Q. Alison Liu Principle investigator & Research Assistant Professor Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology 418 Life Sciences Building Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY 11794-5215 Office telephone: 631-632-8537 E-mail: qionliu@notes.cc.sunysb.edu

Research description:

The current research aims to understand how global warming conditions impact on Arabidopsis plant epigenomes.  We will answer these three questions:

1. Whether elevated levels of carbon dioxide and temperatures affect gene expression through altering genomic DNA methylation, histone marks, and non-coding small RNA expression.
2. Whether these epigenetic changes contribute to phenotypic changes induced by these two conditions.
3. Whether the acquired epigenetic changes from these environmental stresses can be inherited cross generations.

Approaches

The next generation sequencing; statistics; computational biology; genetics.

Selected publications:

• May P, Liao W, Shuai B, Zhang MQ, Liu QA.  Opposing Effects of CO2 and Temperature on microRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana.  Submitted.
• Liu QA, Shio H. (2008).  Mitochondrial Morphogenesis, Dendrite Development, and Synapse Formation in Cerebellum Require Both Bcl-w and the Glutamate Receptor Delta2. PLoS Genet.  4(6): e1000097
• Liu QA, Hengartner MO. (1999) Human CED-6 Encodes a Functional Homologue of the Caenorhabditis elegans Engulfment Protein CED-6.  Curr Biol. 9(22): 1347-50
• Liu QA, Hengartner MO. (1998). Candidate Adaptor Protein CED-6 Promotes the Engulfment of Apoptotic Cells in C. elegans.  Cell. 93(6): 961-72.

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