Mark Estelle
· Distinguished Professor EmeritusVerifiedUniversity of California, San Diego · Cell and Developmental Biology
Active 1980–2024
About
Mark Estelle is a Principal Investigator at the Estelle Laboratory within the UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences, Department of Cell & Developmental Biology. His laboratory focuses on research related to cell and developmental biology, as indicated by the department affiliation. Further details about his specific research interests, background, or key contributions are not provided in the page text.
Research topics
- Botany
- Cell biology
- Biochemistry
- Biology
Selected publications
The Plant Cell · 2022 · 96 citations
- Biology
- Botany
- Cell biology
Like other complex multicellular organisms, plants are composed of different cell types with specialized shapes and functions. For example, most laminar leaves consist of multiple photosynthetic cell types. These cell types include the palisade mesophyll, which typically forms one or more cell layers on the adaxial side of the leaf. Despite their importance for photosynthesis, we know little about how palisade cells differ at the molecular level from other photosynthetic cell types. To this end, we have used a combination of cell-specific profiling using fluorescence-activated cell sorting and single-cell RNA-sequencing methods to generate a transcriptional blueprint of the palisade mesophyll in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves. We find that despite their unique morphology, palisade cells are otherwise transcriptionally similar to other photosynthetic cell types. Nevertheless, we show that some genes in the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway have both palisade-enriched expression and are light-regulated. Phenylpropanoid gene activity in the palisade was required for production of the ultraviolet (UV)-B protectant sinapoylmalate, which may protect the palisade and/or other leaf cells against damaging UV light. These findings improve our understanding of how different photosynthetic cell types in the leaf can function uniquely to optimize leaf performance, despite their transcriptional similarities.
Recent grants
Auxin Signaling in the Early Diverged Land Plant Physcomitrella Patens
NSF · $450k · 2008–2011
NIH · $7.6M · 1989–2023
Genetics Cellular and Molecular Sciences Training Grant
NIH · $11.1M · 1984–2015
Frequent coauthors
- 88 shared
Michael J. Prigge
University of California, San Diego
- 57 shared
Paul J. Rushton
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- 53 shared
Tomoaki Nishiyama
Kanazawa University
- 52 shared
Igor V. Grigoriev
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- 52 shared
Mitsuyasu Hasebe
National Institute for Basic Biology
- 52 shared
Stefan A. Rensing
- 52 shared
Harris Shapiro
- 52 shared
Andreas Zimmer
University Medical Center Freiburg
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