Linda Riles, Research Assistant

Email:

lriles@genetics.wustl.edu

Education:

1963-65 Genetics
University College London, UK

1962 M.A., Genetics
Washington University

1960 B.A., Biology
Reed College

Awards/Honors:

• 1960 Woodrow Wilson Fellowship
• 1960 Phi Beta Kappa
• 1960 California Institute of Technology, summer training grant
• 1959 Oak Ridge National Laboratories, summer training grant

Current Project:

I am working with Michael White, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Barak Cohen’s lab, to identify novel transcription factors that are involved in the yeast cell cycle. Using quantitative flow cytometry, we found that 20% of the 267 transcription factor deletion strains screened appear to be involved in cell cycle progression, many of which exhibit subtle, highly reproducible phenotypes that have not been found by other assays.

Our further analysis of one of the transcription factors, Sfg1, an in vitro substrate of Cdc28, suggests that it coordinates cell cycle transcription with the early G1 cell fate decision between vegetative and pseudohyphal growth by repressing genes required for cell separation, and by interactions with the core cyclin-dependent kinase oscillator (Michael A. White, Linda Riles, and Barak A. Cohen. A systematic screen for transcriptional regulators of the yeast cell cycle--submitted).

This study and others indicate that most major regulatory points of cell cycle transcription involve both repressors and activators, as well as interactions with cyclin/Cdk complexes. We think that many of these interactions will include transcription factors identified in our screen, and we plan to analyze a subset of them.

Publications:

1. Michael A. White, Linda Riles, and Barak A. Cohen. A systematic screen for transcriptional regulators of the yeast cell cycle (submitted).
2. Jason Gertz, Linda Riles, Peter Turnbaugh, Su-Wen Ho and Barak A. Cohen (2005). Discovery, validation, and genetic dissection of transcription factor binding sites by comparative and functional genomics. Genome Research 15:1145-1152.
3. Linda Riles, Randal J. Shaw, Mark Johnston, Daniel Reines (2004). Large-scale screening of yeast mutants for sensitivity to the IMP dehydrogenase inhibitor 6-azauracil. Yeast 21: 241-248.
4. Giaever G, Chu AM, Ni L, Connelly C, Riles L, Veronneau S, Dow S, Lucau-Danila A, Anderson K, Andre B, Arkin AP, Astromoff A, El-Bakkoury M, Bangham R, Benito R, Brachat S, Campanaro S, Curtiss M, Davis K, Deutschbauer A, Entian KD, Flaherty P, Foury F, Garfinkel DJ, Gerstein M, Gotte D, Guldener U, Hegemann JH, Hempel S, Herman Z, Jaramillo DF, Kelly DE, Kelly SL, Kotter P, LaBonte D, Lamb DC, Lan N, Liang H, Liao H, Liu L, Luo C, Lussier M, Mao R, Menard P, Ooi SL, Revuelta JL, Roberts CJ, Rose M, Ross-Macdonald P, Scherens B, Schimmack G, Shafer B, Shoemaker DD, Sookhai-Mahadeo S, Storms RK, Strathern JN, Valle G, Voet M, Volckaert G, Wang CY, Ward TR, Wilhelmy J, Winzeler EA, Yang Y, Yen G, Youngman E, Yu K, Bussey H, Boeke JD, Snyder M, Philippsen P, Davis RW, Johnston M. (2002). Nature 418(6896): 387-91. Functional profiling of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome.
5. Johnston M, Riles L, Hegemann JH. (2002). Gene Disruption. Methods Enzymol 350: 290-315.
6. R. Niedenthal, L. Riles, U. Guldener, S. Klein, M. Johnston and J.H. Hegemann (1999). Systematic Analysis of S. cerevisiae Chromosome VIII Genes. Yeast 15: 1775-1796.
7. R.K. Niedenthal, L. Riles, M. Johnston and J.H. Hegemann (1996).  Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene expression and subcellular localization in budding yeast. Yeast 12: 773-786.
8. M. Johnston, S. Andrews, R. Brinkman, J. Cooper, H. Ding, J. Dover, Z. Du, A. Favello, L. Fulton, S. Gattung, C. Geisel, J. Kirsten, T. Kucaba, L. Hillier, M. Jier, L. Johnston, Y. Langston, P. Latreille, E.J. Louis, C. Macri, E. Mardis, S. Menezes, L. Mouser, M. Nhan, L. Rifkin, L. Riles, H. St. Peter, E. Trevaskis, K. Vaughan, D. Vignati, L. Wilcox, P. Wohldman, R. Waterston, R. Wilson, and M. Vaudin (1994). Complete nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VIII. Science 265: 2077-2082.
9. Riles, Linda, James E. Dutchik, Amara Baktha, Brigid K. McCauley, Edward C. Thayer, Mary P. Leckie, Valerie V. Braden, Julie E. Depke and Maynard V. Olson (1993). Physical maps of the six smallest chromosomes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at a resolution of 2.6 kilobase pairs. Genetics 134: 81-150.
10. Linda Riles and Maynard V. Olson (1988). Nonsense mutations in essential genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics 118: 601-607.
11. Gruneberg, H., G. Baines, R. Berry, L. Riles, C.A.B. Smith and R. Weiss (1966). A search for genetic effects of high natural radioactivity in South India. Medical Research Council, Special Report Series No. 307.
12. Riles, L. (1965). A lactate dehydrogenase variant in the mouse. Nature 208: 814-815.
13. Riles, L. (1965). zzzInversion polymorphism and embryonic lethality in Drosophila robusta. Genetics 52: 1335-1343.