Justin Goodrich's Staff Page


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Staff Page: Justin Goodrich

Email: justin.goodrich@ed.ac.uk	Telephone: +44 131 650 7032	Fax: +44 131 650 5392
Group Members: Ralf Mueller, Shih Chieh-Liang, Andrew Waters

Career:

Year	Description
2007-2009	Senior Lecturer in Developmental Biology
2003-2007	Lecturer in Developmental Biology
1996	Joined University of Edinburgh as Royal Society University Research Fellow
1992-1996	BBSRC Postdoctoral Fellow, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA and John Innes Institute
1992	PhD, Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia/John Innes Institute

Teaching:

I organize the second year course Plants Fungi and Symbiosis and teach I modules in third and fourth year courses concerning plant development and gene expression.

Research Interests: Epigenetic control of plant development

DNA is packaged on nucleosomes, made of histone proteins. Many different modifications of the histone tails occur and are linked with changes in gene activity and DNA compaction. Some modifications can be very stable, and in some cases are heritable through mitotis or even meiosis. Such changes are termed epigenetic; they differ from genetic changes in that DNA sequence is not altered and changes can be reversed more readily.

DNA nucleosomes

We are interested in the epigenetic control of plant development. Because epigenetic changes are stable during the life of an organism, but can be reset each new generation, they can be used to provide cells with a ‘memory’ of transient developmental events. We have identified several genes which provide plant cells with an epigenetic memory of their identity. Recent research suggests they do this by regulating histone methylation, leading to stable changes in expression of specific target genes:

The CURLY LEAF gene encodes a histone methyltransferase enzyme. Mutants are early flowering and have curled leaves. These defects arise because the gene AGAMOUS, normally expressed only in flowers, is activated precociously during vegetative development

Double mutants for CURLY LEAF and SWINGER show a more extreme phenotype. Plants are only viable if grown in tissue culture and form callus with somatic embryos. Cytogenetic analysis indicates that these plants have gross defects in histone methylation patterns

Current Research Aims:

To identify novel plant Polycomb genes and their antagonists, we conducted a large genetic screen for mutations modifying polycomb mutant phenotypes. We have isolated several of the genes involved and are characterising how they regulate gene activity. In collaboration with the group of Gwyneth Ingram, we are also analysis the role of the ZHOUPI (ZOU) gene in regulating epidermal development during embryogenesis in Arabidopsis. The ZOU gene encodes a transcription factor that promotes signalling from the endosperm to the young embryo and is required for normal epidermal development. We have identified several novel targets of ZOU and are currently testing their role in seed development.

Studentships available in my group:

PhD vacancies for September 2009 have been filled, applications for September 2010 are welcome.

Representative Publications:

Schatlowski,N., Creasey,K., Goodrich,J. , and Schubert,D.(2008). Keeping plants in shape: polycomb-group genes and histone methylation. Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. 19, 547-553.

Yang,S., Johnston,N., Talideh,E., Mitchell,S., Jeffree,C., Goodrich,J., and Ingram,G. (2008). The endosperm-specific ZHOUPI gene of Arabidopsis thaliana regulates endosperm breakdown and embryonic epidermal development. Development 135, 3501-3509.

Zhang, X., Clarenz, O., Cokus, S., Pellegrini, M., Goodrich, J., and S. Jacobsen (2007). Systematic Gene Silencing by Histone H3 Lysine27 Trimethylation in Arabidopsis. PLoS. Biol. 5: e129

Schubert, D., Primavesi, L., Bishopp, A., Jenuwein, T., and J. Goodrich (2006). Silencing by plant Polycomb-group genes requires dispersed trimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 27. EMBO J. 25: 4638-49.

Makarevich, G., Leroy, O., Akinci U. Schubert, D., Clarenz, O., Goodrich, J., Grossniklaus, U., and Köhler, C. (2006). Different Polycomb group complexes regulate common target genes in Arabidopsis. EMBO J. Rep 7: 947-953

Goodrich, J. & Wiener, P. (2005) A walk from the wild side: the genetics of domestication of livestock and crops. Bioessays 27, 574-576. [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 56 kB]

Schubert, D., Clarenz, O., and Goodrich, J. (2005) Epigenetic control of plant development by Polycomb-group proteins. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 8, 553-561. [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 256 kB]

Chanvivattana, Y., Bishopp, A., Schubert, D., Stock, C., Moon, Y.H., Sung, Z.R., Goodrich, J. (2004) Interaction of Polycomb-group proteins controlling flowering in Arabidopsis. Development 131: 5263-76. Epub 2004 Sep 29 [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 720 kB]

Lindroth, A.M., Shultis, D., Jasencakova, Z., Fuchs, J., Schubert, D., Johnson, L., Patnaik, D., Pradhan, S., Goodrich, J., Schubert, I., Jenuwein, T., Khorasanizadeh, S., Jacobsen, S.E. (2004). Dual histone methylation marks at lysines 9 and 27 required for interaction with CHROMOMETHYLASE3. EMBO J. 23: 4146-55. Epub 2004 Sep 30. [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 320 kB]

Narita, N.N, Moore S, Horiguchi S.G., Kubo, M., Demura, T., Fukuda, H., Goodrich J. and H. Tsukaya (2004) Overexpression of a novel small peptide ROTUNDIFOLIA4 decreases cell proliferation and alters leaf shape in Arabidopsis thaliana. The Plant Journal, 38(4), 699-713. [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 520 kB]

Schubert, D and Goodrich, J. (2003). Plant epigenetics: Medea's children take centre stage. Current Biology 13: R638-R640 [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 92 kB]

Goodrich, J. and Tweedie, S. (2002) Remembrance of things past: Chromatin remodeling in plant development. Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology 18, 707-746 [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 712 kB]

Eckardt NA, Araki T, Benning C, Cubas P, Goodrich J, Jacobsen SE, Masson P, Nambara E, Simon R, Somerville S, Wasteneys G. (2001). Arabidopsis Research 2001. Plant Cell 13:1973-82. [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 72 kB]

Spillane, C., MacDougall, C.M., Stock, C.P., Vielle-Calzada, J.-P., Köhler, C., Nunes, S., Grossniklaus, U. and Goodrich, J. (2000). Interaction of the Arabidopsis Polycomb group proteins FIE and MEA mediates their common phenotypes. Current Biology 10:1535-1538. [PubMed summary] [download pdf - 404 kB]

Goodrich, J., Puangsomlee, P., Long, D., Martin, M., Meyerowitz, E.M and G. Coupland. 1997. A Polycomb-group gene regulates homeotic gene expression in plants. Nature, 386: 44-51 [PubMed summary]