2024 We wish you a fabulous New Year! Do it for you! 2023 New subunit of the Chlamydomonas polycystin-2/PKD2 complex identified! Using immunoprecipiation of PKD2 from cilia, Poulomi Das and coworkers identified SIP (= small interactor of PKD2) as a novel subunit of the Chlamydomonas PKD2 complex. SIP is required for proteolytic processing and ciliary import of PKD2. Structurally, it resembles the N-terminal region of PKD2 (hence, also called mini-PKD2). Also, read the 'First Person' interview, in which Poulomi describes her work. Das, P, Mekonnen4, B Alkhofash, R.4, Ingle, A.V., Workman, E.B.4, Feather, A.4, Zhang, G., Liu, P. and Lechtreck, K.F. (2023). The Small Interactor of PKD2 protein promotes assembly and cilairy entry of the Chlamydomonas PKD2-mastigoneme complexes. Journal of Cell Science. (4 undergraduate author). Congratulations Hannah K. Nguyen! After more than 3 years of stellar service to the lab, Hannah Nguyen has graduated in December 2023. Well done Hannah. After her farewell party, Hannah rides on to her next adventures. We will miss you! Lab family picture Fall 2023 Back: Paul J. Griffin, Dr. Karl Lechtreck, Jack Butler, Hannah K. Nguyen, Kang Sun, Dr. Nathan M. Chasen. Front: Oranti A. Omi, Poulomi Das, Gui Zhang, Tara T. Malik, Dr. Sunita Sharma (Mansi B. Patel had to be in class) Best Talker Jack Butler received the Best Regular Talk award for his presentation at the Developmental Biology Alliance 2023 spring retreat. Chlamydomonas Meeting 2023 from left: Jack Butler, Kang Sun, Karl Lechtreck, Tara Malik, and Oranti Omi. Jack, Tara and Oranti presented poster @ the 20th International Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas at Princeton University. Graduation Day May 12, 2023 (from left): Graduates Spencer Olson, Libin Joseph, surprise visitors and last year graduates Betlehem Mekonnen and Rama Alkhofash, and newly graduated Sahana Saravanan. Cinco de Mayo End-of-Term Lab Party 2023 from left: Tara Malik*, Oranti Omi*, Poulomi Das*, Mansi Patel#, Hannah Nguyen#, Sahana Saravanan#, Libin Joseph#, Blair Workman#, Kang Sun*, Spencer Olson#, Karl Lechtreck, Jack Butler*. *graduate students, #undergraduate students. Congratulations to Sahana Saravanan. Sahana received the 2023 Presidential Award of Excellence! The Presidential Award of Excellence is awarded to "undergraduate students in their final year of study who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, strong extracurricular involvement, and/or service to and involvement in their respective school or college." Sahana worked on the dynein regulatory complex and the ARMC2 cargo adapter; her state-of-the-art western blots contributed to two publications. She is a cellular biology and psychology major and will graduate in May 2023. Upon her graduation in May 2023, Sahana received the departmental Grace Thomas Award recognizing her "accomplishments of an outstanding undergraduate in what is now the department of Cellular Biology. The recipient of the award is expected to have excelled in several areas associated within the discipline, including classroom, seminar, and research performance". Congratulation graduates, congratulations Sahana. Blair Workman presents at UGA's CURO2023 symposium Blair Workman and Karl Lechtreck at the annual UGA CURO symposium. Blair presented a poster on Chlamydomonas polycystin-2. Happy Birthday Poulomi and Oranti! to friends and colleagues (on a gloomy December 31) 2022 "In vivo imaging reveals independent intraflagellar transport of the nexin-dynein regulatory complex subunits DRC2 and DRC4" by Sahana Saravanan, Douglas Trischler, Raqual Bower, Mary Porter, and Karl Lechtreck accepted for MBoC! Mix