Faculty Profile

J. Clark Lagarias
Professor of Biochemistry
Molecular and Cellular Biology (College of Biological Sciences)
31 Briggs Hall
Office 752-1865
Lab 752-7026
jclagarias@ucdavis.edu
http://www.mcb.ucdavis.edu/faculty-labs/lagarias/
[Picture of J. Clark Lagarias]

Degrees:
1979 - PhD - University of California, Berkeley - Chemistry
1975 - BA - University of California, Berkeley - Botany and Chemistry

Awards:
2001 Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
1999-2006 Paul K. and Ruth R. Stumpf Professor of Plant Biochemistry

Department and Center Affiliations:
NSF Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology (http://biophotonics.ucdavis.edu/)
Department of Plant Biology Secondary Member

Professional Societies:
American Society of Plant Biologists

Grad Group Affiliations and Specialties:
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Plant Biology
Non-DBS Grad Group(s) - Chemistry

Publications:
Rockwell, N.C., Njuguna, S.L., Dwojak, S., Castillo, E., Roberts, L., Parson, V.L, Lagarias, J.C, and Spiller, S.S. (2008) A second conserved GAF domain cysteine is required for the blue/green photoreversibility of cyanobacteriochrome Tlr0924 from Thermosynechococcus elongatus. Biochemistry, 47, 7304-7316.

Su Y-S. and Lagarias JC (2007) Light independent phytochrome signaling mediated by dominant GAF-domain tyrosine mutants of Arabidopsis phytochromes in transgenic plants, Plant Cell (USA) 19, 2124-2139.

Tu SL, Rockwell NC, Lagarias, JC and Fisher AJ (2007). Insight into the radical mechanism of phycocyanobilin:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PcyA) revealed by x-ray crystallography and biochemical analysis. Biochemistry 46, 1484-1494.

Miller AE, Fischer AJ, Laurence T, Hollars C, Saykally R, Lagarias JC and Huser T (2006) Single molecule dynamics of phytochrome-bound fluorophores probed by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 103, 11136-11141.

Rockwell NC, Su Y-S and Lagarias JC (2006) Phytochrome structure and signaling mechanisms. Annual Review of Plant Biology 57, 837-858.

Tu S-L, Sughrue WL, Britt RD and Lagarias JC (2006) A Catalytic Histidine-Aspartate Pair in Exo-Vinyl Reduction of Biliverdin by Phycocyanobilin:Ferredoxin Oxidoreductase (PcyA). Journal of Biological Chemistry 281, 3127-3136.

Fischer AJ, Rockwell NC, Jang A, Ernst L, Waggoner A, Duan Y, Lei H-X and Lagarias JC (2005) Multiple roles of a conserved GAF domain tyrosine residue in cyanobacterial and plant phytochromes. Biochemistry 44, 15203-15215.

Research Interests:
Analysis and manipulation of the biochemical mechanisms underlying light-mediated plant growth and development. Structure-function studies on the plant photoreceptor phytochrome. Biochemistry of linear tetrapyrrole metabolic enzymes. Directed evolution of phytochromes, phycobiliproteins and bilin reductases. Development of phytochrome-based fluorescent and photoswitchable probes.
http://www.mcb.ucdavis.edu/faculty-labs/lagarias/

Laboratory Personnel:
31 Briggs Hall - Nathan Rockwell, Project Scientist; Wei Hu, Postdoc; Lixia Shang, Postdoc; Timothy Butterfield, PBGG Graduate Student; Keenan Taylor, Junior Project Scientist; Shelley Martin, SRA; Sindy Liao Chan, Undergraduate Researcher; Alexander King, Undergraduate Researcher' Gaganjoat Sidhu, Lab Assistant
http://www.mcb.ucdavis.edu/faculty-labs/lagarias/

Teaching Interests:


Biochemistry laboratory. Bioinformatics. Signal transduction in plants.

Courses Taught:
MCB 120L Biochemistry Laboratory