Individual Listing

4107A GENOMICS BUILDING
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521

Wessler, Susan R

Distinguished Professor of Genetics

College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Botany & Plant Sciences


Biography

 

Research Area

My major focus is Transposable elements(TEs) in plants with a focus on the characterization of active transposable elements and a determination of how they contribute to genome evolution and adaptation. To address these questions we use a combination of genetic, biochemical and genomic approaches. TEs are genetic elements that can move (transpose) from one position to another in the genome. They vary in structure, mechanism of transposition, and target site preference. Most TE families include autonomous copies that can code for the transposition enzymatic machinery, and nonautonomous copies that are unable to encode these enzymes, but that can still be mobilized in trans. TEs or sequences derived from TEs are believed to be ubiquitous in all living organisms. However, the impact of TEs on the evolution of plants and other higher organisms has been the subject of considerable discussion and even controversy.

Publications

2010
Hancock C N, Zhang, F, and Wessler SR (2010). Transposition of the Tourist-MITE mPing in yeast: an assay that retains key features of catalysis by the class 2 PIF/Harbinger superfamily . Mob DNA vol. 1

Han Y and Wessler S(2010). MITE-Hunter: a program for discovering miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements from genomic sequences. Nucleic Acids Research.

2009
Han Y, Burnette III J M and Wessler S R (2009) TARGeT: a web-based pipeline for retrieving and characterizing gene and transposable element families from genomic sequences. Nucleic Acids Res. Advance Access published on May 8, 2009, DOI 10.1093/nar/gkp295.

Naito K, Zhang F, Tsukiyama T, Saito H, Hancock CN, Richardson AO, Okumoto Y, Tanisaka T, Wessler SR. (2009). Unexpected consequences of a sudden and massive transposon amplification on rice gene expression . Nature. 461(7267):1130-4.

Yang G, Nagel DH, Feschotte C, Hancock CN, Wessler SR.(2009). Tuned for transposition: molecular determinants underlying the hyperactivity of a Stowaway MITE. Science. 325:1391-4.

2007
Yang G, Zhang F, Hancock C N and Wessler S R (2007). Transposition of the rice miniature inverted repeat transposable element mPing in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 104: 10962 - 10967.

2006
Holligan D, Zhang X, Jiang N, Pritham E J and Wessler S R (2006). The transposable element landscape of the model legume Lotus japonicus. Genetics 174: 2215 - 2228.

Wessler S R (2006). Eukaryotic Transposable Elements and Genome Evolution Special Feature: Transposable elements and the evolution of eukaryotic genomes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 103: 17600 - 17601.

Naito K, Cho E, Yang G, Campbell M A, Yano K, Okumoto Y, Tanisaka T and Wessler S R (2006). Dramatic amplification of a rice transposable element during recent domestication. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 103:17620 - 17625.

Yang G, Weil C F, Wessler S R (2006). A rice Tc1/Mariner-like element transposes in yeast . The Plant Cell 18: 2469-2478.

Wessler S R (2006). Eukaryotic Transposable Elements: Teaching Old Genomes New Tricks . The Implicit Genome (Caporale L, ed.). Oxford University Press. USA.

2005
Bouck A, Peeler R, Arnold M L and Wessler S R (2005). Genetic mapping of species boundaries in louisiana irises using IRRE retrotransposon display markers . Genetics 171: 1289-1303.

Pritham E J, Feschotte C, Wessler S R (2005). Unexpected diversity and differential success of DNA transposons in four species of entamoeba protozoans Mol. Biol. Evol. 22(9):1751-1763.

Zhang X and Wessler S R (2005).BoS: A large and diverse family of short interspersed elements (SINEs) in Brassica oleracea . J. Mol. Evol. 60: 677-87.

Wessler S R and Carrington J C (2005). Genome studies and molecular genetics: The consequences of gene and genome duplication in plants. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 8:119-121.

Feschotte C, Osterlund M T, Peeler R, and Wessler S R (2005). DNA-binding specificity of rice mariner-like transposases and interactions with Stowaway MITEs Nucleic Acids Res. 33:2153-2165.

Wessler S R (2005). Homing into the Origin of the AP2 DNA Binding Domain . Trends in Plant Science. 10(2): 54-6.

2004
Jiang N, Bao Z, Zhang X, Eddy S R, and Wessler S R (2004). Pack-MULE transposable elements mediate gene evolution in plants . Nature. 431: 569-573.

Zhang X, Jiang N, Feschotte C, and Wessler S R (2004). PIF- and Pong-like transposable elements: Distribution, evolution and relationship with Tourist-like miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements. Genetics 166: 971-986.

