Regents P rofessor, Plant Biology

 

Member, National Academy of Sciences
Ph.D. (1980) Cornell University

Phone: 706-542-1870
Email: sue@plantbio.uga.edu

Research in the Wessler Lab

Transposable elements 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 informatic approaches.

Lab Members

Awards

Creative Research Medal, University of Georgia, 2000

Research Interests

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.

Selected Publications

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

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.

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.

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.

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.