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| Name |
Pikaard, Craig S. |
| Location
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Indiana University |
| Primary Field
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Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences |
| Secondary Field
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Plant Biology |
 Election Citation
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Pikaard has revealed fundamental epigenetic mechanisms of gene dosage control and gene silencing in plants. He is a pioneer in studies of ribosomal RNA locus control, and has studied the specialized RNA polymerases Pol IV and Pol V that direct site-specific DNA methylation and formation of repressive chromatin. |
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Research Interests
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The Pikaard laboratory studies ribosomal RNA gene organization and expression, RNA polymerase I transcription, and RNA-mediated gene silencing. One focus of the laboratory is the epigenetic phenomenon known as nucleolar dominance, a phenomenon in which subsets of nearly identical ribosomal RNA genes are selectively silenced. A second focus concerns the DNA-dependent RNA Polymerases IV and V, which are plant-specific enzymes involved in small RNA-mediated DNA methylation and gene silencing. The Pikaard lab has played a leading role in the discovery and functional characterization of Polymerases IV and Pol V and the pathway in which they function, using a combination of genetics, genomics, molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry. |
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