Mark Peifer is documenting the flora of
Alamance County, North Carolina, where he resides. The University
of North Carolina Herbarium has approximately 160 specimens collected
by Dr. Peifer, but that number will increase as he continues his
collecting activities. He frequently collects with his daughters,
Rose Lorraine Peifer and Lillian Claire McCormick, and with his
spouse, Carol Ann McCormick.
B. A. St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota
1980
Ph.D. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
1988 Thesis title: "Analysis of the abx/bx and bxd/pbx regulatory
regions of the ultrabithorax gene" Advisor: Welcome Bender,
Ph.D.
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill: initial appointment, 1992; Welsh Distinguished Professor
in the Biology Department, 2001-2005; Hooker Distinguished Professor
2006.
Website: http://www.bio.unc.edu/faculty/peifer/
Research Interest:
Biomedical science has twin goals; to explain
the many amazing properties of our own bodies and those of other
animals, and to use this information to reveal the causes of disease
and to suggest possible treatments. We work at the interface between
cell and developmental biology, focusing on the epithelial tissues
that form the basic architectural unit of our bodies and of those
of other animals. Epithelial tissues like skin, lung, colon, and
breast are affected in many cancers. To explore underlying causes
of epithelial tumors and to understand the basic cellular machinery
that links cell adhesion, signal transduction and cytoskeletal
regulation, we focus on the Armadillo/ß-catenin protein.
It is mutated in colon and other cancers, and it is also critical
for normal embryonic development. Cancer results from alterations
in normal cell behaviors. Drosophila Armadillo and its vertebrate
homolog ß-catenin play key roles both in cell-cell adherens
junctions, initiating the formation of epithelail tissues, and
as transducers of Wingless/Wnt family cell-cell signals. We study
these processes in the fruit fly Drosophila, combining classical
and molecular genetics with cell biology and biochemistry, and
thus capitalizing on the speed of this model system and its synergy
with vertebrate cell biology.
Selected references:
McCartney, B.M., Price, M.H., Webb, R.,
, Hayden, M.A., Holot, L., Zhou, M, Bejsovec, A., and Peifer,
M. (2006). Testing hypotheses for the functions of APC family
proteins using null and truncation alleles in Drosophila. Development
133: 2407-2418.
Price, M.H., Roberts, D.M., McCartney,
B.M., Jezuit, E., and Peifer, M. (2006). Cytoskeletal dynamics
and cell signaling during planar polarity establishment in the
Drosophila embryonic denticle. Journal of Cell Science, in press.
Gates, J., and Peifer, M. (2005). Can 1000
reviews be wrong? Actin, alpha-catenin and adherens junctions.
Cell 123, 769-772.
Fox, D.T., Homem, C.C.F., Myster, S.H.,
Wang, F., Bain, E.E., and Peifer, M. (2005). Rho1 Regulates Drosophila
Adherens Junctions Independently of p120ctn. Development 132,
4819-4831.
Harris, T.J.C., and Peifer, M. (2005).
The positioning and segregation of apical cues during epithelial
polarity establishment in Drosophila. Journal of Cell Biology
170, 813-823.
McEwen,D.G., and Peifer, M. (2005). Puckered,
a Drosophila MAPK phosphatase, ensures cell viability by antagonizing
JNK-induced apoptosis. Development 132, 3935-3946.
Harris, T.J.C., and Peifer, M. (2004).
Decisions, decisions: beta-catenin chooses between adhesion and
transcription. Trends in Cell Biology15, 2345-237.
Harris, T.J.C., and Peifer, M. (2004).
Adherens junction-dependent and -independent steps in the establishment
of epithelial cell polarity in Drosophila. Journal of Cell Biology165,
135-147.
Grevengoed, E.E., Fox, D.T., Gates, J.,
and Peifer, M. (2003). Balancing different types of actin polymerization
at distinct sites: Roles for Abelson kinase and Enabled. Journal
of Cell Biology 163, 1267-1280.
McCartney, B.M., and Peifer, M. (2003).
Stem Cells in the News: CNN and APC Make Headlines. Developmental
Cell 5, 532-4.
