbivory-induced plant volatile chemicals, the plant toxins benzoxazinoids (BX) in both plants and herbivores, and protease inhibitor levels in maize grown under these cover-crop conditioned soils. Additionally, we conducted choice assays with a putative predator to assess whether soil conditioning influenced predator feeding preferences. Our results revealed that cover crop conditioning altered soil nutrient levels and observed trade-offs in plant defenses. Maize grown in pea-conditioned soils exhibited higher proportions of indole in their volatile blends, enhancing indirect defenses. However, these plants produced lower BX levels, reducing direct defenses. Conversely, plants in fallow-conditioned soils favored direct defenses but had weaker indirect defenses. Predators preferred herbivores from pea-conditioned plants. Interestingly, herbivores on pea-conditioned plants accumulated more BXs despite lower BX levels in these plants. These findings demonstrate that cover crop legacies act as a “programming” tool for plant defense strategy, orchestrating a tradeoff between indirect and direct defenses. By matching cover crop selection to desired defense outcomes, growers can potentially leverage soil legacies to enhance biological control via toxin or natural enemy mediated defense, paving the way for more targeted and sustainable pest management.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• IOS EDGE: Development of genetic and genomic resources for milkweed, Asclepias syriaca and Asclepias curassavica

  NSF · $1.0M · 2017–2021

• A Gas Chromatograph - Mass Spectrometer for Measurement of Plant Metabolites

  NSF · $152k · 2005–2008

• Manipulation of plant defenses by an insect-vectored virus

  NSF · $381k · 2012–2015

• Arabidopsis 2010: Regulation of Branched-Chain Amino Acid Biosynthesis, a Paradigm for Studying Osmotic Stress Responses

  NSF · $599k · 2010–2014

• REU Site: Plant Genome Research

  NSF · $504k · 2014–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Shaoqun Zhou

  Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen

  61 shared

• Zhangjun Fei

  Cornell University

  58 shared

• Martin de Vos

  KeyGene (Netherlands)

  54 shared

• Susan R. Strickler

  Center for Plant Conservation

  51 shared

• Mahdieh Mirzaei

  Ithaca College

  49 shared

• Honglin Feng

  Ithaca College

  49 shared

• Vered Tzin

  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

  43 shared

• Kevin R. Ahern

  Cornell University

  39 shared