个人简介

Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco B.A., Kansas State University

研究领域

Biochemistry/Molecular Biology

The Bowerman lab uses molecular genetics and live cell imaging to study cytoskeletal regulation and function in the early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. Beginning with the first mitotic division, the early embryo undergoes a sequence of five asymmetric cleavages. These early divisions are largely responsible for establishing the pattern of cell fates required for normal early embryonic development. These asymmetric cell divisions, with their highly stereotyped timing and mitotic spindle positioning, provide a rich context in which to use the powerful genetics of C. elegans to investigate cytoskeleton function during cell division and development. The actomyosin cytoskeleton, including the non-muscle myosin II called NMY-2 (in red in the late anaphase mitotic one-cell stage embryo shown above) is localized predominantly to the cell cortex. The actomyosin cytoskeleton is important both for generating anterior-posterior polarity, and for cytokinesis. Microtubules (in green in the above figure; DNA is in blue) form both the meiotic and mitotic spindles, which capture and segregate chromosomes during cell division. Current projects in lab focus on both oocyte meiotic spindle assembly, which occurs in the absence of the microtubule organizing centers called centrosomes, and mitotic spindle assembly, which is organized in large part by centrosomes. The movie below on the left shows Meiosis I and II in an oocyte after fertilization and during ovulation. A row of three oocytes are present on the left, with the spermathecum adjacent to the most mature oocyte, and mitotic embryos in the uterus are visible at the right. This movie was filmed using whole mount worms expressing a GFP fusion to tubulin to label microtubules in green, and an mCherry fusion to a histone to label chromosomes in red. The movie below on the right shows the first two rounds of mitotic division in an isolated early embryo (again with GFP labeling microtubules in green, and mCherry labeling histones in red).

近期论文

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W. Q. Gillis, Bruce A Bowerman and Stephan Q Schneider (2009). The evolution of protostome GATA factors: Molecular phylogenetics, synteny, and intron/exon structure reveal orthologous relationships. BMC Evolutionary Biology, in press. M. Dorfman, J.-E. Gomes, S. O. O’Rourke and B. Bowerman (2009). Using RNA interference to identify specific modifiers of a temperature-sensitive, embryonic-lethal mutation in the C. elegans ubiquitin-like Nedd8 protein modification pathway gene rfl-1. Genetics, in press J. Canman, L. Lewellyn, K. Laband, S. J. Smerdon, A. Desai, B. Bowerman* and K. Oegema* (2008). Inhibition of Rac by the GAP activity of centralspindlin is essential for cytokinesis. Science 322, 1543-46. (*co-last authors) PMCID: NIHMSID #124882 Gassmann, R., Essex, A., Hu, J.-S., Maddox, P. S., Motegi, F., Sugimoto, A., O’Rourke, S. M., Bowerman, B., McLeod, I., Yates, J. R. III, Oegema, K., Cheeseman, I. M., and A. Desai (2008). A new mechanism controlling kinetochore-microtubule interactions revealed by comparison of two dynein-targeting components: SPDL-1 and the Rod/Zwilch/Zw10 complex, Genes & Development 22, 2385-2399. PMCID: PMC2532926 W. Q. Gillis, B. A. Bowerman and S. Q. Schneider (2008). The evolution of protostome GATA factors: molecular phylogenetics, synteny, and intron/exon structure reveal orthologous relationships, BioMedCentral Evolutionary Biology 8, 112-127. PMCID: PMC2383905 S. Lee, V. Horn, E. Julien, Y. Liu, J. Wysocka, B. Bowerman, H. Hengartner and W. Herr (2007). Epigenetic regulation of histone H3 serine 10 phosphorylation status by HCF-1 proteins in C. elegans and mammalian cells, Public Library of Science One 11, e1213. Couwenbergs C, Labbe JC, Goulding M, Marty T, Bowerman B, Gotta M., (2007). Heterotrimeric G protein signaling functions with dynein to promote spindle positioning in C. elegans. J Cell Biol. [Epub ahead of print] Goulding MB, Canman JC, Senning EN, Marcus AH, Bowerman B., (2007). Control of nuclear centration in the C. elegans zygote by receptor-independent G{alpha} signaling and myosin II. J Cell Biol., 178(7):1177-91. J.-M. Bellanger, J. C. Carter, J. B. Phillips, C. Canard, B. Bowerman and P. Gönczy (2007). TAC-1/ZYG-9 and ZYG-8 promote microtubule stability during both interphase and mitosis in C. elegans embryos. J. Cell Science 120:2963-2973 O'Rourke S.M., Dorfman M.D., Carter J.C., Bowerman B., (2007). Dynein modifiers in C. elegans: light chains suppress conditional heavy chain mutants. PLoS Genet. 3 (8): e128 [Epub ahead of print] S. Q. Schneider and B. Bowerman (2007) β-catenin asymmetries after all animal/vegetal- oriented cell divisions in Platynereis dumerilii embryos mediate binary cell-fate specification, Developmental Cell, 13 (1): 73-86 W. J. Gillis, B. Bowerman, S. Q. Schneider (2007). Ectoderm- and endomesoderm-specific GATA transcription factors in the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii. Evol Dev 9 (1): 39-50. D. Poteryaev, H. Fares, B. Bowerman and A. Spang (2007) Caenorhabditis elegans SAND-1 is a novel regulator of RAB-7 in endosomal traffic. The EMBO Journal 26: 301–312, Lyczak R., Zweier, L., Group, T., Murrow, M.A., Snyder, C., Kulovitz, L., Beatty, A., Smith, K., Bowerman, B. (2006) The puromycin-sensitive aminopeptidase PAM-1 is required for meiotic exit and anteroposterior polarity in the one-cell Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. Development 133: 4281-4292 J. H. Willis, E. Munro, R. Lyczak and B. Bowerman (2006). Dominant mutations in the C. elegans gene act-2 identify cytoplasmic and muscle roles for a redundant actin isoform. Mol. Biol. Cell 17, 1051-64. N. C. Hawkins, G. C. Ellis, B. Bowerman and G. Garriga (2005). MOM-5 Frizzled regulates the distribution of DSH-2 to control C. elegans asymmetric neuroblast divisions. Dev. Biology 284, 246-259. T. Kurz, N. Ozlu, F. Rudolf, S. M. O’Rourke, B. Luke, K. Hoffman, A. A. Hyman, B. Bowerman and M. Peter (2005). Identification of a conserved protein required for cullin neddylation in C. elegans and S. cerevisiae. Nature, 435:1257-61. (*co-last authors) Encalada S.E., J. Willis, R. Lyczak, and B. Bowerman. (2005) A Spindle Checkpoint Functions during Mitosis in the Early Caenorhabditis elegans Embryo. Mol Biol Cell 16:1056-70. Koushika S.P., A.M.Schaefer, R. Vincent, J.H. Willis, B. Bowerman, and M.L. Nonet (2004) Mutations in Caenorhabditis elegans cytoplasmic dynein components reveal specificity of neuronal retrograde cargo. J Neurosci 24:3907-16. Phillips J.B., R. Lyczak, G.C. Ellis, and B. Bowerman (2004) Roles for two partially redundant alpha-tubulins during mitosis in early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. Cell Motil Cytoskeleton 58:112-26.