Susan J. Lolle

Bachelor of Science (BSc) Honours Queen's, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) McGill

Email: slolle@uwaterloo.ca

Telephone: (519) 888-4567 ext. 36441

Lab: Biology 2 353, ext. 35093

Office: Biology 2 352A

Research interests

Plant epidermal cells play important roles in reproduction, the maintenance of growth and normal development. We are interested in understanding how epidermal cell fate is determined and how the epidermal state is maintained. We have used a genetic approach to identify a collection of loci in Arabidopsis thaliana that affect epidermal function and specifically modulate contact-mediated adhesion events. Collectively, these studies have helped establish a direct connection between the biological properties of the cuticle, cell adhesion and reproduction. Our genetic analyses have also uncovered a novel type of genetic instability that is manifested by plants harboring lesions at one specific locus. Although the mechanism proposed for this type of genetic instability remains hypothetical, if verified, the existence of such a mechanism would represent a significant paradigm shift in the field of genome biology.

Light micrographs showing the inflorescences of wild type (left) and mutant (right) Arabidopsis thaliana plants. In organ fusion mutants, floral organs show the greatest tendency to fuse to one another. Plants manifesting severe inter-organ fusion are sterile.

Selected publications

• Hopkins MT, Khalid AM, Chang PC et al. (2013) De novo genetic variation revealed in somatic sectors of single Arabidopsis plants [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/kw] F1000Research 2:5 (doi: 10.3410/f1000research.2-5.v1)

• Lolle, S.J., J.L. Victor, J.M. Young and R.E. Pruitt. (2005) Genome-wide non-mendelian inheritance of extra-genomic information in Arabidopsis. Nature 434: 505–509.
• Krolikowski, K.A., J.L Victor, T. Nussbaum Wagler, S.J. Lolle and R.E. Pruitt (2003) Isolation and characterization of the Arabidopsis organ fusion gene, HOTHEAD. The Plant Journal 35: 501–511.
• Pruitt, R.E., J.-P. Vielle-Calzada, S.E. Ploense, U. Grossniklaus and S.J. Lolle. (2000) FIDDLEHEAD, a gene required to suppress epidermal cell interactions in Arabidopsis, encodes a putative lipid biosynthetic enzyme. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 97, 1311–1316.
• Lolle, S.J. and R.E. Pruitt. (1999) Epidermal cell interactions: a case for local talk. Trends Plant Sci., 4, 14-20.
• Lolle, S.J., W. Hsu and R.E. Pruitt (1998) Genetic analysis of organ fusion in Arabidopsis thaliana. Genetics, 149, 607–619.