In 1989, John won a research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate UV damage in crop plants and the effects of ozone depletion. Countries were preparing to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and related compounds to comply with the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
CFCs had various industrial uses, including as refrigerants, but they had been shown to destroy the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, which blocks some of the UV radiation from the sun. A reduced ozone layer would increase the amount of UV radiation reaching Earth, which could lead to skin cancer. Meanwhile, USDA was concerned about the effect of increased UV radiation on crop productivity. John and Betsy used alfalfa as a model crop.
In a 1992 Nature paper, John, Betsy, and then postdoctoral fellow Elsie Quaite (now Elsie Quaite-Randall) reported the action spectrum for DNA damage in alfalfa, concluding that the impact of ozone depletion on UV damage in plants would be less severe than predicted. The paper is one of Betsy’s top-three most highly cited papers.
In 1989, John won a research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate UV damage in crop plants and the effects of ozone depletion. Countries were preparing to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and related compounds to comply with the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
CFCs had various industrial uses, including as refrigerants, but they had been shown to destroy the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, which blocks some of the UV radiation from the sun. A reduced ozone layer would increase the amount of UV radiation reaching Earth, which could lead to skin cancer.
Meanwhile, USDA was concerned about the effect of increased UV radiation on crop productivity. John and Betsy used alfalfa as a model crop.
In a 1992 Nature paper, John, Betsy, and then postdoctoral fellow Elsie Quaite (now Quaite-Randall) reported the action spectrum for DNA damage in alfalfa, concluding that the impact of ozone depletion on UV damage in plants would be less severe than predicted. The paper is one of Betsy’s top-three most highly cited papers.
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