Bio:
Barbara Wakimoto is a Professor of Biology, an Adjunct Professor of Genome Sciences, and a member of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program at the University of Washington. Her training in developmental biology began as an undergraduate at Arizona State University. As a graduate student at Indiana University, Barbara got hooked on genetics working with Thom Kaufman on defining the genes in the Antennapedia Complex of Drosophila. As a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow, she studied gene expression during Drosophila oogenesis with Allan Spradling at the Carnegie Institution. She joined the UW faculty as an Assistant Professor and Searles Scholar in 1984. She was a Washington Research Foundation Professor of Basic Biological Sciences in 2005-2007 and was named a AAAS Fellow in 2007.
Barbara’s current research focuses on understanding mechanisms of fertilization, paternal effects on development, and chromosome imprinting. She also has a long-standing interest in the quality of postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate training at large public research universities and directs the UW’s NIH-funded Developmental Biology Training Grant (DBTG) and UW-HHMI Undergraduate Biological Science Education Programs.
Research Interests:
Developmental Genetics, Reproductive Biology, Fertilization
Chromosome Structure, Genetics and Genomics of Heterochromatin
The Wakimoto Lab has focused on two different research topics in developmental biology and chromosome biology in recent years. In both cases, we use genetics, genomics and cell biological approaches.
Currently, we are undertaking a large-scale analysis of fertilization-defective and paternal effect mutations of Drosophila. The investment in recovery and analysis of these male sterile mutations has been extensive, but we now have the best handle on the genetics of fertilization and sperm function in any organism. Using a combination of forward genetics and reverse genetics, we are discovering highly conserved molecules important for sperm activation, sperm-egg interactions, and maintenance of paternal chromosomes during early embryogenesis.
Our studies of Drosophila heterochromatic genes investigate the structure and regulation of genes that are located in regions typically viewed as “silenced” chromatin states. Our impact has been to challenge traditional views of heterochromatin and provide evidence for heterochromatin as an activating state for transcription and replication. The field of heterochromatin has expanded enormously in recent years yet heterochromatic genes remain an outstanding “exception to the rule” for informing current models of how higher order chromatin structure affects gene expression. Our work has also contributed to our understanding of the epigenetic landscape of the heterochromatic portion of the genome of multicellular organisms.
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Selected Publications:
Cooper, JL, Greene, EA, Till, BJ, Codomo, CA, Wakimoto, BT, Henikoff, S. Retention of induced mutations in a Drosophila reverse-genetic resource. Genetics, 2008, in press.
Yasuhara JC, Wakimoto BT. Molecular landscape of modified histones in Drosophila heterochromatic genes and euchromatin-heterochromatin transition zones. PLoS Genet. 2008 Jan;4(1):e16.
Smith MK, Wakimoto BT. Complex regulation and multiple developmental functions of misfire, the Drosophila melanogaster ferlin gene. BMC Dev Biol. 2007 Mar 26;7:21.
Wilson KL, Fitch KR, Bafus BT, Wakimoto BT. Sperm plasma membrane breakdown during Drosophila fertilization requires sneaky, an acrosomal membrane protein. Development. 2006 Dec;133(24):4871-9.
Yasuhara JC, Wakimoto BT. Oxymoron no more: the expanding world of heterochromatic genes. Trends Genet. 2006 Jun;22(6):330-8.
Yasuhara JC, DeCrease CH, Wakimoto BT. Evolution of heterochromatic genes of Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Aug 2;102(31):10958-63.
Wakimoto BT, Lindsley DL, Herrera C. Toward a comprehensive genetic analysis of male fertility in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics. 2004 May;167(1):207-16.
Giansanti MG, Farkas RM, Bonaccorsi S, Lindsley DL, Wakimoto BT, Fuller MT, Gatti M. Genetic dissection of meiotic cytokinesis in Drosophila males. Mol Biol Cell. 2004 May;15(5):2509-22.
Yasuhara JC, Marchetti M, Fanti L, Pimpinelli S, Wakimoto BT. A strategy for mapping the heterochromatin of chromosome 2 of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetica. 2003 Mar;117(2-3):217-26.
Hoskins RA, Smith CD, Carlson JW, Carvalho AB, Halpern A, Kaminker JS, Kennedy C, Mungall CJ, Sullivan BA, Sutton GG, Yasuhara JC, Wakimoto BT, Myers EW, Celniker SE, Rubin GM, Karpen GH. Heterochromatic sequences in a Drosophila whole-genome shotgun assembly. Genome Biol. 2002;3(12):RESEARCH0085.
Tomkiel JE, Wakimoto BT, Briscoe A Jr. The teflon gene is required for maintenance of autosomal homolog pairing at meiosis I in male Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics. 2001 Jan;157(1):273-81.
Teaching Interests:
Barbara's contributions to the department's and UW's teaching and training missions include teaching throughout the curriculum and directing two programs. Her recent courses include: a freshmen seminar on malaria biology; junior and senior level cell biology courses; and graduate courses in developmental biology.
Please see the following Web sites to learn about the programs that she directs.
For the DBTG and also the Seattle Dev Biol Group see: http://www.fhcrc.org/science/groups/developmentalbiology/Home.html
For the UW-HHMI, see:
http://monera.biology.washington.edu/hhmi/ |