Myster, S.H., Cavallo, R., Anderson, C.T.,
Fox, D.T., and Peifer, M. (2003). Drosophila p120catenin plays
a supporting role in cell adhesion but is not an essential adherens
junction component. The Journal of Cell Biology 160, 433-449.
Peifer, M. (2002). Developmental Biology:
Colon construction. Nature 420, 274-276.
Peifer, M., and McEwen, D.G. (2002). The
ballet of morphogenesis: unveiling the hidden choreographers.
Cell 109, 271-274.
Akong, K. McCartney., B.M., and Peifer, M. (2002). Drosophila
APC1 and APC2 have overlapping roles in the larval brain despite
their distinct intracellular localizations. Developmental Biology
250, 71-90.
Akong, K., Grevengoed, E.E., Price, M.H.,
McCartney., B.M., Hayden, M.A., DeNofrio, J.C. and Peifer, M.
(2002). Drosophila APC1 and APC2 playoverlapping roles in Wingless
signaling in the embryo and imaginal discs. Developmental Biology
250, 91-100.
Grevengoed, E.E., Loureiro, J.J., Jesse,
T.L., and Peifer M. (2001). Abelson kinase regulates epithelial
morphogenesis in Drosophila. Journal of Cell Biology , 155, 1185-1197.
McCartney, B.M., McEwen, D.G., Grevengoed,
E., Maddox, P., Bejsovec, A., Peifer, M. (2001). Drosophila APC2
and Armadillo participate in tethering mitotic spindles to cortical
actin. Nature Cell Biology 3, 933-938.
Simcha, I., Kirkpatrick, C., Sadot, E.,
Shtutman, M. Polevoy, G., Geiger, B., Peifer, M., and Ben-Ze’ev,
A. (2001). Cadherin Sequences that Inhibit ß-catenin Signaling:
a Study in Yeast and Mammalian Cells. Molecular Biology of the
Cell 12: 1177-88.
Tepass, U., Truong, K., Godt, D., Ikura,
M., Peifer, M. (2000). Cadherins in embryonic and neural morphogenesis.
Nature Reviews: Molecular Cell Biology 1: 91-100.
Adam, J.C., Pringle, J.R., and Peifer,
M. (2000). Evidence for functional differentiation among Drosophila
septins in cytokinesis and cellularization. Molecular Biology
of the Cell 11: 3123-3135.
Peifer, M. (2000). Travel bulletin: traffic
jams cause tumors. Science 289: 67-69.
McEwen, D.G., Cox, R.T., and Peifer, M.
(2000). The canonical Wg and JNK signaling cascades collaborate
to promote both dorsal closure and ventral patterning. Development
127: 3607-3617.
Cox, R.T., McEwen, D.G., Myster, D.G.,
Duronio, R.J., Loureiro, J., and Peifer, M. (2000). A screen for
mutations that suppress the phenotype of Drosophila armadillo,
the b-catenin homolog. Genetics 155: 1725-1740.
McCartney, B.M., and Peifer, M. (2000).
Teaching tumor suppressors new tricks. Nature Cell Biol. 2: E58-60.
Peifer, M., and Polakis, P. (2000). Wnt
signaling in oncogenesis and embryogenesis: A look outside the
nucleus. Science 287: 1606-1609.
Peifer, M., and Tepass, U. (2000). Cell
Biology: Which way is up? Nature 403: 611-612.
McCartney, B., Dierick, H.A., Kirkpatrick,
C., Moline, M.M., Baas, A., Peifer, M., and Bejsovec, A. (1999)
Drosophila APC2 is a cytoskeletally-associated protein that regulates
Wingless signaling in the embryonic epidermis. Journal of Cell
Biology 146: 1303-1318.
Peifer, M. (1999). Signal transduction:
Neither straight nor narrow. Nature 400: 213-215.
Cox, R.T., Pai, L.-M., Kirkpatrick, C.,
Stein, J., and Peifer, M. (1999). Roles of the C-terminus of Armadillo
in Wingless signaling in Drosophila. Genetics 153: 319-332.
