Harmer Lab

Room 2123
Department of Plant Biology
1002 Life Sciences, One Shields Ave.
University of California Davis
Davis, CA 95616

Contact: slharmer at ucdavis.edu

Home Research Publications Protocols Announcements Lab Safety Job openings

Announcements

This page is no longer maintained. Please go to our new site at Harmer Lab.

Our investigation of sunflower solar tracking was recently published in *Science*!

A nice description of our recent article investigating the role of the clock in sunflower solar tracking and flower orientation can be found in this New Scientist article.

Other popular press coverage includes pieces in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic and the Washington Post.

Links to additional popular press articles, podcasts, and social media references to this work may be found on this page.

Schedules for our joint group meeting with the Maloof lab, and UC Davis biology seminars.

Research

Many organisms, including some prokaryotes and most eukaryotes, possess an internal timer or circadian clock that allows them to regulate their physiology to better adapt to our continually changing world. These circadian clocks generate roughly 24 hour rhythms in physiology and behavior that are maintained even in the absence of environmental cues. Although the molecular components of circadian clocks are not conserved across higher taxa, in all organisms studied these clocks are cell autonomous oscillators and in diverse eukaryotes are composed of complex transcriptional networks. As rooted organisms living in a continually changing world, plants are masters at withstanding environmental variation. The circadian clock is key: it both ensures the optimal timing of daily and seasonal events to cope with predictable stresses and regulates myriad signaling pathways to optimize responses to environmental cues. The study of circadian rhythms in plants thus presents a wide range of fascinating questions with real-world applications: What is the molecular nature of the circadian clock; that is, how can a cell keep time? What aspects of physiology are under circadian regulation? What are the mechanistic links between the clock network and other signaling pathways? Why does a functional circadian clock provide an adaptive advantage? The Harmer lab is using Arabidopsis thaliana and sunflower to address these important questions. We use forward and reverse genetics, genomics, biochemistry, and physiological studies to better understand the nature of the plant clock and how it helps shape plant responses to the environment.

Read more...

Lab Members

Stacey Harmer
Hagop Atamian
Cassandra Baker
Chris Brooks
Nicky Creux
Rod Kumimoto
Akiva Shalit-Kaneh

Undergrad & high school interns

Faith Ajayi
Ben Caswell
Marcus Gainer
Emma Goguen
Tatiana Gromova
Leandro Guerrero
Nicky Kwa
Joe Martin
Valeria Nunez
Ryleigh Rupe
Yanne Santos
Bryant Tran

Former Members

Shajahan_Anver
Mike Covington
Cory Ellison
Valentina Fanelli
Jennifer Gray
Polly (Yingshan) Hsu
Matt Jones
Ellen Martin-Tryon
Reetika Rawat
Ivan Salles Santos
Koby Schwartz
Nozomu Takahashi
Jessica Tucci
Mikayala Waugh
Brian Williams

Undergrad Alumni

Funding

Recent Publications

Shalit-Kaneh, A., Kumimoto, R.W., Filkov, V., and Harmer, S.L. (2018) Multiple feedback loops of the Arabidopsis circadian clock provide rhythmic robustness across environmental conditions. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 115(27) 7147-7152. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1805524115 [1]
Harmer, S.L. and Brooks, C.J. (2017) Growth-mediated plant movements: hidden in plain sight. Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 41:89-94. doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2017.10.003 [2]
Rubin, M.J., Brock, M.T., Davis, A.M., German, Z.M., Welch, S.M., Harmer, S.L., Maloof, J.N., Davis, S.J., and Weinig, C. (2017) Circadian rhythms vary over the growing season and correlate with fitness components. Molecular Ecology. 26(20):5528-5540. doi: 10.1111/mec.14287 [3]
Gray, J.A., Shalit-Kaneh, A., Chu, D.N., Hsu, P.Y., and Harmer, S.L. (2017) The REVEILLE clock genes inhibit growth of juvenile and adult plants by control of cell size. Plant Physiology. 173(4):2308-2322. doi: 10.1104/pp.17.00109 [4]
Müller-Moulé P., Nozue, K., Pytlak, M.L., Palmer, C.M., Covington, M.F., Wallace, A.D., Harmer, S.L., and Maloof, J.N. (2016) YUCCA auxin biosynthetic genes are required for Arabidopsis shade avoidance. PeerJ. 4:e2574 [5]
Atamian, H.S., Creux, N.M., Brown, E.A., Garner, A.G., Blackman, B.K., and Harmer, S.L. (2016) Circadian regulation of sunflower heliotropism, floral orientation, and pollinator visits. Science. 353(6299):587-90. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf9793 [6]
Atamian, H.S. and Harmer, S.L. (2016) Circadian regulation of hormone signaling and plant physiology. Plant Mol Biol. 91(6):691-702. doi: 10.1007/s11103-016-0477-4 [7]
Jones, M.A., Hu, W., Litthauer, S., Lagarias, J.C. and Harmer, S.L. (2015) A constitutively active allele of phytochrome B maintains circadian robustness in the absence of light. Plant Physiology. 169(1):814-25. doi: 10.1104/pp.15.00782 [8]
Anver, S., Roguev, A., Zofall, M., Krogan, N.J., Grewal, S.I.S., and Harmer, S.L. (2014) Yeast X-Chromosome Associated Protein 5 (Xap5) Functions with H2A.Z to Suppress Aberrant Transcripts. EMBO reports. pii: e201438902. [9]
Hsu, P.Y. and Harmer, S.L. (2013) Wheels within wheels: the plant circadian system. Trends in Plant Science [10]
Hsu, P.Y., Devisetty, U.K., and Harmer, S.L. (2013) Cycling activators control the evening arm of the plant clock. eLife. 2:e00473. [11]
Zemach, A., Kim, M.Y., Hsieh, P.-H., Coleman-Derr,D., Eshed-Williams, L., Thao, K, Harmer, S.L., and Zilberman, D. (2013) The Arabidopsis nucleosome remodeler DDM1 allows DNA methyltransferases to access H1-containing heterochromatin. Cell 153(1):193-205 [12]
Hu, W., Franklin, K.A., Sharrock, R.A., Jones, M.A., Harmer, S.L., and Lagarias, J.C. (2013) Unanticipated regulatory roles for Arabidopsis phytochromes revealed by null mutant analysis. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Science 110(4) 1542-1547. [13]