of ida6 pf2 DRC2-GFP, ida6 pf2 DRC4-mC and ida6 pf2 DRC2-GFP DRC4-mC cells Oct 4 - 4, 2022: 5th European Cilia Conference Great science and many old friends at the EuroCilia meeting in Cologne, Germany. Karl Lechtreck gave a paper on axonemal protein transport. September 22, 2022: Cell-a-bration at Barrow School Libin Joseph, Gui Zhang, Jack Butler, Poulomi Das, Sahana Saravanan, and Karl Lechtreck visited Barrow Elementary School for hands-on microscopy classes with the Barrow 5th graders.. July 11, 2022: Our study on Chlamydomonas ARL13 accepted for publication in the JCB! "LOSS OF ARL13 IMPEDES BBSOME-DEPENDENT CARGO EXPORT FROM CHLAMYDOMONAS CILIA" by Jin Dai, Gui Zhang, Rama A. Alkhofash, Betlehem Mekonnen, Sahana Saravanan, Bin Xue, Zhen-Chuan Fan, Ewelina Betleja, Douglas G Cole, Peiwei Liu, and Karl Lechtreck. June 26 - 30, 2022: FASEB The Biology of Cilia and Flagella Conference, Tucson, Arizona The lab went to the FASEB cilia conference. Poulomi Das gave a paper on PKD2, Jack Butler presented a poster on Nek10, and Karl Lechtreck was one of the meeting organizers. Unfortunately, COVID spread quickly among delegates during the last days of the meeting. Friday, May13, 2022: Commencement Day Congratulations to our undergraduate researchers Rama Alkhofash (2nd from left) and Betlehem Mekonnen (2nd from right) flanked by Libin Joseph (left) and Sahana Saravanan (right). May 3, 2022: A day of surprises. Thank y'all. April 4, 2022: UGA's 2022 CURO Symposium Libin Joseph and Blair Workman presenting their work on Nek10 and PKD2 at UGA's CURO symposium. April 4, 2022: Symposium in Honor of Dr. Win Sale Jack Butler, Tara Malik, Poulomi Das and Karl Lechtreck attended and enjoyed the "retirement" symposium for Win Sale at Emory. (center from left: Elizabeth Smith, Laura Fox, Win Sale, Lea Alford, Avanti Gokhale and Rasagnya Viswanadha). Peter Hegemann visiting via Zoom from Berlin (March 22, 2022) Peter gave a paper on "“Mysteries and Applications of Algal Sensory Photoreceptors” in our CBIO seminar. Remembering Michel Bornens (March 9th 2022) . and the wonderful time we had at the Institut Currie and in Paris. In the courtyard of the Currie (with Guy Keryer, Ursula Euteneuer, Annie Rousselet, Claude Celati, Barbara Di Fiore, Nathalie Delgehyr, Matthieu Piel, Oskar Smrzka and others) February 22, 2022 @ 2:22 pm. Chlamy in the movies Watch Chlamydomonas movie by UGA graduate student and winner Aaron-Jay Alcala. A job well done. Congratulations! We are happy that some scenes were shot in our culture and microscope room . Just accepted for eLife "Chlamydomonas ARMC2/PF27 is an obligate cargo adapter for intraflagellar transport of radial spokes" by Karl Lechtreck@#, Yi Liu@, Jin Dai, Rama A. Alkhofash, Jack Butler, Lea Alford, and Pinfen Yang# (@co-first authors; #co-corresponding authors). The immunofluorescence image shows acetylated tubulin in green and the radial spoke subunit RSP3 in red. Nice news on the first (working) day of the new year. New Year! New Job? We have positions for graduate students, postdocs and technicians! Inquiries to Karl Lechtreck lechtrek@uga.edu. 2021 Happy Holidays from us to the World Jack and Karl during the 24th Christmas finale, both dressed for the occasion. Lab dinner @ Karl's place After another year of hard work, it is time to celebrate ! from left to right: Ashley Artis (ILS rotation student), Dr. Barbara Mattes, Poulomi Das (Graduate student), Gui Zhang (Lab manager), Jack Butler (Research Associate), Betlehem Mekonnen (Undergraduate Researcher), Rama Alkhofash (Undergraduate Researcher), Hannah Nguyen (Work-study student), and Sahana Saravanan (Undergraduate Researcher). A strong team ! Outreach at Barrow Elementary School (October 21, 2021) Visiting the 5th Graders at Barrow Elementary School for four hours of fun and science and nothing but fun and science. Poulomi Das, Jack Butler, Karl Lechtreck, Betlehem Mekonnen, and Gui Zhang. 