meagher%gandal.dnet@ASMUS1.GENETICS.UGA.EDU (12/13/90)
An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution
From: Richard B. Meagher, Professor
University of Georgia
Department of Genetics
Athens, Georgia 30602
Phone: (404) 542-1444 RBM
FAX: (404) 542-3910
Network: Meagher%gandal.dne+@server.uga.edu
I have positions open for postdoctoral fellows and/or graduate
students to work on expression of higher plant actins and on RNA
turnover. We have shown that the plant actin genes belong to a
diverse and ancient family. Initial data suggests that the different
genes and proteins will be differentially expressed and may play
distinct roles in the cytoskeleton. Recently we began to examine the
tissue specific and developmental expression of the actins in
Arabidopsis. There are 11-15 genes and a large number of actin
protein isovariants. PCR sequencing from small amounts of mRNA
has been developed as an assay for the actin RNA phenotypes of
various cell types. In order to correlate tissue specific patterns of
expression with actin function, actin insertion mutants or antisense
mutants will be isolated. In a separate project we have shown that
the stability of rbcS (rubisco small subunit) RNA is in some cases
light regulated. To explore the mechanisms and determinants of RNA
turnover in plants we have just developed an in vitro RNA
degradation system. It generates the same rbcS RNA degradation
products as are observed in vivo. The students on this project are
finishing this academic year and the project will be wide open. If
your are interested please write to the above address, contact me by
phone or use my network mail address. A few recent publications
from these two projects are listed below.
McLean, B. G., Eubanks, S. and Meagher, R. B. (1990a) Tissue
specific expression of divergent actins in soybean root. Plant Cell. 2:
335-344.
McLean, B. G., Huang, S., Cohen, E. and Meagher, R. B. (1990) Plants
contain a family of highly divergent actin isovariants. Cell Motility.
17: (in press)
McLean, M., Gerats, A. G. M., Baird, W. V. and Meagher, R. B.
(1990b) Six actin gene subfamilies map to five chromosomes of
Petunia hybrida. J. Heredity. 81:341-346.
Meagher, R. B. (1990) Divergence and differential expression of
actin gene families in higher plants. Internatl. Rev. Cytol. in press:
Meagher, R. B., Berry-Lowe, S. and Rice, K. (1989) Molecular
evolution of the small subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase:
nucleotide substitution and gene conversion. Genetics. 123: 845-863.
Meagher, R. B. and McLean, B. G. (1990) Diversity of Plant Actins.
Cell Motilility. 16:164-166.
Pearson, L. and Meagher, R. B. (1990) Diverse soybean actin
transcripts contain a large intron in the 5' untranslated leader:
Structural similarity to vertebrate muscle actin genes. Plant Mol. Biol.
14: 513-526.
Senecoff, J. F. and Meagher, R. B. (1991) In vivo analysis of plant
18S rRNA structure: Evolution of plant 18S rRNA. In: "Methods in
Enzymology". Zimmer, E. (in press)
Shirley, B. W., Ham, D. P., Senecoff, J. F., Berry-Lowe, S. L., Zurfluh,
L. L., Shah, D. M. and Meagher, R. B. (1990) Comparison of the
expression of two highly homologous members of the soybean
ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit gene family.
Plant Mol. Biol. 14: 909-925.
Shirley, B. W. and Meagher, R. B. (1990) A potential role for RNA
turnover in the light regulation of plant gene expression: ribulose-
1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit in soybean. Nuc. Acids
Resh. 18:3377-3385.
Thompson, D. M. and Meagher, R. B. (1990) Transcriptional and
post-transcriptional processes regulate expression of RNA encoding
the small subunit of ribulose-1,5- bisphosphate carboxylase
differently in petunia and in soybean. Nuc. Acids Resh. 18: 3621-
3629.