Judith Bender is a molecular geneticist who uses the laboratory plant Arabidopsis thaliana to understand basic mechanisms of gene regulation. Professor Bender began as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University in 1995. She moved to the MCB Department of Brown University in 2007. Her research focuses on how gene expression is silenced by DNA methylation. Her work has elucidated a pathway for DNA methylation that depends on methylation of DNA-associated histone proteins. Another of her research interests is understanding how Myb proteins, a ubiquitous and highly conserved group of transcriptional regulators in plants, achieve target gene specificity. Besides providing basic insights into the evolution of Myb proteins, this work is relevant to exploiting Myb transcription factors for metabolic engineering. Professor Bender has taught courses in molecular biology and genetics.
| Bender J. "RNA-directed DNA methylation: getting a grip on mechanism." Current Biology, vol. 22, no. 10, 2012, pp. R400-1. |
| Enke RA, Dong Z, Bender J. "Small RNAs prevent transcription-coupled loss of histone H3 lysine 9 methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana." PLOS Genetics, vol. 7, no. 10, 2011, pp. e1002350. |
| Johnson MA, Bender J. "Reprogramming the epigenome during germline and seed development." Genome Biology, vol. 10, no. 8, 2009, pp. 232. |
| Bender, Judith, Celenza, John L. "Indolic glucosinolates at the crossroads of tryptophan metabolism." Phytochem Rev, vol. 8, no. 1, 2008, pp. 25-37. |
| Berdasco, María, Alcázar, Rubén, García-Ortiz, María Victoria, Ballestar, Esteban, Fernández, Agustín F., Roldán-Arjona, Teresa, Tiburcio, Antonio F., Altabella, Teresa, Buisine, Nicolas, Quesneville, Hadi, Baudry, Antoine, Lepiniec, Loïc, Alaminos, Miguel, Rodríguez, Roberto, Lloyd, Alan, Colot, Vincent, Bender, Judith, Canal, María Jesús, Esteller, Manel, Fraga, Mario F. "Promoter DNA Hypermethylation and Gene Repression in Undifferentiated Arabidopsis Cells." PLoS ONE, vol. 3, no. 10, 2008, pp. e3306. |
| Mull, L., Ebbs, M. L., Bender, J. "A Histone Methylation-Dependent DNA Methylation Pathway Is Uniquely Impaired by Deficiency in Arabidopsis S-Adenosylhomocysteine Hydrolase." Genetics, vol. 174, no. 3, 2006, pp. 1161-1171. |
| Ebbs, M. L. "Locus-Specific Control of DNA Methylation by the Arabidopsis SUVH5 Histone Methyltransferase." The Plant cell, vol. 18, no. 5, 2006, pp. 1166-1176. |
| Ebbs, M. L., Bartee, L., Bender, J. "H3 Lysine 9 Methylation Is Maintained on a Transcribed Inverted Repeat by Combined Action of SUVH6 and SUVH4 Methyltransferases." Molecular and Cellular Biology, vol. 25, no. 23, 2005, pp. 10507-10515. |
| Celenza, J. L. "The Arabidopsis ATR1 Myb Transcription Factor Controls Indolic Glucosinolate Homeostasis." PLANT PHYSIOLOGY, vol. 137, no. 1, 2005, pp. 253-262. |
| Melquist, S. "An Internal Rearrangement in an Arabidopsis Inverted Repeat Locus Impairs DNA Methylation Triggered by the Locus." Genetics, vol. 166, no. 1, 2004, pp. 437-448. |
| Bender, Judith. "Chromatin-based silencing mechanisms." Current opinion in plant biology, vol. 7, no. 5, 2004, pp. 521-526. |
| Bender, Judith. "DNA METHYLATION AND EPIGENETICS." Annual Review of Plant Biology, vol. 55, no. 1, 2004, pp. 41-68. |
| BENDER, J. "DNA Methylation of the Endogenous PAI Genes in Arabidopsis." Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, vol. 69, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1-10. |
