Fall 2002 -- Vol. 20, No. 1

FACES OF PENN STATE

Donald A. Bryant
Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology and Professor of Biochemiry and Molecular Biology

Don Bryant, the Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, studies photosynthesis and energy conversion in cyanobacteria and green sulfur bacteria.

Don Bryant never consciously set out to prove a personal version of the time-worn hypothesis that opposites attract. A glimpse at Bryant’s professional and personal passions, however, confirms that contention.

Whether it’s the bird-watching that consumes his private time or his research work at Penn State with photosynthetic bacteria, Bryant’s life is a series of contrasts.

In the laboratory, Bryant studies photosynthesis and energy conversion in cyanobacteria, which produce the oxygen we breathe, and green sulfur bacteria, which are killed by that same oxygen and grow only under strictly anaerobic conditions.

“From 1972 to about 1990, all I did was work on the cyanobacteria. Then, a sabbatical in 1990 got me interested in green sulfur bacteria, which have become a more important component of my research ever since,” Bryant says. “It’s become increasingly clear to me that, based on almost thirty years of research experience with how cyanobacteria work, I can make some interesting comparisons with processes in green sulfur bacteria.”

Part of Bryant’s lab time has been spent helping to sequence and analyze the entire genome of the green sulfur bacterium, Chlorobium tepidum, in collaboration with the Institute for Genomic Research in Maryland and Beijing University in China. Together with collaborators in Beijing, he is now sequencing the genome of a cyanobacterium so that eventually he’ll be able to perform whole, genome-level transcriptional analyses.

Since the first bacterial genome was sequenced in 1995, Bryant says, 120 more have followed and at least 100 more are in the process of being completed.

“These genome sequences are a real gold mine for biochemists and physiologists,” Bryant says. “Twenty years ago you couldn’t possibly have imagined having such a wealth of information available.”

Biochemical puzzles that once took Bryant years to unravel now can be inferred in hours or in days. That advanced knowledge and understanding has cascaded to his students. “I’m not only teaching my undergraduate students some things I learned as a graduate student, I’m now correcting some of the things I was taught back then.”

In contrast, the raptors that Bryant helps survey are many times larger than the microscopic bacteria he studies. His passion for bird-watching, which peaks each spring and fall with raptor migrations, coaxes Bryant to perch atop nearby Stone Mountain. That vista provides him an escape from his groundbreaking research and presents opportunities for unusual sightings as well, like the white-phase gyrafalcon he spotted in December three years ago.

“Birdwatching is a total release from laboratory research,” Bryant says. “Some of these big birds are really special. It’s a tremendous thrill for anyone to see them at any time. There’s nothing like seeing a nice, big golden eagle in sunlight.”

Whether it’s large raptors in the sun or tiny, sunlight-utilizing bacteria in the laboratory microscope, Bryant derives inspiration from his life’s passions.

Andy Elder

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