Cell Cycle and Cellular Morphogenesis

Telephone: (919) 962-2293

E-mail: jpringle@email.unc.edu

Office: 422 Fordham Hall

Mailing Address:
CB# 3280, Coker Hall
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3280

Biosketch and Publications

Most of our research deals with the control of cellular morphogenesis and the cell division cycle; we use a mixture of classical genetic, molecular genetic, microscopic, and biochemical methods. We are studying the structure and function of the cytoskeletal elements that are responsible for morphogenetic activities, the signalling systems that provide positional information to the cytoskeleton, and the means by which the morphogenetic activities are coordinated with other cell-cycle events. Most of our studies use the experimentally tractable smaller eukaryotes Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast) and Schizosaccharomyces pombe(fission yeast). These yeasts are distinct morphogenetically and distant phylogenetically, so that comparative studies should be of great value in elucidating mechanisms of general significance. We have also begun to study related problems in animals (Drosophila and mammalian cells) and higher plants (Arabidopsis).

We are currently concentrating on two main problems. First, we are exploring the roles of positional markers in the cell cortex and of a GTPase cascade in controlling the selection of axes of polarization and the subsequent establishment of cytoskeletal and growth polarity. At least some aspects of these systems seem to be widely conserved among eukaryotes; remarkably, a protein first detected by analyzing yeast mutants defective in bud emergence has a human homologue that is greater than 80 percent identical in amino acid sequence! Second, we are exploring the structure and function of a novel but apparently widespread cytoskeletal system. This system was first detected in budding yeast as a set of 10-nm filaments on the inner face of the plasma membrane that is necessary for proper bud growth, cytokinesis, and the placement of positional markers. However, related proteins have now been detected in a wide variety of other eukaryotes, where they appear to play analogous roles in the cortical cytoskeletons.