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Michael Axtell

Michael Axtell

Associate professor of biology

260 N. Frear
Phone: 867-0241
Lab Address: 259 N. Frear
Lab: http://www.axtell-lab-psu.weebly.com
Email:

Education:

  1. B.A., Biology, Ithaca College
  2. Ph.D., Plant Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Postdoc Training:

  1. Whitehead Institute / Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003-2006

Honors and Awards:

  1. Beckman Young Investigator, 2008-2011
  2. Searle Scholar, 2008-2011

Research Interests:

We are biologists who use diverse plant species to study a class of genes that produce small RNAs. Small RNAs went largely undetected until around the turn of the century. We now know that they are critical components of gene expression in nearly all eukaryotic organisms. These small RNAs are functionally united in that they all function as sequence-specific repressors of other genes. Small RNAs are especially important for regulating the developmental programs of both animals and plants. Our research addresses fundamental unknowns of small RNA functions in plants including:

•    How and to what ends have small RNA pathways diversified during land plant    evolution?

•    What are the functions of ancient small RNAs in extremely diverse species?

•    What are the targets of small RNAs in plants?

•    What are the sequence requirements for effective small RNA-target interactions in plants?

We use genetics, molecular biology, and genomics to answer these questions. Most of our work centers around the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana or the moss species Physcomitrella patens, although we also have worked in other plant species, such as rice, Arabidopsis lyrata, Selaginalla moellendorffii, and Theobroma cacao.

 

Selected Publications:

Banks, J. A., T. Nishiyama, M. Hasebe, J. L. Bowman, M. Gribskov, C. dePamphilis, V. A. Albert, N. Aono, T. Aoyama, B. A. Ambrose, N. W. Ashton, M. J. Axtell, et al. 2011. The Selaginella genome identifies genetic changes associated with the evolution of vascular plants. Science 332: 960-963.

Axtell, M. J., J. O. Westholm, and E. C. Lai. 2011. Vive la difference: Biogenesis and evolution of microRNAs in plants and animals. Genome Biology 12: 221.

Argout, X, J. Salse, J. M. Aury, M. J. Guiltinan, G. Droc, J. Gouzy, M. Allegre, C. Chaparro, T. Legavre, S. N. Maximova, M. Abrouk, F. Murat, O. Fouet, J. Poulain, M. Ruiz, Y. Roguet, M. Rodier-Goud, J. F. Barbosa-Neto, F. Sabot, D. Kudrna, J. S. Ammiraju, S. C. Schuster, J. E. Carlson, E. Sallet, T. Schiex, A. Dievart, M. Kramer, L. Gelley, Z. Shi, A. Berard, C. Viot, M. Boccara, A. M. Risterucci, V. Guignon, X. Sabau, M. J. Axtell, et al. 2010. The genome of Theobroma cacao. Nature Genetics 43: 101-108.

Ma, Z., C. Coruh, and M. J. Axtell. 2010. Arabidopsis lyrata small RNAs: Transient MIRNA and small interfering RNA loci within the Arabidopsis genus. Plant Cell 22: 1090-1103.

Li ,Y. F., Y. Zheng, C. Addo-Quaye, L. Zhang, A. Saini, G. Jagadeeswaran, M. J. Axtell, W. Zhang, and R. Sunkar. 2010. Transcriptome-wide identification of microRNA targets in rice. Plant Journal 62: 742-759.

Axtell, M. J. 2010. A method to discover phased siRNA loci. Methods in Molecular Biology 592: 59-70.

Song L., M. J. Axtell, and N. V. Fedoroff. 2009. RNA secondary structural determinants of miRNA precursor processing in Arabidopsis. Current Biology 20: 37-41.

Addo-Quaye, C., J. A. Snyder, Y. B. Park, Y. F. Li, R. Sunkar, and M. J. Axtell. 2009. Sliced microRNA targets and precise loop-first processing of MIR319 hairpins revealed by analysis of the Physcomitrella patens degradome. RNA 15: 2112-2121.

Cho, S. H., C. Addo-Quaye, C. Coruh, M. A. Arif, Z. Ma, W. Frank, and M. J. Axtell. 2008. Physcomitrella patens DCL3 is required for 22-24 nt siRNA accumulation, suppression of retrotransposon-derived transcripts, and normal development. PLoS Genetics 4: e1000314.

Meyers, B. C., M. J. Axtell, et al. 2008. Criteria for annotation of plant MicroRNAs. Plant Cell 20: 3186-3190.
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