Dr. Christine Chase (Course
Coordinator),
Professor - Horticultural Sciences; Graduate Program in Plant
Molecular
and Cellular Biology (PMCB Program)
Ph.D. in Biology/Genetics, University
of Virginia
Office: 2215 Fifield Hall
Tel: 392-1928 ext 316
Fax: 392-6479
e-mail: ctdc@ifas.ufl.edu
http://www.hos.ufl.edu/ctdcweb/index.htm
Research interests: Plant mitochondrial
biogenesis and function
Mitochondria, the site of the TCA
cycle, respiratory electron transfer and ATP synthesis, are essential
to
higher eukaryotic life. Mitochondrial function depends upon the
coordinate
action of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. Research in my laboratory
focuses on the molecular-genetic dissection of mitochondrial biogenesis
and function in higher organisms. This presents a challenge
because mutations disrupting mitochondrial function are lethal in
obligate
aerobes. The cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) systems of higher plants
provide a solution to this dilemma. The mitochondrial genome encodes
CMS,
the maternally inherited failure to produce functional pollen. Nuclear
fertility restoration genes block or compensate for the expression of
CMS
genes in the mitochondria, resulting in a male-fertile phenotype.
We investigate molecular and genetic mechanisms of CMS and nuclear
fertility
restoration systems to understand the mechanisms by which nuclear genes
influence the organization, inheritance and expression of mitochondrial
genomes.
Dr. Dean Gabriel, Professor -
Plant
Pathology & PMCB Program
Ph.D. in Genetics/Botany/Plant Pathology,
Michigan State University
Office: 2559 Fifield Hall
Tel: 392-7239
Fax: 392-6532
e-mail: gabriel@biotech.ufl.edu
http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/plpPeople/Faculty/Gabriel/Gabriel.htm
Research interests: The
genetics of host/parasite interactions.
The most experimentally tractable
host/parasite
interactions involve plants and microbes, simply because it is much
easier
to perform genetic analyses (crosses, genetic transformations) on plant
hosts and their microbial pathogens, than on animal hosts and their
microbial
pathogens. This work involves making transgenic plants and
microbes,
and the techniques involve understanding the physical details (at the
molecular
level) of recombination. Most recently my work has taken us into
the realm of host/parasite signaling (how does the parasite get the
host
to do things it does not naturally want to do?), the discovery of
signal
delivery systems (as a part of microbial virulence) and research on
parasite
protein signals targeted to host cell nuclei.
Dr. Curt Hannah, Professor -
Horticultural
Sciences & PMCB Program
Ph.D. in Genetics, University of Wisconsin
Office: Building 710 (Plant Physiology
building -- east of Fifield Hall across the parking lot)
Tel: 352-392-6957, personal cell 352-219-5943
Fax:
e-mail: hannah@ifas.ufl.edu
http://www.hos.ufl.edu/LCHweb/
Research interests: The
molecular-genetics of starch biosynthesis in higher plants; the effects
of introns and transposons on gene expression
The corn seed represents an ideal
experimental
playground. Its major components are starch (70% by weight),
protein
(15% by weight), lipids and other macromolecules. Because corn
seeds
are large and easy to examine, subtle and not so subtle genetic
differences
are easily studied. Interesting studies have focused on the huge
collection of mutants that change the size, shape and texture of the
seed.
We have focused on the mutants affecting the synthesis of the major
seed
component, starch. Our research is multifaceted. We study
adenosine
diphosphoglucose pyrophosphorylase, a rate limiting enzyme in the
starch
biosynthetic pathway. We use transposable elements as
site-specific
in vivo mutagens to alter the regulatory properties of the
enzyme.
We also use conventional site-specific mutagenesis and expression in
bacteria
to fine-tune interesting mutants first found in the corn plant.
We
study spontaneous mutants for their own sake. As a consequence of
previous studies, introns (sequences that form part of the gene but not
part of the mature messenger RNA) have captured our research interest.
Currently we are testing the hypothesis that a major role of
transposable
elements is the formation of introns and that introns benefit the
organism
by increasing gene expression.
Dr.
Matias
Kirst, Assistant Professor, Forest Resources & Conservation,
PMCB Program, Graduate Program in Genetics
Ph.D. in Genetics and Functional Genomics, North
Carolina State University
Office: 367 Newins-Ziegler Hall
Tel: 846-0900
Fax: 846-1277
e-mail: mkirst@.ufl.edu
http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/KirstLab/
Research interests: Fundamental
and applied genomic research; Technology and genomic tool
development
We study the genetic architecture of transcript level variation, and
partition of additive, dominance, epistatic, and non-genetic sources of
variation that affect transcriptional regulation. These studies define
sites that regulate the level of transcripts for individual genes,
which can be the location of the gene coding sequence (cis-regulation),
or its trans-regulator. We use classical approaches (QTL analysis and
association genetics) to identify genetic loci associated with
quantitative traits. These approaches are complemented by integrating
other levels of genomic information (transcriptome and metabolome),
creating a powerful platform for identification of specific genes that
control quantitative variation. The rationale is that a significant
component of the quantitative variation arises as a consequence of
quantifiable variation at the transcription and metabolic level.
By integrating information from different genomic platforms we have
identified specific genes, as well as regulatory and physiological
networks implicated in variation in growth and wood quality in forest
tree species. We work on the development of methods for discovering
SNPs from EST databases and other sources. For genotyping we use two
microarray platforms (NimbleGen and Combimatrix, which allow high
flexibility in probe design). We develop hybridization methods for
genomic DNA hybridization to genotyping arrays of some of the most
complex plant genomes, including the pine megagenome (~ 21,000 Mbp) and
maize.
Dr. Don McCarty, Professor -
Horticultural
Sciences & PMCB Program
Ph.D. in Biochemistry, University of
Wisconsin
Office: 2237 Fifield Hall
Tel: 392-1928 ext 322
Fax: 392-6479
e-mail: drm@ufl.edu
http://pgir.rutgers.edu/endosperm.org/EndoSperm.html
Research interests: Physiological and
molecular aspects of development in seeds
Nowhere is the challenge of analyzing
the functions of many interacting genes more evident than in the
genetics
of seed development. Seed mutants have contributed greatly to our
understanding
of key biological processes in the plant seed, including the starch
pathway,
the anthocyanin pigment pathway, storage protein synthesis, and embryo
development, pattern formation, maturation and germination. In spite of
these recent advances, much remains to be done. The vast majority of
mutants
that have seed phenotypes are not yet molecularly characterized. Maize
is uniquely suited for genetic analysis of the seed as seed mutants are
easily identified and studied in this plant. Such mutants also link
fundamental
studies in seed growth and development to potentially valuable aspects
of grain yield. Current research efforts exploit the Robertsons's
Mutator
transposable element for the development of an enhanced through-put
approach
to the cloning and characterization of maize genes affecting
quantitative
and qualitative aspects of seed development.