Bryan Thines
Assistant Professor of Biology
 
Email: bthines@kecksci.claremont.edu
Office: Keck Science Center 212
Phone: 909-607-8196
Office Hours: Mon 3:00 - 5:00 pm, Fri 9:00 - 11:00 pm
Web Site:
   
Educational Background:
Post-doc Plant Gene Expression Center, UC Berkeley
Ph.D. Washington State University, Molecular Plant Sciences
B.S. SUNY at Plattsburgh, Biochemistry
Courses Taught:
BIOL 043L Introductory Biology, Section 2 BIOL 156L Genomics and Bioinformatics
Research Interests:
Plants are sessile and cannot escape their immediate environment. Consequently, they possess an array of molecular and physiological responses to help them cope with stressful changes in their surroundings. We focus on two broad questions related to how plants respond to environmental stress: 1) how does the circadian clock regulate temporal aspects of stress responses, and 2) what role does targeted protein degradation have in the stress response? We use molecular genetic and functional genomic approaches to study the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Warm temperature responses in plants are an especially timely topic to study, as climate change and attendant temperature variation have already influenced natural plant populations and agricultural productivity worldwide.
Thesis Topics:
 
Selected Publications List: Click to open new window.
1.   Thines B, Harmon FG . (2011). Four easy pieces: mechanisms underlying circadian regulation of growth and development. Curr Opin Plant Biol   14 (1): 31-7.
 
2.   Thines B, Harmon FG . (2010). Ambient temperature response establishes ELF3 as a required component of the core Arabidopsis circadian clock. Proc Natl Acad Sci   107 (7): 3257-62.
 
3.   Melotto M, Mecey C, Niu Y, Chung HS, Katsir L, Yao J, Zeng W, Thines B, Staswick P, Browse J, Howe GA, He SY . (2008). A critical role of two positively charged amino acids in the Jas motif of Arabidopsis JAZ proteins in mediating coronatine- and jasmonoyl isoleucine-dependent interactions with the COI1 F-box protein. Plant J   55 (6): 979-88.
 
4.   Chung HS, Koo AJ, Gao X, Jayanty S, Thines B, Jones AD, Howe GA . (2008). Regulation and function of Arabidopsis JASMONATE ZIM-domain genes in response to wounding and herbivory. Plant Physiol   146 (3): 952-64.
 
5.   Thines B, Katsir L, Melotto M, Niu Y, Mandaokar A, Liu G, Nomura K, He SY, Howe GA, Browse J . (2007). JAZ repressor proteins are targets of the SCF(COI1) complex during jasmonate signalling. Nature   448 (7154): 661-5.
 
6.   Mandaokar A, Thines B, Shin B, Lange BM, Choi G, Koo YJ, Yoo YJ, Choi YD, Choi G, Browse J . (2006). Transcriptional regulators of stamen development in Arabidopsis identified by transcriptional profiling. Plant J   46 (6): 984-1008.