Soni Lacefield
Dartmouth College, NH·Genetics
Making an egg is one of the most error-prone jobs a cell performs. Eggs and sperm are produced by meiosis, a specialized division in which a cell copies its DNA once and then separates chromosomes twice, halving the chromosome number.
- Fields
Genetics
Biology
Biochemistry
- Topics
meiosis
oogenesis
oocyte maturation
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2028
What they work on
- Adapt HyperTRIBE, which tags an RNA-binding protein so it marks the RNAs it contacts, to identify the direct mRNA targets of PATL2, PUM1 and PUM2 in mouse oocytes and early embryos, and test how loss of one protein shifts the others' targets.
- Use spatial transcriptomics, spatial single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial ribosome profiling with imaging to map where and when transcripts are translated in individual oocytes and embryos, and how depleting PATL2, PUM1 or PUM2 disrupts these dynamics.
- Determine how the number and position of crossovers along a chromosome arm affect correct, bioriented kinetochore-microtubule attachments in meiosis I, using engineered budding yeast strains with targeted crossovers and time-lapse imaging.
- Test the hypothesis that yeast cells use a developmentally programmed mechanism to overcome persistent spindle checkpoint activity during meiosis so that gametes are still produced.
- Determine how protein phosphatases counteract kinase activity at the meiotic kinetochore to ensure kinetochore assembly and proper kinetochore-microtubule attachments specifically in meiosis II.
More about the research
Mistakes in this process cause miscarriage, infertility and trisomy conditions such as Down syndrome. Two projects in the lab attack the problem from complementary directions: one asks how a cell physically attaches and sorts its chromosomes correctly during meiosis, using budding yeast; the other asks how an egg controls which of its stored messenger RNAs get made into protein, using mouse oocytes and early embryos. Together they address how a cell commits to, times and executes the divisions that produce a viable gamete and embryo.
Why it matters
Errors in meiosis underlie miscarriage, infertility and trisomy conditions such as Down syndrome, and infertility affects millions of women while the molecular steps that produce a competent egg remain poorly understood. Defining how RNA-binding proteins such as PATL2 control translation in oocytes, and how cells build and monitor correct chromosome attachments, could point to causes of early pregnancy loss and to potential therapeutic targets for infertility.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Fei Wang
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Biology
Determine how autophagy, the cell's self-digestion system, promotes gametogenesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae across meiosis entry, DNA replication, meiosis exit and spore membrane formation, using yeast genetics, biochemistry and imaging.
Matthew Miller
University of Utah, UT·Biochemistry
Define how kinetochores sense mechanical tension and how force alters the binding behavior of this large protein assembly to microtubules, building on Stu2 as a key factor in a tension-sensing pathway.
Amy MacQueen
Wesleyan University, CT·Genetics
Define how the N terminus of Zip1, a synaptonemal complex building block, works with the Zip3 SUMO ligase to promote crossover recombination in budding yeast, using structure-function genetic analysis.
The school
Dartmouth College: 16 labs on PI Pages, $418M a year on research, 104 research doctorates a year.
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