| Mathieu, O. "RNA-directed DNA methylation." Journal of cell science, vol. 117, no. 21, 2004, pp. 4881-4888. |
| Hoecker, Ute, Toledo-Ortiz, Gabriela, Bender, Judith, Quail, Peter H. "The photomorphogenesis-related mutant red1 is defective in CYP83B1 , a red light-induced gene encoding a cytochrome P450 required for normal auxin homeostasis." Planta, vol. 219, no. 2, 2004, pp. 195-200. |
| Quiel JA, Bender J. "Glucose conjugation of anthranilate by the Arabidopsis UGT74F2 glucosyltransferase is required for tryptophan mutant blue fluorescence." Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 278, no. 8, 2003, pp. 6275-81. |
| Kato M, Miura A, Bender J, Jacobsen SE, Kakutani T. "Role of CG and non-CG methylation in immobilization of transposons in Arabidopsis." Current Biology, vol. 13, no. 5, 2003, pp. 421-6. |
| Melquist S, Bender J. "Transcription from an upstream promoter controls methylation signaling from an inverted repeat of endogenous genes in Arabidopsis." Genes & Development, vol. 17, no. 16, 2003, pp. 2036-47. |
| Malagnac F, Bartee L, Bender J. "An Arabidopsis SET domain protein required for maintenance but not establishment of DNA methylation." EMBO J, vol. 21, no. 24, 2002, pp. 6842-52. |
| Pandey R, Müller A, Napoli CA, Selinger DA, Pikaard CS, Richards EJ, Bender J, Mount DW, Jorgensen RA. "Analysis of histone acetyltransferase and histone deacetylase families of Arabidopsis thaliana suggests functional diversification of chromatin modification among multicellular eukaryotes." Nucleic acids research, vol. 30, no. 23, 2002, pp. 5036-55. |
| Smolen G, Bender J. "Arabidopsis cytochrome P450 cyp83B1 mutations activate the tryptophan biosynthetic pathway." Genetics, vol. 160, no. 1, 2002, pp. 323-32. |
| Smolen GA, Pawlowski L, Wilensky SE, Bender J. "Dominant alleles of the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor ATR2 activate stress-responsive genes in Arabidopsis." Genetics, vol. 161, no. 3, 2002, pp. 1235-46. |
| Bender J. "Plant epigenetics." Current Biology, vol. 12, no. 12, 2002, pp. R412-4. |
| Bender J. "A vicious cycle: RNA silencing and DNA methylation in plants." Cell, vol. 106, no. 2, 2001, pp. 129-32. |
| Bartee L, Malagnac F, Bender J. "Arabidopsis cmt3 chromomethylase mutations block non-CG methylation and silencing of an endogenous gene." Genes & Development, vol. 15, no. 14, 2001, pp. 1753-8. |
| Symer DE, Bender J. "Genomic stability. Hip-hopping out of control." J. Geophys. Res., vol. 411, no. 6834, 2001, pp. 146-7, 149. |
| Bartee L, Bender J. "Two Arabidopsis methylation-deficiency mutations confer only partial effects on a methylated endogenous gene family." Nucleic acids research, vol. 29, no. 10, 2001, pp. 2127-34. |
| Melquist S, Luff B, Bender J. "Arabidopsis PAI gene arrangements, cytosine methylation and expression." Genetics, vol. 153, no. 1, 1999, pp. 401-13. |
| Bender J, Fink GR. "A Myb homologue, ATR1, activates tryptophan gene expression in Arabidopsis." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 95, no. 10, 1998, pp. 5655-60. |
| Bender J. "Cytosine methylation of repeated sequences in eukaryotes: the role of DNA pairing." Trends in biochemical sciences, vol. 23, no. 7, 1998, pp. 252-6. |
| Jeddeloh JA, Bender J, Richards EJ. "The DNA methylation locus DDM1 is required for maintenance of gene silencing in Arabidopsis." Genes & Development, vol. 12, no. 11, 1998, pp. 1714-25. |
| Bender J, Fink GR. "Epigenetic control of an endogenous gene family is revealed by a novel blue fluorescent mutant of Arabidopsis." Cell, vol. 83, no. 5, 1995, pp. 725-34. |