19th International Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas (Ile des Embiez, France) Karl Lechtreck presented our work on ARMC2, an adapter for IFT of radial spokes. Lab picnic at Watson Mill Bridge State Park (June 19, 2021) Lab members with friends and family met for a cookout with freshly made dumplings (!), BBQ etc. until a thunderstorm drove us all home. George B. Witman symposium Beautiful Zoom event on January 20, 2021 (organized by Greg Pazour and Steve King) January 6, 2021: A beautiful day in Georgia! No surprises in DC. The end or just the beginning? Why do we still have a commencement prayer at UGA? 2020 It's official. And here are the pictures to prove it. Jin Dai Ph.D. 2020 Kewei Yu M.S. 2020 (with her parents) Congratulations to Dr. Jin Dai! Jin Dai defended his thesis with great success on December 4, 2020. In fall, finally some good news (besides Nov 4): Kewei Yu's paper on CAH6, the first biochemical marker of the Chlamydomonas trans-flagellum is published in PlosOne! A new NIH R01 supports our research on Chlamydomonas PKD2! The big farewell ! Peiwei Liu, Kewei Yu, and Jenna Wingfield move on to new missions! Karl Lechtreck presents at the 8th UK Cilia eSymposium Go, Pleasantine, go! Microtubules: From atoms to systems (EMBO/EMBL symposium) June 3 - 6, 2020. 4 am discussion with Maureen Barr, Philippe Bastin, Sudarshan Gadadhar, Nathalie Spassky, Guangshuo Ou, and Freddy Frischknecht. The meeting (and the bore of the shut-down) rekindled our interest in tubulin transport (manuscript had been sleeping on BioRxiv for a few years) and we finally finished and published our story on tubulin diffusion vs. IFT in the Journal of Cell Science. Our Spring graduates Kewei Yu and Jenna Wingfield First lab meeting by Zoom Peiwei reports on the assembly of PKD2 compartments in cilia Congratulations Master Kewei Yu and Doctor Jenna L. Wingfield! Kewei and Jenna defended on April 8 and April 10, respectively, via Zoom in times of Covid19. Accepted for publication in the JCB! Liu, P., Lou, X., Wingfield, J.L., Lin, J., Nicastro, D. and Lechtreck, K.-F. (2020) Chlamydomonas PKD2 organizes mastigonemes, hair-like glycoprotein polymers on cilia. Happy 2020 for the Lechtreck lab. May your wildest dreams come true. 2019 Fall 2019 - Farewell dinner for Ilaria Mengoni Cell-a-bration Barrow Elementary School 2019 (drawings from student notebook) Students impress at FASEB Cilia meeting in Snowmass, Colorado - August 4 - 9, 2019. (from top left): Jenna Wingfield discussing her poster on IFT turnaround at the tip with Anthony Roberts (UK), Peiwei Liu presenting his data on polycystin-2, Jin Dai giving his paper Arl13, and Kewei Yu with Susan Dutcher (WashU) at her poster on flagellar asymmetry. Peiwei Liu, Jenna Wingfield, and Kewei Yu received awards for their presentations. Celebrating 50 years Apollo 11 (not Area 51) from left: Kewei Yu (Enterprise), Jenna Wingfield (Saturn 5), Jin Dai (Stormtrooper), Ilaria Mengoni (Moon), Karl Lechtreck (E.T.), and Peiwei Liu (Eagle) in our microscope room Summer lab party Master Dipna and family May 10, 2019 Dipna Venkatachalam graduates. Shannon graduates! After four years of golden service to the lab Shannon Freeland will move on to Mercer University School of Medicine. Congratulations Dipna! Dipna Venkatachalam completed her MS on April 18, 2019. February 13, 2019: Our NIH proposal "Regulation of protein transport in cilia" was renewed! Come drive with us: Chlamydomonas - the Mercedes among the cilia models. 