Cox, R.T., Pai, L.-M., Miller, J.R., Orsulic,
S., Stein, J., McCormick, C.A., Audeh, Y., Wang, W., Moon, R.T.,
and Peifer, M. (1999). Membrane-tethered Drosophila Armadillo
cannot transduce Wingless signal on its own. Development 126:
1327-1335.
Lu, Q., Paredes, M., Medina, M., Zhou,
J., Cavallo, R., Peifer, M., Orecchio, L. and Kosik, K.S. (1999).
Delta-catenin, an adhesive junction-associated protein which promotes
cell scattering. J. Cell Biol. 144: 519-532.
van Es, J.H., Kirkpatrick, C., van de Wetering,
M., Molenaar, M., Miles, A., Kuipers, J., Destree, O., Peifer,
M., and Clevers, H. (1999). Identification of APC2, a homologue
of the adenomatous polyposis coli tumour suppressor. Current Biology
9: 105-108.
Cavallo, R.A., Cox, R.T., Moline, M.M.,
Roose, J., Polevoy, G.A., Clevers, H., Peifer, M., and Bejsovec,
A. (1998). Drosophila TCF and Groucho interact to repress Wingless
signaling activity. Nature 395: 604-608.
Loureiro, J., and Peifer, M. (1998). The
roles of Armadillo, a Drosophila catenin, during central nervous
system development. Current Biology 8: 622-632.
Pai, L.-M., Orsulic, S., Bejsovec, A. and
Peifer, M. (1997). Negative regulation of Armadillo, a Wingless
effector in Drosophila. Development 124: 2255-2266.
van de Wetering, M., Cavallo, R., Dooijes,
D., van Beest, M., van Es, J., Loureiro, J., Ypma, A., Hursh,
D., Jones, T., Bejsovec, A., Peifer, M., Mortin, M., and Clevers,
H. (1997). Armadillo co-activates transcription driven by the
product of the Drosophila segment polarity gene dTCF. Cell 88:
789-799.
Peifer, M. (1997). ß-catenin as oncogene--the
smoking gun. Science 275: 1752-1753.
Orsulic, S., and Peifer, M. (1996). An
in vivo structure-function study of Armadillo, the ß-catenin
homolog, reveals both separate and overlapping regions of the
protein required for cell adhesion and for Wingless signaling.
J. Cell Biol. 134: 1283-1301.
Cox, R., Kirkpatrick, C., and Peifer, M.
(1996). Armadillo is required for adherens junction assembly,
cell polarity and morphogenesis during Drosophila embryogenesis.
J. Cell Biol. 134: 133-148.
Pai, L.-M., Kirkpatrick, C., Blanton, J.,
Oda, H., Takeichi, M., and Peifer, M. (1996). a-catenin and DE-cadherin
occupy distinct binding sites on Drosophila Armadillo that differ
substantially in size. J. Biol. Chem. 271: 32411-32420.
Fares, H., Peifer, M., and Pringle, J.P.
(1995). Localization and possible functions of Drosophila septins.
Mol. Biol. Cell 6: 1843-1859.
Peifer, M. (1995) Cell adhesion and signal
transduction--the Armadillo connection (review). Trends Cell Bio.
5: 224-229.
Kirkpatrick, C., and Peifer, M. (1995)
Not just glue- cell-cell junctions as cellular signaling centers
(review). Curr. Opin. Genet. Devel. 5: 56-65.
Rauskolb, C., Smith, K., Peifer, M., and
Wieschaus, E. (1995) extradenticle determines segmental throughout
Drosophila development. Development 121: 3663-3673.
Peifer, M., Pai, L.-M., and Casey, M. (1994).
Phosphorylation of the Drosophila adhesive junction protein Armadillo:
roles for Wingless signal and Zeste white-3 kinase. Dev. Biol.
166: 543-556.
Peifer, M., Sweeton, D., Casey, M., and
Wieschaus, E. (1994) wingless signal and Zeste-white 3 kinase
trigger opposing changes in the intracellular distribution of
Armadillo. Development 120: 369-380.
