Fellows

Current | Alumni Lisette Acevedo Rodolfo Gonzalez Kelly D. Hester Michelle Juarez Amy L. Lane Shauna McGillivray Sara K. Olson Karen K. Resendes Fatima Rivas Paula Campos Soto Francisco Villa Geanncarlo Lugo-Villarino Amanda Wright Alexander C. Zambon

Amanda Wright Ph.D. IRACDA Fellow in Cell and Developmental Biology Email:ajwright@biomail.ucsd.edu

Education
B.S., 1997, Cell and Molecular Biology, Texas Tech University (mentor R. J. Baker)
M.A., 2001, Biochemistry, Harvard University (mentor C. P. Hunter)
Ph.D., 2003, Biology, Harvard University (mentor C. P. Hunter)

Employment
Postdoctoral scholar, systemic RNAi in C. elegans, Harvard University (mentor C.P. Hunter), 2003-2005
Postdoctoral scholar, cell division in maize, UCSD (mentor L. G. Smith), 2005-present

Research Interests
            For my graduate thesis I studied two unusual C. elegans tubulin mutants with defects in asymmetric cell divisions.  This project sparked my interest in understanding how cells control the cytoskeleton during cell division.  For my postdoctoral research I wanted to learn a new model organism and chose to train in a plant lab.   The Smith lab takes a genetic approach to determining how the orientation of division planes is established and executed in plant cells.  In addition to the spindle, plant cells construct two additional cytoskeletal elements during mitosis.  The placement of the preprophase band predicts the plane of division and the phragmoplast helps organize the new cell wall formed during cytokinesis.  I’m studying the discordia group of maize mutants, which have defects in cell division, to learn more about the role of these cytoskeletal structures in cell division.  I cloned discordia1 and found it encodes a regulatory subunit of a PP2A phosphatase.  Knocking down the levels of discordia1 and its homologue in the maize genome, alternative discordia1, disrupts preprophase band formation. The other two discordia mutants, discordia2 and discordia3 have defects in phragmoplast guidance.  By cloning these two genes, I hope to learn more about the proteins and processes needed for phragmoplast guidance.  
           
            My future plans are to obtain a professor position at a research university or research active liberal arts college so that I can continue to combine my twin passions of teaching and research. 

Recent Teaching:
Bio100 Lectures - Mitosis & Meiosis, Evolution, Microevolution, Human Evolution, Nucleic Acids, Gene Regulation (6 lectures)
Bio100, Co-Instructor (Summer 2008)
Laboratory training – mentored 3 undergraduates and 1 research technician

Publications

Wright AJ, Gallagher K, Smith LG.  Two PP2A phosphatase subunits, discordia1 and alternativediscordia1, are needed for PPB formation in maize.  In preparation. 

Hinas A*, Wright AJ*, and Hunter CP.  SID-5 is required for effective systemic RNA interference in C. elegans.  In preparation.   * co-first authors 

Wright AJ, and Smith LG. (2008). Division plane orientation in plant cells. In Cell Division Control in Plants, Verma, D. P. S., and Z. Hong, Springer, pp. 33-57.

Winston WM, Sutherlin M, Wright AJ, Feinberg EH, and Hunter CP.  2007.  Caenorhabditis elegans SID-2 is required for environmental RNA interference.  PNAS.  107:  10565-10570

Paradez A, Wright A, and Ehrhardt DW.  2007.  Microtubule cortical array organization and plant cell morphogenesis.  Curr. Opin. Plant. Biol.  9: 571-578

Hunter CP, Winston WM, Moldowich C, Feinberg EH, Shih J, Sutherlin MJ, Wright AJ, and Fitzgerald MC.  2006.  Systemic RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans.  Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol.  71:95-100

Wright AJ and Hunter CP.  2003.  Mutations in a b-tubulin disrupt spindle orientation and microtubule dynamics in the early C. elegans embryo.  Molecular Biology of the Cell.  14:4512-4525.

Baker RJ, DeWoody JA, Wright AJ, and Chesser RK.  1999.  On the utility of heteroplasmy in genotoxicity studies:  an example from Chornobyl.  Ecotoxicology.  8(4):301-309.

Wright AJ, Van Den Bussche RA, Lim BK, Engstrom MD and Baker RJ.  1999.  Systematics of the genera Carollia and Rhinophylla based on the cytochrome-b gene.  Journal of Mammalogy.  80(4):1202-1213.

Section of Cell and Developmental Biology
University of California, San Diego
5135 Muir Biology
9500 Gilman Drive                              
La Jolla, CA  92093-0116
Email: ajwright@biomail.ucsd.edu

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