2018 Merry Christmas from the Lechtreck lab ASCB/EMBO meeting 2018 San Diego Karl Lechtreck gave a paper in the CILIA SIGNALING special interest subgroup; Jenna Wingfield presented a poster. CBIO3400 end-of-class party Julie Stanton and Karl Lechtreck presenting the "THE CELL" cake and the students of CBIO3400. Cell-a-Bration at Barrow Elementary School The Barrow Fifth Graders with Dr. Ilaria Mengoni, James Anderson, Dr. Karl Lechtreck, Manashree Malpe, and Dr. Yuyang Jiang. And the Creepy Crawlers (aka protists) from UGA's turtle pond. Visit to Dove Creek Elementary School Dove Creek Fifth Graders with Dr. Ilaria Mengoni, Jin Dai, and Jenna Wingfield We welcome Kewei Yu for her rotation in the lab. Kewei Yu Master's student Department of Cellular Biology Jin Dai's paper on outer dynein arm transport published in MBoC. Congratulations! Dai, J., Barbieri, F., Mitchell, D.R., and Lechtreck, K.-F. (2018). In vivo analysis of outer arm dynein transport reveals cargo-specific IFT properties. Mol. Biol. Cell Aug 22:mbcE18050291. Our study on radial spoke assembly is published! In vivo analyses of radial spoke transport, assembly, repair and maintenance radial spoke transport (2018). by Karl F. Lechtreck, Ilaria Mengoni, Batare Okivie, and Kiersten B. Hilderhoff. Cytoskeleton August 1. 18th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF CHLAMYDOMONAS, Washington DC, June 17 - 21, 2018 Jin Dai and Peiwei Liu presented posters, Karl Lechtreck gave a paper at Chlamy2018. Karl Lechtreck visits Tianjin University of Science and Technology (TEDA) and Tsinghua University (Beijing) Farewell for Aaron and Penny At the Potter-Convention Congratulations to Dr. Harris and Dr. Louka ! Aaron Harris and Panagiota "Penny" Louka (Gaertig lab) successfully defended their theses on Mar 26 and Apr 6. Gehrig and Kiersten moving on. After spending several terms as undergraduate researchers in the lab working on Chlamydomonas mutants, Gehrig Broxton and Kiersten Hilderhoff will graduate soon. After 3 long years, our study on radial spoke assembly nears completion. Live image of mCherry-RSP3 RSP-sfGFP chimeric zygotes obtained by mating Dr. Mengoni using balloon "Chlamys" to explain the generation of 2-color chimeras Happy New Year! Up to an icy start - temperatures in the microcope room fluctuate by up to 9 C! Main water pipe to science hill broke. Thank you President Trump for stopping global warming! Such a big button. The president appearently suffers from LMS (Liddle Man syndrome). I can tell because I'm affected myself. Karl 2017 December 22: It's proceeding! Peiwei Liu's paper on BBSome-dependent protein transport has been accepted in PNAS. Congratulations! November 3: Cell-a-bration at Barrow Elementary School Dipna Venkatachalam, Jenna Wingfield, Ilaria Mengoni, Aaron Harris and Karl Lechtreck visited Barrow School for hands-on science and microscopy classes for 5th graders. Once a Barrow Buddy, always a Barrow Buddy! Evening sun on the BioSci Bldg roof. August 21, 2017 - the path of totality. FASEB Science Research Conference "Biology of Cilia and Flagella" "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" Dipna Venkatachalam, Peiwei Liu, Jenna Wingfield, and Karl Lechtreck presented posters and papers at the FASEB meeting in Scottsdale Arizona. Images were taken in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve and the new Scottsdale OdySea Aquarium. Karl will co-organize the FASEB meetings in 2019 and 2011. SEER Award for Jenna Wingfield for her PechaKucha-style presentation on faculty professional training and its application in STEM education - awarded by UGA's 'Scientists Engaged in Education Research (SEER)'. Karl Lechtreck is tenured! with Provost Pamella Whitten and President Jere Morehead at UGA's PnT reception, May 2017. 