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OBITUARIES
Julio
López-Gorgé
Julio López-Gorgé
died unexpectedly on June 7, 2004. He was born in Melilla, a Spanish city
in the north of Africa, where he proudly received the Special Award for
his secondary-school degree. At a very young age, he pursued his undergraduate
studies in pharmacy at the University of Granada.
In 1961, he began
his scientific career in the Department of Parasitology in the Institute
López Neyra and finished his Ph.D. under the direction of Professor
Monteoliva on “Some aspects, nature and content in protids, glucids
and lipids of Moniezia expansa (Rudolphi, 1.805).” A stay
in the Laboratoire de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (CNRS) (Gif sur
Yvette-France) in 1962 helped improve his research on “unsaponificable”
intestinal parasites.
In 1967, Julio was
granted the Ramsey fellowship for a year at King’s College, London
(UK), where he studied the metabolism of guanidines of intestinal parasites.
A continuous allergy to ascaroids forced him to abandon his research in
parasitology, and in 1968 he became one of the members of the recently
created Plant Biochemistry Section led by Federico Mayor Zaragoza (UNESCO
director 1987–1999) in the Estación Experimental del Zaidín
(CSIC) in Granada. He initiated the study of plant biology. These years
were the most difficult because of the lack of grants. However, for all
the young, talented people, this formative period was stimulating and
unforgettable, and he shared these first hard years with close companions
and dear friends.
The experience acquired
by Julio in the López Neyra Parasitology Institute prompted his
brilliant idea of directing the research of the group toward the study
of the carbon metabolism pathway in plants through the study of hexose
biphosphatase. This was his debut in photosynthesis, working with fructose-1,6
-bisphosphatase (FBPase), a highly regulated enzyme in the chloroplast.
The results of this research confirmed that Julio’s choice had been
correct, and finally this topic became the main research subject of the
group he led. Julio married Ana Chueca Sancho, a doctor in pharmacy who
worked at Madrid University. They made their home in Granada and became
an inseparable team: Ana was Julio’s best support for his research
and personal life.
Always interested
in new topics, Julio was involved in the study of the acid phosphatase
in prostatic tissue and in the identification of commercial varieties
of potato in collaboration with the Commerce Ministry. He is the author
of a patent titled “Methods to Preserve Mushrooms by Lyophilization.”
He helped in the study of the biochemical and physiological aspects of
olives trees, an important crop in the economy of southern Spain, and
in the characterization of reactive oxygen species (ROS)–related
enzymatic systems in pea plants. He also supervised the study on the effect
of some heterocyclic herbicides on CO2 assimilation and the Photosystem
II machinery.
However, his major
contribution was made in elucidating the redox regulation of carbon metabolism.
With his associates he reported on the structure, biosynthesis, phylogeny,
action mechanism, molecular aspects, regulation, and kinetics of chloroplastic
FBPase. The protein is light-modulated because of the reduction of a disulphide
bridge via a reductive interaction with thioredoxin f. The FBPase regulatory
domain (loop 170) contains the three cysteines involved in redox modulation.
This fragment displays negatively charged amino acids that interact with
a hydrophobic groove of thioredoxins. For these reasons, the admired Professor
Bob Buchanan called Julio at a meeting “the king of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase.”
In collaboration with
different European (J. P. Jacquot and Y. Meyer) and American (R. Wolosiuk
and D. Knaff) groups, Julio launched an interesting research topic seeking
to characterize specific functions for each plant thioredoxin. These proteins,
found in several copies and different locations, appear to have important
functions related to different stages of the development and defense of
plants in response to environmental stress.
Julio’s group
also became involved in plant biotechnology. In Arabidopsis thaliana
plants expressing antisense chloroplastic FBPase, an increase in the leaf-sugar
content was found, this being a useful tool for a possible application
in agriculture.
Two years ago, Professor
López-Gorgé, in collaboration with Dr. J. L. Gonzalez Rebollar,
had the privilege to set up one of his master projects. This was a multidisciplinary
project granted by the Ramon Areces Foundation, with the participation
of scientists from different fields, assessing the potential technological
uses of C4 and CAM plant species in southeastern Spain adapted to an arid
agrosystem of regions where water is a limiting factor. Although Julio
will not see any of these projects completed, he had the pleasure of seeing
the first promising results.
Julio dedicated a
significant part of his time and energy to the CSIC and institute, contributing
greatly to its successful development. He served as chairman of the Biochemistry
Department and vice director of the institute and served on several scientific
committees. He was one of the most prestigious scientists in the Spanish
Society of Plant Physiology and the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and
Plant Molecular Biology. He coordinated, in collaboration with other researchers,
the CSIC thematic program.
Julio traveled over
30 years to South American countries (Argentina and Chile) and received
in his laboratory several visiting researchers, some of them completing
their Ph.D. work.
Julio was a very fine
plant biochemist and had a special talent for answering the questions
posed by young scientists. But music was his other big passion. He was
a music buff, a formal spectator in the summer Salzburg Festival, and
a staunch follower of the Orchestra of the City of Granada (OCG) ever
since its creation. Recently named chairman of the Friends of the OCG,
he had many projects in mind, unfortunately without time to put them into
practice. In his free time he wrote a book, Don Carlos (Verdi), a Drama
Between the History and the Legend.
Above all, Julio loved
his family. He is survived by his wife Ana; his son Ignacio, architect
and filmmaker; and his daughter Amalia, teacher of music and cellist.
Mariam Sahrawy
Ana Chueca
Luis Alfonso del Río
Matilde Barón
Juan Pedro Donaire
Juan José Lázaro
Department of Plant Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology
Estación Experimental del Zaidín
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