Natasha Raikhel
Distinguished Professor of Plant Cell Biology
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Ernst and Helen Leibacher Chair Director, Plant Cell Biology
M.S. in Biology, 1970
VOICE: 951 827-6370 |
I received my M.S. in Biology in 1970 and my Ph.D. from the Institute of Cytology in Leningrad, USSR, in 1975. I studied conjugation of the ciliate Dileptus anser under the direction of Dr. Igor Raikov. After postdoctoral studies, I continued at the Institute as an Assistant Professor until 1979 when I emigrated from the USSR with my husband and a small son. At the University of Georgia in Athens, GA, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate under the direction of Dr. Barry Palevitz, investigating the cell biology of wheat germ agglutinin and related lectins.
I was appointed to the DOE-Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University as an Assistant Professor in 1986. There I developed a research program to study the genes involved in nuclear and vacuolar protein sorting in Arabidopsis thaliana. My promotion to Full Professor was followed by my selection as a University Distinguished Professor. I served on numerous government and industry advisory boards and several editorial boards and was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Plant Physiology starting May 2000.
I moved to UC Riverside in January 2002, where I hold the Ernst and Helen Leibacher Endowed Chair in Plant Molecular, Cell Biology & Genetics, and Distinguished Professor of Plant Cell Biology. I am also Director of the newly organized Center for Plant Cell Biology (CEPCEB) within the UCR Genomics Institute led by Professor Michael Clegg.
During the past few years, we identified a variety of genes that mediate vesicle trafficking in plant cells. Recently, our research has expanded to include the genetic control of cell wall polysaccharide biosynthesis. Research in my laboratory is question-driven and we are using all approaches necessary to address our scientific questions. Our multidisciplinary approach utilizes a combination of cellular, molecular, genetic, proteomic, and genomic technologies. The high throughput capacity of these new approaches is such that it is possible to obtain information about each of the molecular components of an organism and to integrate this information into a comprehensive view of the organism. For plant system biology to succeed, we must adopt modeling and simulation tools that are used by engineers and actively utilize computational biology and mathematical methods for modeling complex biological systems and generating hypotheses. We are moving in this direction.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Vacuolar Trafficking
Vitale A, Raikhel NV (1999) What do proteins need to reach different vacuoles? Trends Plant Sci 4: 149-155.
Zheng H, Fischer von Mollard G, Kovaleva V, Stevens TH, Raikhel NV (1999) The plant vesicle-associated SNARE AtVTI1a likely mediates vesicle transport from the trans-Golgi network to the prevacuolar compartment. Mol Biol Cell 10: 2251-2264
Ahmed SU, Rojo E, Kovaleva V, Venkataraman S, Dombrowski JE, Matsuoka K, Raikhel NV (2000) The plant vacuolar sorting receptor AtELP is involved in transport of NH2-terminal propeptide-containing vacuolar proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana. J Cell Biol 149: 1335-1344.
Bassham DC, Raikhel NV (2000) Plant cells are not just green yeast. Plant Physiol 122: 999-1001.
Bassham DC, Raikhel NV (2000) Unique features of the plant vacuolar sorting machinery. Curr Opin Cell Biol 12: 491-495.
Bassham DC, Sanderfoot AA, Kovaleva V, Zheng HY, Raikhel NV (2000) AtVPS45 complex formation at the trans-Golgi network. Mol Biol Cell 11, 2251-2265.
Sanderfoot AA, Assaad FF, Raikhel NV (2000) The Arabidopsis Genome. An abundance of Soluble N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive factor adaptor protein receptors. Plant Physiol 124: 1558-1569.
Rojo E, Gillmor CS, Kovaleva V, Somerville CR, Raikhel NV (2001) VACUOLELESS1 is an essential gene required for vacuole formation and morphogenesis in Arabidopsis. Dev Cell 1: 303-310.
Sanderfoot AA, Kovaleva V, Bassham DC, Raikhel NV (2001) Interactions between syntaxins identify at least five SNARE complexes within the Golgi/Prevacuolar system of the Arabidopsis cell. Mol Biol Cell 12:3733-3743.
