Clearing the clouds of mystery: Myron K. Brakke (1923-2007)

• Published in: Phytopathology Vol. 98; no. 6; p. S194
• Main Author: Scholthof, K-B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-06-2008
• Subjects: Zea mays
• ISSN: 0031-949X

Plant pathology lost a distinguished pioneer in plant virology, truly a giant in our field, when Myron K. Brakke died on 15 June 2007. Brakke was best known for his development of sucrose density gradient centrifugation for the purification and characterization of plant viruses as a research associate with Lindsay M. Black at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the early 1950s. As a career scientist with the USDA-ARS at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the Department of Plant Pathology, Brakke developed and refined the tools and techniques that were crucial for progress in elucidating the physico-chemistry, biochemistry and biology of viruses. In addition to discussing his development of sucrose density gradients, Brakke's contributions to our understanding of insect-vectored plant viruses, zoospores as agents of plant virus infection, and his work on aberrant ratio induced by virus infection of maize will be summarized. In many cases returning to the original literature from Brakke's half-century of service to agriculture and plant pathology provides fresh insight into his ideas and the development of the now routine tools and techniques of virology. Those readings reveal the measure of Brakke's success in using biochemistry and biology, as he wrote, to clear "the clouds of mystery" in plant virology.