2025

Dr. Zacheus Cande started working on maize in mid-career, having already developed a reputation as expert in the field of mitotic spindle dynamics in animal cells, diatoms and fission yeast. At first intrigued by the maize meiocyte as a cell biological specimen, he came to appreciate the wealth of prior literature on maize chromosomes, the strong support of the maize community, and the power of genetics. He ended up training multiple future professors and became a leader in the field of plant meiotic chromosome dynamics. His great enthusiasm for maize chromosomes helped rejuvenate what was then a stagnant field of maize cytogenetics. He collaborated with John Sedat at UCSF to bring three-dimensional light microscopy to the fore, which, along with modern image analysis, gave the chromosomes a "wow that's so cool" factor. Thanks to Zac and the colleagues, postdocs, and trainees he worked with, we learned about the functions of the ameiotic gene, the absence of first division (afd1) gene, and the poor homologous synapsis1 (phs1) gene.

Zac Cande