LIU LAB
@
College of
Biological Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-DAVIS
2203 LIFE SCIENCES
Telephone: (530) 754-8139
FAX: (530) 752-5410
Our laboratory is located in room 2203 of the Life
Sciences building. Our team works on how
plant and fungal cells organize their cytoplasmic
contents. We use microscopic and imaging
tools to watch how cells divide and increase their sizes. People in the laboratory also routinely carry
out experiments of protein biochemistry, molecular biology, as well as
classical and molecular genetics. We
have open positions for graduate
students and undergraduate students.
If you are interested in traveling into plant and fungal cells, please
contact Dr.
People in
the Laboratory:
Dedicated
Graduate Students:
Miss Kimmy Ho
Miss
Determined
postdoctoral scientists:
Dr.
Dr.
Dr.
Dr. Julie Lee (Ph.D.,
Devoted
technician:
Ms.
Dependable
undergraduate students:
Mr.
Mr.
Distinguished
visiting scientists:
Dr. Longbiao Guo
(Professor, China National Rice Research Institute,
A Picture
from Our Experiments:
This is a rice cell undergoing cell division. Daughter nuclei were labeled in blue,
microtubules in red, and one of our favorite kinesins
(a class of motor proteins) in green.
This OsPAKRP1 kinesin (or OsKinesin-12A) was
discovered in 2203 LSA in 2000.
An Example
of the Organisms We Are Working On:
These are images of colonies of the filamentous
fungus Aspergillus nidulans. This fungus is one of the model organisms
used for classical genetic studies of fundamental biological processes like the
cell cycle. The yellow color was given
by the asexual conidial spores produced on the surface of the colonies. The images were taken from identical plates
incubated at different temperatures indicated on the left. The strain to the left was a control one
which demonstrated a typical growth phenomenon.
The middle and right ones were mutants which had problems in nuclear
migration. It has been demonstrated by
many scientists that the mechanism for nuclear migration in this fungus is very
similar to that regulating nuclear migration during fertilization and in brain
development in mammals.
Recent
Publications:
Lee, Y.R.J., and B. Liu. 2004. Cytoskeletal motors
in Arabidopsis. Sixty-one kinesins and seventeen myosins. Plant Physiol. 136: 3877-3883.
Lu, L.,
Y.R.J. Lee, R. Pan, J.N. Maloof, and B. Liu. 2005. An internal motor kinesin is associated with the Golgi apparatus and plays a
role in trichome morphogenesis in Arabidopsis. Mol. Biol.
Cell. 16:811-823.
Kim,
J.-M., L. Lu, R. Shao, J. Chin, and B. Liu. 2006. Mutations that bypass the
requirement of the septation initiation network for
septum formation and conidiation in Aspergillus nidulans. Genetics. 173:685-696.
Lee, Y.-R.J., Y. Li, and B. Liu. 2007. Two homologous phragmoplast-associated kinesins
play a critical role in cytokinesis during male gametogenesis in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell. 19:2595-2605.