Zhang X, and Wessler S R (2004). Genome-wide comparative analysis of the transposable elements in the related species Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica oleracea. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A. 101: 5589-5594.

Jiang N, Feschotte C, Zhang X, and Wessler S R (2004). Using rice to understand the origin and amplification of miniature inverted repeat transposable elements (MITEs). Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 7:115-119.

2003
Kentner E K, Arnold L M, and Wessler S R (2003). characterization of high-copy-number retrotransposons from the large genomes of the louisiana iris species and their use as molecular markers . Genetics 164: 685-697.

Biedler J, Qi Y, Holligan D, Della Torre A, Wessler S R, and Tu Z (2003). Transposable element (TE) display and rapid detection of TE insertion polymorphism in the Anopheles gambiae species complex . Insect Mol. Biol. 12 (3): 211-216.

Feschotte C, Swamy L & Wessler S R (2003). Genome-wide analysis of mariner-like transposable elements reveals complex relationships with Stowaway MITEs . Genetics 143: 747-758.

Jiang N, Bao Z, Zhang X, Hirochika H, Eddy S R, McCouch S R, and Wessler S R (2003). An active DNA transposon family in rice . Nature. 421: 163-167.

2002
Jiang N, Jordan K I, and Wessler S R (2002). Dasheng and RIRE2. a nonautonomous long terminal repeat element and its putative autonomous partner in the rice genome . Plant Physiology. 130: 1697-1705.

Jiang N, Bao Z, Temnykh S, Cheng Z, Jiang J, Wing R, McCouch S and Wessler S R (2002). Dasheng: a recently amplified nonautonomous LTR element that is a major component of pericentromeric regions in rice . Genetics. 161: 1293-1305.

Daniel G. Peterson, Stefan R. Schulze, Erica B. Sciara, Scott A. Lee, John E. Bowers, Alexander Nagel, Ning Jiang, Deanne C. Tibbitts, Susan R. Wessler, and Andrew H. Paterson (2002). integration of Cot analysis, DNA cloning, and high-throughput sequencing facilitates genome characterization and gene discovery . Genome Research. 12: 795-807.

Feschotte C, Jiang N & Wessler S R (2002). Plant transposable elements: where genetics meets gemomics . Nature Reviews Genetics. 3: 329-341.

Feschotte C, Zhang X & Wessler S R (2002). Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) and their relationship with established DNA transposons . In Mobile DNA II (Craig N, Craigie R, Gellert M & Lambowitz A, eds.). American Society of Microbiology Press. Washington D.C. Available now from ASM press.

Feschotte C & Wessler S R (2002). Mariner-like transposases are widespread and diverse in flowering plants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A. 99: 280-285.

2001
Jiang, N. and Wessler, S R (2001). Insertion preference of maize and rice MITEs as revealed by the analysis of nested elements. The Plant Cell. 13:2553-2564.

Zhang X, Feschotte C, Zhang Q, Jiang N, Eggleston W B & Wessler S R (2001). P instability factor:An active maize transposon system associated with the amplification of Tourist-like MITEs and a new superfamily of transposases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A.98:12572-12577.
Read Commentary by J. Jurka &V. Kapitonov

Wessler, S R (2001) McClintock at 100 - Reason to Celebrate: Book Review of The Tangled Field. Science. 294:62-63.

Feschotte Cedric, Wessler S R (2001). Treasures in the attic: Rolling circle transposons discovered in eukaryotic genomes . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 98: 8923-8924.

Wang L, Wessler S R (2001). Role of mRNA Secondary Structure in Translational Repression of the Maize Transcriptional Activator Lc . Plant Physiol. 125:1380-1387.

Chandler V L, Wessler S (2001). Grasses: A collective model genetic system . Plant Physiology. 125:1155-6.

Wessler S R. Plant Transposable Elements (2001). A Hard Act to Follow. Plant Physiology. 125:149-151.

2000
Casa A M, Brouwer C, Nagel A, Wang L, Zhang Q, Kresovich S, Wessler S R (2000).Inaugural article: The MITE family heartbreaker (Hbr) : Molecular markers in maize. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000; 29;97:10083-9.

Wendel J F, Wessler S R (2000). Retrotransposon-mediated genome evolution on a local ecological scale. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.
6;97:6250-2.

Hu J, Reddy V S, Wessler S R (2000). The rice R gene family : two distinct subfamilies containing several miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements. Plant Mol Biol. 42:667-78.

Zhang Q, Arbuckle J, Wessler S R (2000). Recent, extensive, and preferential insertion of members of the miniature inverted-repeat transposable element family Heartbreaker into genic regions of maize .Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1;97:1160-5.