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Stephen Poole

Associate Professor

Contact Information

Phone: (805) 893-8122
Email: poole@lifesci.ucsb.edu
Office: 3141 Bio II

Address

Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9625

Bio

Dr. Poole received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, San Diego in 1983, where he studied the structure and regulation of the discoidin I gene family of Dictyostelium discoideum. He conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, studying the structure and functions of the engrailed segmentation gene of Drosophila. Dr. Poole joined the UCSB faculty in January 1989.

Research

My major focus is to use a combination of genetic and molecular approaches to understand how genes interact to produce complex structures during development of Drosophila. Redundant genes can be difficult to identify with standard genetic screens, since only rarely will copies of both genes be mutated. One project focuses on a genetic approach to identify genes by dominant misexpression. We mobilize a transposable element containing a responsive enhancer, then activate the enhancer in the precursors to the external sense organs, then focus on adjacent genes whose misexpression results in dominant bristle phenotypes. A second project is a collaboration with the Low and Hayes labs on identification and analysis of several gene families involved in contact-dependent growth inhibition and signaling in bacteria.

Selected Publications

  • Poole, SJ, Diner, EJ, Aoki, SK, Braaten, BA, de Roodenbeke, C, Hayes, CS, and Low, DA (2011) Identification of functional toxin/immunity genes linked to contact-dependent growth Inhibition (CDI) and rearrangement hotspot (Rhs) systems, PLOS Genetics, 7, e1002217.
  • Aoki SK, Diner EJ, de Roodenbeke CT, Burgess BR, Poole SJ, Braaten BA, Jones AM, Webb JS, Hayes CS, Cotter PA, Low DA (2010) A widespread family of polymorphic contact-dependent toxin delivery systems in bacteria, Nature, 468:439-442.
  • Cheli, VT, Daniels RW, Godoy R, Hoyle DJ, Kandachar V, Starcevic M, Martinez-Agosto JA, Poole S, DiAntonio A, Lloyd VK, Chang HC, Krantz DE, Dell'Angelica EC,Genetic modifiers of abnormal organelle biogenesis in a Drosophila model of BLOC-1 deficiency, Hum Mol Genet, 19: 861-878
  • Phillips, B., Billin, A., Cadwell, C., Buchholz, R., Erickson, C., Merriam, J., Carbon, J., and Poole, S. (1998) The Nop60B gene of Drosophila encodes an essential nucleolar protein that functions in yeast, Mol Gen Genet 260:20-29
  • Kambadur, R., Koizumi, K., Stivers, C., Nagle, J., Poole, S., and Odenwald, W. (1998) Regulation of POU genes by castor and hunchback establishes layered compartments in the Drosophila CNS. Genes and Development, 12:246-260.
  • Bhat, K.M., Poole, S.J. and Schedl, P. (1995) The miti-mere and pdm1 genes collaborate during specification of the RP2/sib lineage in Drosophila neurogenesis. Molec. Cell. Biol.,15: 4052-63.
  • Billin, A. and Poole, S. (1995) Expression domains of the Cf1a POU domain protein during Drosophila development. Roux's Arch Dev. Biol., 204: 502-508.
  • Poole, S. (1995) Conservation of complex expression domains of the pdm-2 POU domain gene between Drosophila virilis and Drosophila melanogaster. Mech. Dev., 49(1-2): 107-16.
  • Billin, A., Cockerill, K., and S. Poole. 1991. Isolation of a family of Drosophila POU domain genes expressed in early development. Mech. Dev. 34: 75-84.
  • Cockerill, K., Billin, A. and S. Poole. 1993. Regulation of expression domains and effects of ectopic expression reveal gap gene-like properties of the linked pdm genes of Drosophila, Mech. Dev. 41: 139-153.