A primary research interest in the laboratory is understanding gene silencing, a process where gene expression is blocked by making DNA inaccessible to activating factors. Aberrant gene silencing has been identified as a key component of "multiple hit" gene inactivation during the progression of cancer. Furthermore, gene silencing often affects newly-integrated DNA in genetically-modified animals and plants, making it difficult to construct organisms that stably express the introduced desirable trait. We are using a model laboratory plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, to characterize the factors that trigger gene silencing. Control of these factors could lead to improved strategies for genetic engineering of plants and animals, and could even potentially lead to novel therapeutic targets in the treatment of gene silencing-related diseases.

A second research interest in the laboratory is understanding regulation of the Arabidopsis genes involved in biosynthesis of the amino acid tryptophan. Beyond elucidating common plant strategies for controlling gene expression, this research has applications in genetic engineering of plants with elevated levels of soluble tryptophan. Because tryptophan is not synthesized by animals, and because this amino acid is rare in many common agricultural plants such as corn, improving the tryptophan content of plants could directly improve their nutritional worth.

Biochemistry and molecular biology, Arabidopsis thaliana, gene expression, tryptophan biosynthesis, signal transduction, epigenetic control, DNA methylation, gene silencing, chromatin

1982 Phi Beta Kappa, Radcliffe Chapter

1982 Henderson Prize for best undergraduate thesis in Biochemistry, Harvard-Radcliffe College

1982-1985 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship

1991-1993 Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowship

1997-1998 March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Award

1997-2000 Searle Scholars Award

2001 Elected co-Chair of Epigenetics Gordon Conference to be held in 2005

Quiel, J. and Bender, J. (2003). Glucose conjugation of anthranilate by the Arabidopsis UGT74F2 glucosyltransferase is required for tryptophan mutant blue fluorescence. J. Biol. Chem., in press.

Malagnac, F., Bartee, L., and Bender, J. (2002) An Arabidopsis SET domain protein required for maintenance but not establishment of DNA methylation. EMBO J., 21, 6842-6852.

Bender, J. (2002) Plant Epigenetics. Current Biol., 12, R412-R414.

Smolen, G.A., Pawlowski, L., Wilensky, S.E., and Bender, J. (2002) Dominant alleles of the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor ATR2 activate stress-responsive genes in Arabidopsis. Genetics, 161, 1235-1246.

Smolen, G. and Bender, J. (2002) Arabidopsis cytochrome P450 cyp83B1 mutations activate the tryptophan biosynthetic pathway. Genetics, 160, 323-332.

Bender, J. (2001) A vicious cycle: RNA silencing and DNA methylation in plants. Cell, 106, 129-132.

Bartee, L., Malagnac, F., and Bender, J. (2001) . Genes Dev. 15, 1753-1758.

Symer, D.E. and Bender, J. (2001) Hip-hopping out of control. Nature 411, 146-148.

Bartee, L. and Bender, J. (2001) Two Arabidopsis methylation-deficiency mutations confer only partial effects on a methylated endogenous gene family. Nucleic Acids Res. 29, 2127-2134.

Melquist, S., Luff, B., and Bender, J. (1999) Arabidopsis PAI gene arrangements, cytosine methylation, and expression. Genetics 153, 401-413.

Luff, B., Pawlowski, L., and Bender, J. (1999) An inverted repeat triggers de novo methylation of identical sequences in Arabidopsis. Mol. Cell 3, 505-511.