5/16/2017: Jenna Wingfield's paper accepted in eLIFE! "IFT trains in different stages of assembly queue at the ciliary base for consecutive release into the cilium" Aaron Harris - 2017 Teaching Award and some sweet rewards from the CBIO3400 class in form of '9+2', '9+0', and 'microtubular transport' cupcakes. Gehrig Broxton presents at the CURO symposium Gehrig presenting his poster on an OFD1 mutant in Chlamydomonas to Dr. Mark Farmer. Farewell for Francesco Francesco Barbieri from Università degli studi di Siena returns home in March. But not before a nice glass of green algae. Warhol's Axonemes By Jenna Wingfield, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Ph.D Student, Cellular Biology Visitors from UWG Kevin Nguyen, DaliDavis, Ja'Von Swint from University of Western Georgia visited the lab on March 20/21. Fresh from the Graduate School: Our own Aaron Harris received the 2017 Graduate School Excellence in Teaching Award! Congrats! Spring brake lunch @ Pulaski Heights BBQ Pulaski BBQ offers an inspiring backdrop for IFT train research. And they do smoked tofu and kimshi. Visit to Mautusi Mitra (University of West Georgia) Dinner with the Mitra lab. Collection of mostly Georgian fish at UWG. 2016 Happy Holidays It's a laboratory Christmas with Jenna Wingfield's amazing model organism ornaments. Francesco Barbieri visits lab We wecome Francesco Barbieri, a visiting Ph.D. student fromthe Lupetti laboratory at the Università degli studi di Siena, Italy. Francesco will work on cargo transport by IFT trains using a combination of TIRF imaging and electron microscopy. The kymograms document the fixation of an IFT train (IFT20-mCherry, red) while transporting an outer dyein arm (IC2-NG, green). Jenna Wingfield wins the poster presentation award at the Chlamydomonas 2016 meeting, Kyoto, Japan ! Karl Lechtreck presented data on outer dynein arm transport in flagella and chaired session No. 8 and Jenna Wingfield presented her prize-winning poster at the 17th International Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas (69th Yamada Conference) in Kyoto, Japan. The lab's end of term party at Karl's place Shannon Freeland - our very best student worker ! Shannon Freeland, student worker in the lab, and Karl Lechtreck at the Student Employee of the Year Awards Luncheon. Chlamydomonas Resource Center new web site Our photo of stained Chlamydomonas zygotes has been chosen as a banner of the new Chlamydomonas Resource Center website (http://www.chlamycollection.org/). Happy 2016! May the Force be with you. And may the odds be ever in your favor. (seen at JJ's fleamarket) 2015 Dec 18, 2015: The one and only Julie M. Craft graduates. Congrats doctor! Happy Holidays ! Fungal Christmas tree: Top: Taloromyces stipitatus, tree: Aspergillus nidulans, ornaments: Penicillium marneffei, trunk: Aspergillus terreus. Fungal snowman: hat, eyes, mouth, buttons: Aspergillus niger; arms: Aspergillus nidulans; nose: Aspergillus terreus with Penicillium marneffei; body: Neosartorya fischeri. Source: blogs.jcvi.org. Aaron Harris' paper on EB1 in cilia accepted for Mol. Biol. Cell ! Congratulations ! and presented his work at the 2015 ASCB meeting in San Diego ! EB1-mNeonGreen comets in C. reinhardtii revealing the dynamics of cell body microtubules (click on image). Review on cargo transport by IFT published in TIBS. "The Omnipresent Cilium - Structure, Signalling, and Motion" (click to watch video) Karl Lechtreck gives a paper at the 5th International