Chris Staiger

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

The microtubule and microfilament cytoskeleton is essential for many dynamic cellular process including: cell division, cytoplasmic streaming, cellular architecture and morphogenesis. The ultimate goal for our research is to analyze the regulatory and structural molecules associated with these cytoskeletal elements and to discover how these contribute to plant development. We have developed two complementary strategies for identifying and characterizing the components necessary for cell division and morphogenesis. The first, a cytological and molecular genetic analysis of cell division, makes use of a large collection of maize meiotic mutants. The second approach is to isolate actin-associated proteins using molecular and biochemical techniques, to characterize their function in vitro, and to use these as probes to dissect cytoskeletal function in living plant cells.

Selected Publications:

Zhang, S., C. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Ren, C.J. Staiger, and H. Ren.* 2016. A processive Arabidopsis formin modulates actin-filament dynamics in association with profilin. Molecular Plant doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2016.03.006

Cao P, L., J.L. Henty-Ridilla P, L. Blanchoin, C.J. Staiger.* 2016. Profilin-dependent nucleation and assembly of actin filaments controls cell elongation in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 170: 220-233

Li P, J., J.L. Henty-Ridilla P, B.H. Staiger U, B. Day, and C.J. Staiger.* 2015. Capping protein integrates multiple MAMP signalling pathways to modulate actin dynamics during plant innate immunity. Nature Communications 6:7206 doi: 10.1038/ncomms8206

Cai G, C., J.L. Henty-Ridilla G, D.B. Szymanski, and C.J. Staiger.* 2014. Arabidopsis Myosin XI: A motor rules the tracks. Plant Physiology 166: 1359-1370

Jiménez-López P, J.C., X. Wang P, S.O. Kotchoni, S. Huang P, D.B. Szymanski, and C.J. Staiger.* 2014. Heterodimeric capping protein from Arabidopsis is a membrane-associated, actin-binding protein. Plant Physiology 166: 1312-1328

Li P, J., B.H. Staiger PC, J.L. Henty-Ridilla P, M. Abu-Abied P, E. Sadot, L. Blanchoin, and C.J. Staiger.* 2014. The availability of filament ends modulates actin stochastic dynamics in live plant cells. Mol. Biol. Cell 25: 1263-1275

Henty-Ridilla P, J.L., J. Li P, B. Day, and C.J. Staiger.* 2014. Actin Depolymerizing Factor4 regulates actin dynamics during innate immune signaling in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 26: 340-352 {Featured as an In Brief highlight: K.L. Farquharson. 2014. Plant Cell doi: 10.1105/tpc.114.123174}

Mukherjee, D., A. Sen, D. Boettner, G. Fairn, D. Schlam, F.B. Valentin, J.M. McCaffery, T. Hazbun, C.J. Staiger, S. Grinstein, S.K. Lemmon, and R.C. Aguilar.* 2013. Bem3, a Cdc42 GTPase-Activating Protein, traffics to an intracellular compartment and recruits the secretory Rab GTPase Sec4 to endomembranes. J. Cell Sci. 126: 4560-4571

Hou, X., Z. Li, W. Huang, J. Li P, C. Staiger, S. Kuang, T. Ratliff, and X. Liu.* 2013. Plk1-dependent microtubule dynamics promotes androgen receptor signaling in prostate cancer. Prostate 73: 1352-1363

Henty-Ridilla G, J.L., M. Shimono, J. Li P, J.H. Chang, B. Day*, and C.J. Staiger*. 2013. The plant actin cytoskeleton responds to signals from microbe-associated molecular patterns. PLoS Pathogens 9(4): e1003290 [*co-corresponding authors]