Wayne P. Wahls, Ph.D.

Mari Davidson, Wesley Wahls, Reine Protacio, Wayne Wahls, Tresor Mukiza, Aaron Storey, Melissa Sorsby, Hsin-Ping Wang

During meiosis, homologous chromosomes replicate once, pair, enjoy a high rate of recombination, and undergo two rounds of chromosome segregation to produce haploid meiotic products. We use a combination of genetic, molecular, biochemical, cytological and proteomic approaches to study meiotic chromosome dynamics in fission yeast. Our primary focus is on how recombination hotspots and chromatin remodeling regulate recombination throughout the genome. We are also investigating how complexes of meiotic recombination enzymes assemble and function. A third focus is on the relationship between recombination, sister chromatid cohesion, and proper segregation of chromosomes in each meiotic division.

Proteins of the ATF/CREB/AP-1 family are components of signal transduction pathways that monitor intracellular and extracellular conditions and transmit those signals to downstream targets. These proteins share a conserved bZIP domain that mediates both protein dimerization and sequence-specific DNA binding activity. We are interested in how these protein-DNA complexes regulate chromatin structure, transcription and RNA decay, and how cross-talk between pathways confers plasticity to environmental stress responses.

Protacio, R.U., M.K. Davidson and W.P. Wahls (2022).  Adaptive control of the meiotic recombination landscape by DNA site-dependent hotspots with implications for evolution.  Frontiers in Genetics 13, 947572.  [Abstract]

Protacio, R.U., T.O. Mukiza, M.K. Davidson and W.P. Wahls (2022).  Molecular mechanisms for environmentally induced and evolutionarily rapid redistribution (plasticity) of meiotic recombination. Genetics 220, iyab212.  [Abstract]

Storey, A.J., R.E. Hardman, S. Byrum, S. Mackintosh, R. Edmondson, W.P. Wahls, A.J. Tackett and J.A. Lewis (2020).  Accurate and sensitive quantitation of the dynamic heat shock proteome using tandem mass tags.  Journal of Proteome Research, 6, 1183-1195.  [Abstract]

Mukiza, T.O., R.U. Protacio, M.K. Davidson, W.W. Steiner and W.P. Wahls (2019).  Diverse DNA sequence motifs activate meiotic recombination hotspots through a common chromatin remodeling pathway.  Genetics 213, 789-803.  [Abstract]

Storey, A.J., H.-P. Wang, R.U. Protacio, M.K. Davidson and W.P. Wahls.  (2019).  Targeted forward genetics: Population-scale analyses of allele replacements spanning thousands of base pairs in fission yeast.  G3, 9, 4097-4106.  [Abstract]

Wahls W.P. (2019).  The National Institutes of Health needs to better balance funding distributions among US institutions.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 116, 13150-13154.  [Abstract]

Storey A.J., H.P. Wang, R.U. Protacio, M.K. Davidson, A.J. Tackett, and W.P. Wahls (2018).  Chromatin-mediated regulators of meiotic recombination revealed by proteomics of a recombination hotspot.  Epigenetics & Chromatin 11:64.  [Abstract]

Kriss C.L., E. Gregory-Lott, A.J. Storey, A.J. Tackett, W.P. Wahls, and S.M. Stevens Jr (2018).  In vivo metabolic tracing demonstrates the site-specific contribution of hepatic ethanol metabolism to histone acetylation.  Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research 42:1909-1923.  [Abstract]

Wahls W.P. (2018).  The NIH must reduce disparities in funding to maximize its return on investments from taxpayers (2018).  eLife 7:e34965  [Abstract]

Protacio R.U., A.J. Storey, M.K. Davidson, and W.P. Wahls (2015).  Nonsense codon suppression in fission yeast due to mutations of tRNA(Ser.11) and translation release factor Sup35 (eRF3).  Current Genetics 61:165-173.  [Abstract]

Complete List of Published Work in My Bibliography