Joseph R. Ecker 教授

The Salk Institute HHMI Investigator





研究方向:

Instead of resembling immutable proprietary software, a species‟ genetic information is more like open-source code that is constantly tweaked and optimized to meet the users‟ specific needs. So, which parts of the code have withstood the test of time, and which parts have undergone rapid evolutionary change? Joseph Ecker and his collaborators developed a simple method to comb whole genomes for all the software fixes and security patches accumulated over time. As a part of an international consortium, these scientists recently catalogued the genetic variations in over 1,001 strains of the mustard weed Arabidopsis thaliana that had been collected from the wild all over the world. As a general rule, genes that don‟t change over time perform important housekeeping functions, while genes that vary widely are likely to mediate interactions with the environment. Identifying the
genes that can help plants withstand challenging conditions such as heat, drought, high acidity, or salinity will give plant geneticists the tools to create tougher breeds that can easily adjust to new ecological niches arising due to climate change.

近期发表论文:

1.CrY2H-seq: a massively multiplexed assay for deep-coverage interactome mapping.Trigg SA, Garza RM, MacWilliams A, Nery JR, Bartlett A, Castanon R, Goubil A, Feeney J, O'Malley R, Huang SC, Zhang ZZ, Galli M, Ecker JR. Nat Methods. 2017 Jun 26. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.4343.
2.Improved regulatory element prediction based on tissue-specific local epigenomic signatures.He Y, Gorkin DU, Dickel DE, Nery JR, Castanon RG, Lee AY, Shen Y, Visel A, Pennacchio LA, Ren B, Ecker JR. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Feb 28;114(9):E1633-E1640. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1618353114. Epub 2017 Feb 13.
3.A transcription factor hierarchy defines an environmental stress response network.Song L, Huang SC, Wise A, Castanon R, Nery JR, Chen H, Watanabe M, Thomas J, Bar-Joseph Z, Ecker JR. Science. 2016 Nov 4;354(6312). pii: aag1550.
4.Cistrome and Epicistrome Features Shape the Regulatory DNA Landscape. O'Malley RC, Huang SC, Song L, Lewsey MG, Bartlett A, Nery JR, Galli M, Gallavotti A, Ecker JR. Cell. 2016 Sep 8;166(6):1598. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.08.063. Epub 2016 Sep 8. No abstract available.
5.Epigenomic Diversity in a Global Collection of Arabidopsis thaliana Accessions. Kawakatsu T, Huang SS, Jupe F, Sasaki E, Schmitz RJ, Urich MA, Castanon R, Nery JR, Barragan C, He Y, Chen H, Dubin M, Lee CR, Wang C, Bemm F, Becker C, O'Neil R, O'Malley RC, Quarless DX; 1001 Genomes Consortium, Schork NJ, Weigel D, Nordborg M, Ecker JR. Cell. 2016 Jul 14;166(2):492-505. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.06.044