| Bender J, Fink GR. "AFC1, a LAMMER kinase from Arabidopsis thaliana, activates STE12-dependent processes in yeast." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 91, no. 25, 1994, pp. 12105-9. |
| Bender J, Kleckner N. "IS10 transposase mutations that specifically alter target site recognition." EMBO J, vol. 11, no. 2, 1992, pp. 741-50. |
| Bender J, Kleckner N. "Tn10 insertion specificity is strongly dependent upon sequences immediately adjacent to the target-site consensus sequence." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 89, no. 17, 1992, pp. 7996-8000. |
| Bender J, Kuo J, Kleckner N. "Genetic evidence against intramolecular rejoining of the donor DNA molecule following IS10 transposition." Genetics, vol. 128, no. 4, 1991, pp. 687-94. |
| Kleckner N, Bender J, Gottesman S. "Uses of transposons with emphasis on Tn10." Methods in enzymology, vol. 204, 1991, pp. 139-80. |
Ebbs, M. L. and Bender, J. (2006). Locus-specific control of DNA methylation by the Arabidopsis SUVH5 histone methyltransferase. Plant Cell 18, 1166-1176.
Celenza, J. L., Quiel, J. A., Smolen, G. A., Merrikh, H., Silvestro, A. R., Normanly, J., and Bender, J. (2005). The Arabidopsis ATR1 Myb transcription factor controls indolic glucosinolate homeostasis. Plant Physiol. 137, 253-262.
Melquist, S. and Bender, J. (2003). Transcription from an upstream promoter controls methylation signaling from an inverted repeat of endogenous genes in Arabidopsis. Genes Dev. 17, 2036-2047.
Malagnac, F., Bartee, L., and Bender, J. (2002). An Arabidopsis SET domain protein required from maintenance but not establishment of DNA methylation. EMBO J. 21, 6842-6852.
Smolen, G. and Bender, J. (2002). Arabidopsis cytochrome P450 cyp83B1 mutations activate the tryptophan biosynthetic pathway. Genetics 160, 323-332.
Smolen, G. A., Pawlowski, L., Wilensky, S. E., and Bender, J. (2002). Dominant alleles of the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor ATR2 activate stress-responsive genes in Arabidopsis. Genetics 161, 1235-1246.
Bartee, L., Malagnac, F., and Bender, J. (2001). Arabidopsis cmt3 chromomethylase mutations block non-CG methylation and silencing of an endogenous gene. Genes Dev. 15, 1753-1758.
Luff, B., Pawlowski, L., and Bender, J. (1999). An inverted repeat triggers de novo methylation of identical sequences in Arabidopsis. Mol. Cell 3, 505-511.
Bender, J. and Fink, G. R. (1998). A Myb homologue, ATR1, activates tryptophan gene expression in Arabidopsis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 5655-5660.
Bender, J. and Fink, G. R. (1995). Epigenetic control of an endogenous gene family is revealed by a new blue fluorescent mutant of Arabidopsis. Cell 83, 725-734.
Bender, J. and Kleckner, N. (1992). IS10 transposase mutations that specifically alter target site recognition. EMBO J. 11, 741-750.
Bender, J. and Kleckner, N. (1986). Genetic Evidence that Tn10 Transposes by a Nonreplicative Mechanism. Cell 45, 801-815.
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | PhD | Harvard University |
| 1982 | BS | Harvard University |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| DeLong, Alison | Associate Professor of Biology |
| Johnson, Mark | Professor of Biology, Graduate Program Director for the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry Graduate Program |
| BIOL 1540 - Molecular Genetics |
| BIOL 2010A - Introduction to Molecular Research in the Life Sciences |
| BIOL 2150 - Scientific Communication |
| BIOL 2540 - Molecular Genetics |
