PhD, University of Bristol, based at Rothamsted Research, UK. 2009.
MSc, Plant Biotechnology (Distinction), University of Sussex, UK, 2005.
BSc, Genetics, University of Leeds, UK, 2003.
Bio:
I completed my PhD in 2009 in Peter Hedden's laboratory at Rothamsted Research, UK. During this time I studied the roles of gibberellin biosynthetic and signalling genes in wheat, with a focus on stem elongation (Plant Phys 157:1820). I joined the Dubcovsky lab in 2009 as a postdoc and since 2012 I have worked as an HHMI Research Associate. My principal research interest is in understanding the regulation of wheat flowering development and recently described experiments which incorporate gibberellin into our current flowering models in the temperate cereals (Plant Phys 163:1433).
I also study frost tolerance in wheat and have described the effects of natural genetic diversity at the FR2 locus which is comprised of a cluster of CBF transcription factors, central regulators of cold acclimation (TAG 126:2683; TAG 127:1183). This led to the characterization of large deletions and CNV at this locus which are associated with variation in frost tolerance.
I am also leading a project aiming to expand our knowledge of the role which GPC, a NAC-domain transcription factor, plays in senescence and nutrient translocation to the wheat grain. Through a combination of field studies and RNA-seq analysis, we have characterized the transcriptomic changes regulated by the GPC gene during the onset of monocarpic senescence, including members of several different Zn and Fe transporter genes (BMC Genomics 12:492; BMC Plant Biology, 14:368).
B.S. Genetics with emphasis in Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biology 2010,
University of California at Davis
PhD. Integrative Genetics and Genomics -- 2014 - Present,
University of California at Davis
Bio:
My research interests are in the areas of bioinformatics, comparative genomics, and plant-pathogen interactions.
Currently, my main project in the Dubcovsky lab is to develop functional genomics tools for wheat. With the project lead, Ksenia Krasileva, I am creating a 1000 mutant wheat TILLING reverse genetics database. On the bioinformatic side, I am developing a pipeline for processing exome capture data and identification of mutations in each line. On the computer science side, I am developing the web infrastructure to host, query, and visualize the data in this database. The database will be publicly available to scientists and wheat breeders to identify and request lines with induced alleles of interest.
In the future, I will be starting a PhD project with Dubcovsky's Lab where I will be employing compartive genomics & population genetics techniques to explore underlying genetic differences between stripe rusts that infect wheat.
Publications:
Vasquez-Gross H.A., Yu J.J., Figueroa B., Gessler D.G., Neale D.B., Wegrzyn J.L. (2013) CartograTree: connecting tree genomes, phenotypes, and environment. Molecular Ecology Resources. 13:528-537. DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.12067. Full Text.
Wegrzyn, J.L., Liechty, J.D., Stevens, K.A., Wu, L.S., Loopstra, C.A., Vasquez-Gross, H.A., Dougherty, W.M., Lin, B.Y., Zieve, J.J., Martinez-Garcia, P.J., Holt, C., Yandell, M., Zimin, A.V., Yorke, J.A., Crepeau, M.W., Puiu, D., Salzberg, S.L., Dejong, P.J., Mockaitis, K., Main, D., Langley, C.H., and Neale, D.B. (2014). Unique features of the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) megagenome revealed through sequence annotation. Genetics 196, 891-909. Full Text.
Neale, D.B., Wegrzyn, J.L., Stevens, K.A., Zimin, A.V., Puiu, D., Crepeau, M.W., Cardeno, C., Koriabine, M., Holtz-Morris, A.E., Liechty, J.D., Martinez-Garcia, P.J., Vasquez-Gross, H.A., Lin, B.Y., Zieve, J.J., Dougherty, W.M., Fuentes-Soriano, S., Wu, L.S., Gilbert, D., Marcais, G., Roberts, M., Holt, C., Yandell, M., Davis, J.M., Smith, K.E., Dean, J.F., Lorenz, W.W., Whetten, R.W., Sederoff, R., Wheeler, N., McGuire, P.E., Main, D., Loopstra, C.A., Mockaitis, K., Dejong, P.J., Yorke, J.A., Salzberg, S.L., and Langley, C.H. (2014). Decoding the massive genome of loblolly pine using haploid DNA and novel assembly strategies. Genome Biol 15, R59. Full Text.
Henry, I.M., Nagalakshmi, U., Lieberman, M.C., Ngo, K.J., Krasileva, K.V., Vasquez-Gross, H., Akhunova, A., Akhunov, E., Dubcovsky, J., Tai, T.H., and Comai, L. (2014). Efficient genome-wide detection and cataloging of EMS-induced mutations using exome capture and Next-Generation Sequencing. Plant Cell 26, 1382-1397. Full Text.