caesar Conference on cilia. Cell-A-bration September 25: visiting Barrow Elementary School for science classes Celebrating US-Mexican Friendship Welcome to our new lab member Ilaria Mengoni PhD Dr. Ilaria Mengoni joined the lab on July 27. Ilaria received her PhD from the University of Bologna studying the role of Apolipoprotein E in brain function. High in the mountains: FASEB conference on the "Biology of Cilia and Flagella" July 19-24, Snowmass, CO. Most lab members (Julie Craft, Aaron Harris, Karl Lechtreck, and Peiwei Liu) participated in the FASEB conference; Karl Lechtreck presented a summary of the labs research, Julie Craft and Aaron Harris presented posters. Riding the IFT train: White water rafting on the Colorado River. June 22: Batare Okivie moves on. After a year in the lab, Batare Okivie leaves for Drexel Univesity, College of Medicine, pre-medical program, Philadephia. But not before having a farewell party and beiing celebrated for excellent lab work. Her pet project, assembly and transport of radial spokes, will be taken over by Karl Lechtreck and Dr. Ilaria Mengoni. Lab-outing to the UGA Marine Institut, Sapelo Island, GA (May 6-8) Together with the Gaertig lab (Jacek Gaertig, Mayukh Guha, Yuyang 'Patrick' Jiang, Panagiotta Louka) and students from the Eggenschwiler lab (Ashley Snouffer, Jonathon Walsh) we visited the UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island for a 3-day science retreat. Presentations by graduate studetns, postdocs,and technicians were mixed with beach time, bike rides, and cooking. Gordon Research Conference on Cilia, Mucus, and Mucociliary Interactions Just published: Craft, J.M., Harris, J.A., Hyman, S., Kner, P., and Lechtreck, K.-F. (2015). Tubulin Transport by IFT is Upregulated during Ciliary Growth by a Cilium-autonomous Mechanism. J. Cell Biol. 208:223-37 The work will be highlighted by a JCB biosights video on January 19, 2015. 2014 Great news: Julie Craft's paper on tubulin transport has been accepted by the Journal of Cell Biology. Julie Craft and Aaron Harris presented their work on tubulin transport at this years ASCB meeting in Philadelphia. Karl Lechtreck presented at CILIA2014 in Paris. Sebastian Hyman heads of to Mercer University School of Medicine (after handing the golden pipette over to Batare Okivie, receiving his reward, possing one last time with his Joels. Gone but not forgotten.) 16th International Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas, June 8 - 13, 2014, Asilomar CA Julie Craft presenting her work on tubulin transport in flagella Welcome to our summer students Heather Bomberger (Virginia Tech) and Aachi Kalra (Northview High School, Johns Creek, GA) spend the summer in the lab on research interships. Heather Bomberger, a sophomore in Biological Systems Engineering and minoring in Scieneering, participates in the NSF-sponsored REU program “Interdisciplinary Research Experience of Nanotechnology and Biomedicine” at UGA. Her project "Quantitative Analysis of Intraflagellar Protein Transport” is co-mentored by Dr. Peter Kner from UGA's College of Engineering. Aachi Kalra participates in UGA's Young Dawgs programm, a high school internship program designed to prepare high-achieving high school juniors and seniors for post-secondary education and future careers in their areas of interest. Aachi Kalra is interested in biomedicine; during her intership she will rescue the ift54-1 mutant using a GFP-tagged IFT54 transgene. Congratulations ! Fiona Bell and Deep Patel, the first undergraduates to join the lab in 2012, have graduated. 2013 Our lab in the 6th floor annex of the Biological Science Building, built in a former green house.
