Terry Graham retired on Sept. 30, 2012
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Obituary
December 2019 (submitted to Phytopathology News, American Phytopathological Society
Terrence (Terry) L. Graham, professor emeritus at The Ohio State University, passed away on Nov. 29, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. He served on the faculty in Ohio State’s Department of Plant Pathology from 1986 until his retirement in 2012. His research centered on the biochemistry of signal perception and signal transduction in induced plant disease resistance, with much of his work on soybean-Phytophthora and other pathosystems. He helped pioneer the department’s research in the molecular aspects of plant defense, plant metabolic profiling and metabolomics. His research led to a full definition of the remarkable array of defense responses triggered in soybean by a single master elicitor, the cell wall glucan from Phytophthora. He subsequently determined that the establishment of a state of elicitation competence in host cells was a prerequisite for both race-specific and-non-race-specific responses to the elicitor. His research group also discovered that plant allelopathic chemicals condition these defense responses in plants. His expertise in plant natural products chemistry led to collaborations with researchers in pharmacy and veterinary medicine.
Graham was active in teaching and advising. He served as faculty advisor to several graduate and undergraduate students at Ohio State and served on over 50 graduate student advisory committees. He taught Biochemistry of Plant Responses to Infection and co-taught Plant-Microbe Interactions and other undergraduate and graduate level courses. He served as the department’s associate chair (1996-2000) and interim associate chair (2010-2011), and twice served as the graduate studies chair. He also served as Ohio State’s representative to the multi-university Ohio Plant Biotechnology Consortium (2000-2012) and chaired the group in 2000-2002.
Graham earned his B.S. in biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Purdue University. Following two years of postdoctoral research in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin, he worked for several years at The Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri prior to joining Ohio State in 1986. Graham also served on the editorial boards of Phytopathology, Plant Physiology, and Journal of Medicinal Food Chemistry.
Graham was highly respected for his intelligence and in-depth knowledge of plant pathology, biochemistry and analytical techniques, and he will be fondly remembered for being a supportive and kind colleague, mentor and friend. He is survived by his wife, Madge Yang Graham, who is a retired research scientist and was his longtime research collaborator. In his spare time, Terry enjoyed classical music, genealogy research, wildflowers and exotic plants, gardening, photography and collecting fossil and mineral specimens.
Educational Background
- B.S Biochemistry, Summa cum laude, Pennsylvania State University
- M.S. Biochemistry, Purdue University
- Ph.D. Biochemistry, Purdue University
- Post-Doctoral Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin (with Luis Sequeira)
Selected Publications
- Jiye Cheng, Chunhua Yuan, Terrence L. Graham. 2011. Potential defense-related prenylated isoflavones in lactofen-induced soybean. Phytochemistry 72: 875–881.
- Pan L, Sinden MR, Kennedy AH, Chai H, Watson LE, Graham TL, Kinghorn AD. 2009. Bioactive constituents of Helianthus tuberosus (Jerusalem artichoke). Phytochemistry Letters. Vol. 2: 15-18.
- Graham, T. L., Graham, L., and Yu, O. 2008. Book chapter, "Genomics of Soybean Secondary Product Metabolism" in Genetics and Genomics of Soybean. Stacey G, ed. Springer Verlag, NY, pp. 211-242.
- Pan, L., Sinden, M., Kennedy, A., Chai, H., Watson, L., Graham, T. L., and Kinghorn, A. 2008. Bioactive constituents of Helianthus tuberosus (Jerusalem artichoke). Phytochemistry Letters. DOI information: 10.1016/j.phytol.2008.10.003.
- Graham, T. L., Graham, L., Subramanian, S., and Yu, O. 2007. RNAi silencing of genes for elicitation or biosynthesis of 5-deoxyisoflavonoids suppresses race specific resistance and hypersensitive cell death in Phytophthora sojae infected tissues. Plant Physiology 144:728-740.
- Graham, MY, Weidner J, Wheeler K, Pelow ML, Graham TL. 2003. Pathogenesis- Related Protein Gene Activation in Soybean by Wounding and the Phytophthora sojae Cell Wall Glucan Elicitor, Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 63:141-149.
- Landini, S., Graham, M. Y. and Graham, T. L. 2003. Lactofen induces isoflavone accumulation and glyceollin elicitation competency in soybean. Phytochemistry, Special Issue on Metabolomics, 62:865-874.
- Park, D.S., Graham, M. Y., Landini, S. and Graham,T.L. 2002. Induced distal defense potentiation against Phytophthora sojae in soybean. Physiol. Molec. Plant Pathol., 60:293-310.
- Park, D.S., Graham, M. Y. and Graham, T. L. 2001. Identification of soybean elicitation competency factor, CF-1, as the soybean Kunitz trypsin inhibitor. Physiol. Molec. Plant Pathol. 59:265-273.
- Hsieh, M. C. and T. L. Graham. 2001. Partial purification and characterization of a soybean ?-glucosidase with high specific activity for isoflavone conjugates. Phytochemistry 58:995-1005.
- Abbasi, P.A., Graham, M. Y. and Graham, T. L. 2001. Effects of soybean genotype on the glyceollin elicitation competency of cotyledon tissues to Phytophthora sojae glucan elicitors. Physiol. Molec. Plant Pathol. 59:95-105.
Professional Experience
- 1977-1979 Project Leader, Host-Pathogen Project, Monsanto Company
- 1979-1982 Senior Research Group Leader, Stress Biochemistry Group
- 1982-1984 Monsanto Company Science Fellow, Biological Control, Monsanto Company
- 1984-1986 Research Manager, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Monsanto Company
- 1986-1992 Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University
- 1992-2002 Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University
- 1996-2000 Associate Chair, Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University
- 2000-2002 Chairman, The Ohio Plant Biotechnology Consortium
- 2010-2011 Interim Associate Chair, Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University
