OBITUARIES

Dmitry Belostotsky

Dmitry Belostotsky

Dmitry Belostotsky died March 17, 2009. He had been an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) since 2007. At the age of 44 and in the midst of a blossoming career, Dmitry’s passing shocked and immeasurably saddened his friends and colleagues in the scientific areas in which he tirelessly worked and served.

Born in Moscow, Dmitry received his MSc from Kiev State University in Ukraine and the Institute of Molecular Genetics, and his PhD from the USSR Academy of Sciences, studying under Drs. Evgeny Ananiev and Yuri Gleba. In 1990, he received a British Council Fellowship to work with Dr. David Lonsdale in the Cambridge Laboratory of the John Innes Centre for Plant Science Research in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral fellow (1991–1995) in Dr. Richard Meagher’s laboratory at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Dmitry joined the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany in 1995. Together with his wife and long-time collaborator, Dr. Julia Chekanova, who is currently a faculty member at UMKC, he devoted his scientific career to studying the molecular mechanisms that underlie a broad array of processes at the RNA level. His critical and perceptive scientific mind is evident from the elegant work that his laboratory has been known to produce. Notably, he beautifully combined yeast and Arabidopsis genetics and biochemistry to probe fundamental molecular processes and address the function of PolyA binding proteins (PABPs). His group used a wide variety and constantly evolving set of tools that ranged from classical to the latest systems biology approaches to uncover the intriguing connections between PABPs and nuclear dynamics.

Dmitry’s major interests were in different aspects of RNA metabolism, in particular the mechanisms and functions of polyadenylation, deadenylation, and RNA stability. Building on his postdoctoral work, Dmitry continued exploring functional specialization among Arabidopsis PABPs at SUNY Albany. Combining functional and phylogenetic analyses, his work suggested that the distinct classes of plant PABPs are ancient and that their functional specialization contributed to their conservation during evolution. He proposed that, unlike in other organisms, multiple plant PABPs function together at the posttranscriptional level to regulate growth and development.

In an elegant series of work in yeast, some in collaboration with Michael Rosbash at Brandeis University, Dmitry and Julia’s team recently described a complex of four proteins that mediate posttranscriptional tethering of active genes to the nuclear periphery as well as to non-nascent mRNPs. These studies represent one of the first efforts to unravel the poorly understood nuclear dynamics of compartmentalized transcriptional and posttranscriptional processes.

Dmitry’s group has been a major force behind the research on the Arabidopsis exosome, a multi-subunit 3' to 5' exonuclease complex that acts in mRNA decay in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm. In a seminal paper published in Cell in 2007, Dmitry’s lab, in collaboration with Joe Ecker’s group, used transcriptome profiling by tiling arrays not only to decipher the composition of the Arabidopsis exosome complex, but also to reveal the genomic landscape of the substrates of the Arabidopsis exosome. This provided an unprecedented view into the hidden features of the Arabidopsis transcriptome. A striking association between exosome substrates and heterochromatic loci that give rise to endogenous small interfering RNAs was discovered, suggesting a novel function of the exosome in epigenetic regulation in plants. The full value of the large body of transcriptome information revealed by this study will only be appreciated in the years to come.

Dmitry is remembered by many of his colleagues as talented in many different ways and as one of the smartest people they have encountered. Michael Rosbash commented that Dmitry was “incredibly curious and passionate about science” and his was “a rare combination of memory, intelligence, and imagination,” sentiments echoed by many, including his long-time colleague Joseph Mascarenhas, who also remarked that Dima (as he was fondly called) ran a most-respected research program throughout his independent career. Dmitry was passionate about everything he believed in and never did anything halfway. This intensity was evident in the dedication he showed in organizing the Frontiers of Sexual Plant Reproduction conferences. These meetings were initiated to honor Joseph, his senior colleague, mentor, and eminent pollen biologist at SUNY Albany. Largely because of Dmitry and Julia’s meticulous organization of the first two meetings in Albany, the symposium has blossomed into a centerpiece activity, a scientific forum that has considerably advanced the sense of community among colleagues in the plant reproductive biology field. As Scott Russell of the University of Oklahoma and editor of the journal Sexual Plant Reproduction said so well, “Dima was a great organizer for this area, and he gave extremely generously even though he was really an onlooker when it came to gametophyte biology” (although we all remember his fascination and understanding of the topic). Scott also remembered Dima’s energy as “just incredible and his understanding of our area so deep that it was clear that he could succeed on any task that we saw him try.”

We also remember Dmitry in more personal ways. Ravi Palanivelu, a graduate student contemporary in the Meagher lab, remembers Dima as an inspiration and an extremely generous mentor. He is remembered for his daring personality—he never hesitated to venture into new arenas—and his demand for perfection from himself and others who worked with him made everyone better. Orna Elroy-Stein, whose collaborative study with Dima on the effect of PABPs on the performance of internal ribosome entry sites from crucifer-infecting tobamovirus was just accepted for publication weeks after Dima’s passing, remembers him as a sincere, most enthusiastic and responsive collaborator, a very good friend, and someone always ready to help. Ueli Grossniklaus, who visited Dima and his family on several occasions in Albany and collaborated with him on the characterization of exosome mutants, will miss him dearly as a good friend. They had many plans for future collaborations and undertakings that are now, so unexpectedly and sadly, cut short. We also remember Dima’s clever sense of humor such that one often had to think twice before understanding his witty comments. Dima was also intensely dedicated to his family: his wife Julia, whom he met in 1986 when both were graduate students, and their son Andrey, who studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dima’s untimely death is felt deeply among colleagues as a loss to the plant RNA metabolism and sexual reproduction fields, but it is perhaps the saddest when we ponder the loss of Dima as a friend, and remember his love and affection for Julia and Andrey.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to Drs. Wenbo Ma, Joseph Mascarenhas, Scott Russell, and Michael Rosbash for comments and input on the article and many others who sent words and thoughts that we incorporated.

Xuemei Chen
University of California, Riverside
Alice Y. Cheung
University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Orna Elroy-Stein
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Ueli Grossniklaus
University of Zürich, Switzerland
Ravi Palanivelu
University of Arizona, Tucson