Today we gleefully celebrated Dr. Sarah Matar’s (possibly the best baker in Wagner Lab history) birthday with two delicious chocolate cakes. Getting innovative with cake traditions she blew out her candles using an ensemble method of allowing the wind to blow them out to waving her hand back and forth. A very impressive birthday scientist indeed!
Author: klasfeld
Happy Halloween from the Wagner Lab
For this years spooky season we celebrated by carving pumpkins, drinking pumpkin soup, and eating pumpkin pie. For many of us it was our first time carving pumpkins, and we had so much fun despite the wind.
H2A.Z contributes to trithorax activity at the AGAMOUS locus.
Citation:
Lee US, Bieluszewski T, Xiao J, Yamaguchi A, Wagner D: H2A.Z contributes to trithorax activity at the AGAMOUS locus. Mol Plant 2022.
Abstract:
In multicellular eukaryotes, Polycomb repression heritably silences gene expression programs not needed or detrimental for a given developmental stage or tissue (Schuettengruber et al., 2017). During cell fate reprogramming, Polycomb silencing can be overcome by the combined activity of multiple Trithorax group (TrxG) proteins (Wu et al., 2012; Liang et al., 2015; Schuettengruber et al., 2017). TrxG proteins are genetically defined as suppressors of homeotic defects caused by loss of Polycomb function and have diverse enzymatic activities (Schuettengruber et al., 2017). We used a genetic enhancer screen to identify candidate TrxG proteins and uncovered TrxG activity for components of the SWR1 chromatin remodeling complex, which deposits the histone variant H2A.Z (Deal et al., 2007; March-Diaz et al., 2008).
Wagner lab celebrates us
After a busy year of sheltering in place and self-quarantines, Dr. Doris Wagner and Dr. John Wagner treated the lab and loved ones to a joyful dinner in her backyard. This past year+ was a bit quirky, but we made the best of what we could. Who knows what the future may bring, but for now, we are so thankful to be able to feast and socialize together again.
Wagner Lab is Fully Covid-19 Vaccinated
With so many new faces joining the Wagner lab over the last year, about half the lab has only known our lab meetings as virtual. However, now that all the members of the Wagner lab have been fully vaccinated, we can finally return to lab meetings in-person. While virtual meetings had their pros (its easier to see the minute details of a slide on your own computer) and cons (having to constantly monitor your mute button), having our first in-person lab meeting felt like an accomplishment that warranted a group selfie.
Adam Konkol is awarded a Churchill Scholarship
Senior at University of Pennsylvania, Adam Konkol, an undergraduate who worked in the Wagner lab, was awarded a Churchill Scholarship along with December graduate Abigail Timmel. Featured in PennToday, the Wagner Lab is excited to have been a part of Konkol’s journey and look forward to what the future has in store. For more information, see the PennToday article at: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/two-churchill-scholars-penn
Wagner Lab welcomes Dr. Sarah Matar
The Wagner Lab is delighted to receive yet another fantastic addition to our team. Dr. Sarah Matar joins us after defending her PhD thesis on the vernalization-driven transition to flowering in winter rapeseed in the lab of Dr. Christian Jung of the Plant breeding institute in Kiel University in Germany. In the Wagner Lab, we look forward to her work on understanding the antagonistic roles of FT and TFL1.
Wagner Lab welcomes Dr. Sandhan Prakash
This Valentines Day weekend the Wagner Lab welcomed the newest member of our lab, Dr. Sandhan Prakash, to the City of Brotherly Love! Dr. Prakash flew all the way from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, India where he received his Ph.D. In the Wagner Lab, he plans to study the function of epigenomic regulators in cell fate reprogramming and plant survival mechanism during abiotic stress response.
First ever ‘pioneer’ factor found in plants enables cells to change their fate
The Wagner Lab’s most recent publication uncovers the role of a protein called “LFY” in Arabidopsis chromatin regulation. A news release on the publication was covered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). To see the article click here.