Type: Faculty
Education:
PhD, Universitat de Valencia, Spain
Postdoctoral, Instituto de Biologia Molecular y Celular de Plantas (UPV-CSIC), University of Pennsylvania and The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Contact Info
Office: 2519 Thomas Hall, 919-515-5729
Lab: 2529 Thomas Hall, 919-515-5739
Fax: 919-515-3355
Email: JMAlonso
Website: Visit our Lab Home Page
Research Areas: Molecular / Cell / Development
Molecular Genetics of the Ethylene Signal Transduction Pathway in Arabidopsis
My research focuses on uncovering the molecular mechanisms that underlie ethylene signaling and response in Arabidopsis. By employing a combination of classical molecular genetic, genomic, and cell biology approaches, I am elucidating the ethylene signal transduction cascade, as well as the net of interactions between this pathway and other hormonal and developmental signals. Recently, my colleagues and I have found that some of the tissue specificity observed in response to ethylene is due to the local activation of auxin biosynthesis. These findings have opened a new avenue in the study of auxin production in plants and have provided new tools for investigating the role of auxin biosynthesis in ethylene response and plant development in general. My lab is also committed to generating new genetic tools that will facilitate and accelerate gene-function characterization. Towards this goal, I am implementing a new recombineering approach that will enable large-scale gene tagging in Arabidopsis, preserving the chromosomal environment of the tagged genes.
Stepanova, A., Robertson-Hoyt, J., Yun, J., Benavente, L.M., Xie, D., Dolezal, K., Schlereth, A., Jürgens, G., and Alonso, J.M. (2008). TAA1-mediated auxin biosynthesis is essential for hormone crosstalk and plant development. Cell. 133: 177–191.
Stepanova, A.N., Yun, J., Likhacheva, A.V., and Alonso, J.M. (2007). Multilevel Interactions between Ethylene and Auxin in Arabidopsis Roots. Plant Cell. 19: 2169–85.
Alonso, J.M., and Ecker, J.R. (2006). Moving forward in reverse: genetic technologies to enable genome-wide phenomic screens in Arabidopsis. Nat. Rev. Genet. 7: 524–536
Stepanova, A.N., Hoyt, J.M., Hamilton, A.A., and Alonso, J.M. (2005). A Link between ethylene and auxin uncovered by the characterization of two root-specific ethylene-insensitive mutants in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell. 17: 2230–42
Alonso, J.M., et al. (2003). Genome-wide insertional mutagenesis of Arabidopsis thaliana. Science. 301: 653–657.
