Poultry Science: Personnel

Personnel

Dr. Robert B. Beckstead Assistant Professor Ph.D, Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX B.S., Molecular Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT Poultry Science Department 119 Poultry Science Building University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-2772 Phone: (706) 542-0387 Fax: (706) 542-1827 Email: robertb@uga.edu

Research Interests

Regulation of gene expression

Research Program

I am interested in understanding the molecular basis of how changes in gene expression result in the biological responses seen in both normal development and the disease state.  My lab uses Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, as a simple model system to define how hormone-regulated gene expression regulates various aspects of development. Our future goal is to understand how similar pathways operate in vertebrates. To this aim, we have initiated several projects in the chicken that use both the techniques and data that have been established through Drosophila research. 

Selected Publications

1. McBryer Z, Ono H, Shimell MJ, Parvy JP, Beckstead RB, Warren JT, Thummel CS, Dauphin-Villemant C, Gilbert L, O'Connor MB. (2007) Prothoracicotropic hormone regulates developmental timing and body size in Drosophila. Dev Cell. (6):857-71
2. Beckstead RB, Lam G, Thummel CS. (2007) Specific Transcriptional Responses to Juvenile Hormone and Ecdysone in Drosophila. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 37(6):570-8
3. Baker KD*, Beckstead RB*, Mangelsdorf DJ, Thummel CS. (2007) Functional interactions between the Moses corepressor and DHR78 nuclear receptor prevent overgrowth in Drosophila. Genes and Development 21(4):450-64
4. Beckstead RB, Thummel CS. (2006) Indicted: worms caught using steroids. Cell 2006 124(6):1137-1140
5. Beckstead RB, Lam G, Thummel CS. (2005) The genomic response to 20-hydroxyecdysone at the onset of Drosophila metamorphosis.  Genome Biology 6(12):R99
6. Beckstead RB, Ner SS, Hales KG, Grigliatti TA, Baker BS, Bellen HJ.  (2005) Bonus, a Drosophila TIF1 homologue, is a chromatin associated protein that acts as a modifier of position effect variegation. Genetics 169(2):783-94
7. Beckstead R, Ortiz JA, Sanchez C, Prokopenko SN, Chambon P, Losson R, Bellen HJ. (2001) Bonus, a Drosophila homolog of TIF1 proteins, interacts with nuclear receptors and can inhibit betaFTZ-F1-dependent transcription. Molecular Cell 7(4):753-765
8. Zhang B, Koh YH, Beckstead RB, Budnik V, Ganetzky B, Bellen HJ. (1998) Synaptic vesicle size and number are regulated by a clathrin adaptor protein required for endocytosis. Neuron 21(6):1465-1475
9. Bellen HJ, Lu Y, Beckstead R, Bhat MA. (1998) Neurexin IV, caspr and paranodin--novel members of the neurexin family: encounters of axons and glia. Trends in Neuroscience 21(10):444-449

top