Sanderfoot, AA, Pilgrim M, Adam L, Raikhel NV (2001) Disruption of individual members of Arabidopsis syntaxin gene families indicates each have essential functions. Plant Cell 13: 659-666.
Rojo E, Sharma VK, Kovaleva V, Raikhel NV, Fletcher JC (2002) CLV3 is Localized to the Extracellular Space, Where It Activates the Arabidopsis CLAVATA Stem Cell Signaling Pathway. Plant Cell 14: 969-977.
Zheng H, Bednarek SY, Sanderfoot AA, Alonso J, Ecker JR, Raikhel NV (2002) NPSN11 is a Cell Plate-Associated SNARE Protein That Interacts with the Syntaxin KNOLLE. Plant Physiol 129: 530-539.
Price NJ, Rieter, W-D, Raikhel NV (2002) Glycosyltransferases Involved in Polysaccharide Biosynthesis, The Arabidopsis Book, eds. Somerville CR and Meyerowitz EM, American Society of Plant Biologists, Rockville, MD, DOI 10.1199/tab.0025.
Sanderfoot AA, Raikhel NV (2002) The Secretory System of Arabidopsis, The Arabidopsis Book, eds. Somerville CR and Meyerowitz EM, American Society of Plant Biologists, Rockville, MD. DOI 10.1199/tab.0098.
Rojo E, Zouhar J, Kovaleva V, Hong S, Raikhel NV (2003) The AtC-VPS Protein Complex is Localized to the Tonoplast and the Prevacuolar Compartment in Arabidopsis. Mol Biol Cell 14: 361-369.
Rojo E, Zouhar J, Carter C, Kovaleva V, Raikhel NV (2003) A Unique Mechanism for Protein Processing and Degradation in Arabidopsis Thaliana. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100: 7389-7394.
Cell Wall Metabolism
Perrin RM, DeRocher AE, Bar-Peled M, Zeng W, Norambuena L, Orellana A, Raikhel NV, Keegstra K (1999) Xyloglucan fucosyltransferase, an enzyme involved in plant cell wall biosynthesis. Science 284: 1976-1979.
Faik A, Bar-Peled M, DeRocher AE, Zeng WQ, Perrin RM, Wilkerson C, Raikhel NV, Keegstra K (2000) Biochemical characterization and molecular cloning of an -(1,2) fucosyltransferase that catalyzes the last step of cell wall xyloglucan biosynthesis in pea. J Biol Chem 275: 15082-15089.
Keegstra K and Raikhel NV (2001) Plant glycosyltransferases Curr Opin Plant Biol 4: 219-224.
Sarria R, Wagner TA, Neill MO, Faik A, Wilkerson C, Keegstra K, and Raikhel NV(2001) Characterization of a family of Arabidopsis genes related to xyloglucan fucosyltransferase. Plant Physiol 127: 1595-1606.
Faik A, Price NF, Raikhel NV, Keegstra K (2002) Arabidopsis Gene Encoding an a-xylosyltransferase Involved in Xyloglucan Biosynthesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99: 7797-7802.
Vanzin GF, Madson M, Carpita NC, Raikhel, NV, Keegstra K, and Reiter WD (2002) The mur2 mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana lacks fucoslyated xyloglucan because of a lesion in fucosyltransferase AtFUT1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:3340-3345.
Invited Contributions and Book Chapters
Price NJ, Reiter WD, Raikhel NV (2002) Glycosyltransferases Involved in Polysaccharide Biosynthesis, The Arabidopsis Book, eds. C.R. Somerville and E.M. Meyerowitz, American Society of Plant Biologists, Rockville, MD, DOI 10.1199/tab.0025.
Sanderfoot AA, Raikhel NV (2002) Vesicle Trafficking, The Arabidopsis Book, eds. C.R. Somerville and E.M. Meyerowitz, American Society of Plant Biologists, Rockville, MD, DOI 10.1199/tab.0098.
Cech TR, Eddy SR, Eisenberg D, Hersey K, Holtzman SH, Poste GH, Raikhel NV, Scheller RH, Singer DB, Waltham MC (2002) The National Academy of Sciences-Sponsored Report: "Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences." ed. Grossblatt N, The National Academies Press, Washington DC.