Elaine M. Tobin

In a series of experiments beginning in 1993, Tobin's lab described DNA-binding activity with an affinity for LHCB in plant cells. Using a DNA fragment, they screened the Arabidopsis expression library, and cloned a protein with relevant binding activity, which they named CCA1. They showed that Circadian Clock Associated 1 (CCA1) was necessary for phytochrome response in Arabidopsis thaliana. Reports on the activity of CCA1 and a closely related gene (LHY) from George Coupland were submitted together to Cell in 1998. The two genes were the first two components of the circadian clock or central oscillator mechanism in plants to be identified. Among many other studies of the regulation and function of CCA1, Tobin has determined that one method of clock regulation involves the phosphorylation of CCA1 by the protein kinase CK2.

In 1984, postdoctoral student Jane Silverthorne and Tobin demonstrated that photoreceptors in plants could affect the transcription of specific genes. Light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-binding (LHCB) protein sequences from Lemna gibba were low in darkness but could be rapidly and reversibly restored by light exposure. Tobin's group also demonstrated phytochrome regulation of LHCB proteins (also known as cab genes) in Arabidopsis. By growing duckweed heterotrophically in the dark, and exposing it briefly to red and far-red light, Tobin demonstrated the effects of phytochromes on plant growth and transcription in rcbs genes.

In 1973 Tobin went to Brandeis University, where she did postdoctoral work with Attila Klein, on the influence of light on the development of plants. In 1975 she was hired in the Biology Department at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Support was sparse, but she was able to get funding for basic research on plants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She was able to obtain laboratory space previously used by retiring professor Karl Hamner.

She was accepted into the Biology Department at Stanford. She took classes in plant physiology with Winslow Briggs, worked in his laboratory, and transferred to Harvard when Briggs took a professorship there. In 1968 she married Allan J. Tobin. They spent a year at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where Elaine Tobin worked with plant geneticist Ezra Galun. After returning to North America, she completed her Ph.D. in Biology at Harvard University in 1972. She later married J. Philip Thornber.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1966, majoring in chemistry. After graduation, she spent a summer as an Appalachian Volunteer, working as a community organizer in Wolfe County, Kentucky, as part of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty.

Elaine Munsey Tobin (born December 23, 1944, Louisville, Kentucky) is a professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Tobin is recognized as a Pioneer Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB).

Elaine Munsey was born in Louisville, Kentucky on December 23, 1944. Her family had immigrated from Odessa and Lithuania. Munsey's interests included science, mathematics and basketball. She attended the 1960 Democratic National Convention as a volunteer working for Adlai Stevenson II's presidential campaign. While in high school, she also participated in civil rights marches and heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak in Louisville. She graduated from Seneca High School in Louisville in 1962.