Caleb M. Rounds

Senior Lecturer II, Associate Department Chair

Photograph of First Last
413-545-2878
354 Morrill II
Education: 

B.A., Hamilton College, 1992 M.A., Brown University, 1995 Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, 2007

Postdoctoral: 

University of Massachusetts, 2007-2011

Research Interests: 

Plant Physiology

I am interested in the physiological mechanisms that allow for tip growth in highly polarized plant cells. Specifically, I focus on lily pollen tubes and to a lesser extend the moss Physcomitrella patens. These two systems allow for examination of the interplay between energy metabolism, cytoskeletal dynamics and vesicle trafficking. Recently I have been examining the role of a prominent actin structure at the pollen tube tip to determine whether it maintains polarized cell wall deposition.

Teaching Statement: 

I strive to help students become life-long students of biology. This requires an ability to think critically and a basic facility with the essential concepts and vocabulary of biology. Critical thinking provides the foundation for all modern science; it enables students to transition from simple memorization to deductive reasoning. That being said, college level biology must also teach the vocabulary of science. I try to balance these two objectives. In my classroom I focus on interpreting data to deepen student knowledge of the subject matter; to this end, I use "inquiry" based active learning.

Biology is an exciting science and I think students realize this only when they are exposed to the process of discovery, experimentation and interpretation as opposed to simply memorizing a litany of facts. I see drawing students into science as an active process as my primary role as a biology instructor.

Representative Publications: 

Caleb M. Rounds, Peter K. Hepler, Lawrence J. Winship. 2013. In the absence of the actin fringe exocytosis continues in pollen tubes. Submitted to Plant Physiology.

Peter K. Hepler, Caleb M. Rounds, Lawrence J. Winship. 2013. Control of cell wall extensibility during pollen tube growth. Mol Plant,. Jun 14.

Caleb M. Rounds, Magdalena Bezanilla. 2012. Growth mechanisms in tip-growing plant cells. Annual Review of Plant Biolog.y

Peter K. Hepler, Joseph G. Kunkel, Caleb M. Rounds, Lawrence J. Winship. 2011. Calcium entry into pollen tubes. Trends in Plant Science, doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2011.10.007.

Caleb M. Rounds, Lawrence J. Winship, Peter K. Hepler. 2011. Pollen tube energetics: respiration, fermentation and the race to the ovule. AoB Plants, 2011 plr019.

Caleb M. Rounds, Eric Lubeck, Lawerence J. Winship, Peter K. Hepler. 2011. Propidium iodide competes with Ca2+ to label pectin in pollen tubes and Arabidopsis root hairs. Plant Physiology, 157(1): 175-87.

Hitoshi Inoue, Caleb M. Rounds, Danny J. Schnell. 2010. The molecular basis for distinct pathways for protein import into chloroplasts. Plant Cell22(6): 1947-60.

Caleb M. Rounds, Peter K. Hepler, Sasha Fuller, Larry J. Winship. 2009. Oscillatory growth in lily pollen tubes does not require aerobic energy metabolism. Plant Physiology, 152(2): 736-746.

Sylvester T. McKenna, Joseph G. Kunkel, Maurice Bosch, Caleb M. Rounds, Luis Vidali, Lawrence J. Winship, and Peter K. Hepler. 2009. Exocytosis follows the increase in growth rate in oscillating pollen tubes. Plant Cell , 21 (10): 3026-40.

Luis Vidali, Caleb M. Rounds, Peter K Hepler, Magdalena Bezanilla. 2009. Lifeact-mEGFP reveals a dynamic apical F-actin network in tip growing plant cells. PLoS ONE, 4(5): e5744.

Caleb M. Rounds, Fei Wang, Danny Schnell. 2007. The Toc machinery of the protein import apparatus of chloroplasts. The Enzymes, Chapter 16. vol. 25.

Matthew D. Smith, Caleb M. Rounds, Fei Wang, Kunhua Chen, Meshack Afitlhile, and Danny J. Schnell. 2004. atToc159 is a selective transit peptide receptor for the import of nucleus-encoded chloroplast proteins. Journal of Cell Biology, 165(3): 323-34.