Chentao Lin
email: clin@mcdb.ucla.edu
phone: (310) 206-9576
office: 3323A LSB
lab: 3233
homepage: http://www.lifesci.ucla.edu/mcdbio/html/lin.html
Research Interests
We are interested in understanding a photosensory receptor called cryptochrome. Cryptochrome is a blue light receptor found in different organisms from a small weed Arabidopsis thaliana to a large animal Homo sapiens. Cryptochrome absorbs blue/UV-A light and it regulates various biological processes including biological clock in animals and flowering time in plants. We choose to work on an Arabidopsis cryptochrome, cry2 (cryptochrome 2), because Arabidopsis is relatively easy to work with. It is also a lot of fun to work with Arabidopsis because its genome has been completely sequenced so that we can use not only molecular genetics and biochemical techniques but also functional genomics approaches to solve our problems. We have found that cry2 regulates Arabidopsis flowering time, and we are trying to figure out how does cry2 do that (namely, what is the signal transduction mechanism of cry2)? We also try to understand how blue-light receptor cryptochromes work together with red-light receptor phytochromes in regulating cell elongation (namely, what is the co-action mechanism of different photoreceptors). You are welcome to come, discuss, or work on these challenge problems. You can also visit our homepage (http://www.mcdb.ucla.edu/Research/Lin/) to get more information about our work.
Selected Publications
Yang, Y., Zuo, Z., Zhao, X., Li, X., Klejnot, J., Li J., Chen, P., Liang, S., Yu X., Liu, X., Lin, C. 2008. Blue light-independent activity of Arabidopsis cryptochromes in the regulation of steady-state levels of protein and mRNA expression Molecular Plant 1: 167-177 .
Yu, X. and Lin, C.. 2008. A photoreceptor going nowhere but the nucleus Plant Signaling & Behavior 3: 1-2 [link].
Yang, Y., Klejnot, J., Yu, X., Liu, X., and Lin, C.. 2007. Florigen (II): it is a mobile protein J. Integrative Plant Biolog 49: 1665-1669 .
Zhao, X., Yu, X., Foo, E., Symons, G. M., Lopez, J., Bendehakkalu, K. T, Xiang, J, Weller, J. L., Liu X., Reid J. B, and Lin, C. 2007. A study of Gibberellin homeostasis and cryptochrome-mediated blue light inhibition of hypocotyl elongation Plant Physiology 145: 106-118 .
Yu X., Shalitin D., Liu X., Maymon M., Klejnot J., Yang H., Lopez J., Zhao X., Bendehakkalu K.T., Lin C. 2007. De-repression of the NC80 motif is critical for the photoactivation of Arabidopsis CRY2 Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104: 7289-7294 .
Yu, X., Klejnot, J., Zhao, X., Shalitin D., Maymon M., Yang H., Lee J., Liu, X., Lopez, J, and Lin, C. 2007. Arabidopsis cryptochrome 2 completes its post-translational “life cycle” in the nucleus Plant Cell 19: 3146-3156 .
Yu, X., Klejnot J., and Lin, C.. 2006. Florigen: One Found, More to Follow? J. Integrative Plant Biology 48: 617-612 .
Zhao, X., Yu, X., Liu, X., and Lin, C.. 2006. Light regulation of GA metabolism in seedling development J. Integrative Plant Biology 49: 21-27 .
Yu, X., and Lin, C.. 2005. Light regulation of flowering-time in Arabidopsis Light Signaling in Plants : 235-247 .
Lin, C. and Todo, T. 2005. Cryptochromes Genome Biology 6: 220-228 .