T. Erik Mirkov
Professor
Dept. of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and the Intercollegiate Faculty of Virology
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Office: Phone: 956-968-5585 Fax: 956-968-0641 Email: e-mirkov@tamu.edu |
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PhD Plant Pathology (1988) University of California, Riverside
The research in my laboratory has both an applied aspect and a basic aspect. The main emphasis of the applied research is to incorporate viral resistance genes into crops important to south Texas agriculture using transgenic plant technologies. We have used pathogen derived resistance approaches to create transgenic citrus and sugarcane plants that are resistant to the main viruses causing economic losses in these crops. We are also expressing novel lectins and lytic proteins in transgenic plants for the control of insect viral vectors and phytopathogenic bacteria. Currently, there are projects in both sugarcane and citrus.
In addition to using pathogen derived resistance approaches to create transgenic citrus resistant to Citrus tristeza virus, the most important virus of citrus worldwide, we are developing and utilizing positional cloning methods to isolate viral resistance genes from citrus and citrus relatives. A major effort in the lab has an overall objective to use positional cloning methods to isolate a dominant gene (Ctv) from the trifoliate orange that causes resistance to all know isolates of Citrus tristeza virus. Starting with a genetic linkage map spanning 1.8 cM, and a subsequent chromosome walk of 1.2 Mb, we have narrowed down the genomic region that must contain Ctv to 125 kb, which contains eight candidate genes.
Another major emphasis in the lab is to identify and characterize host proteins involved in the dsRNA mediated antiviral defense pathway. Many different plant viral proteins have been identified as suppressors of this RNA silencing defense pathway. We have identified and are using suppressors encoded by sugarcane viruses as molecular probes to isolate plant proteins in the RNA silencing pathway. To date, five different proteins (including a protein able to bind RNA) have been isolated. Furthermore, using newly developed in vivo assays we have confirmed that the host RNA binding protein and an interacting host 14-3-3 protein are required for RNA silencing. This approach will allow us to dissect this very important RNA surveillance, targeting, and degradation pathway.
100% Research Appointment
Ma, H., Schulze, S., Lee, S., Yang, M.,Irvine, J., Moore, P., Mirkov, T. E., and Paterson, A. H. (2004). An EST survey of the sugarcane transcriptome. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 108: 851-863.
Yang, M., Bower, R., Burow, M. D., Paterson, A. H. and Mirkov, T. E. (2003). A rapid and direct approach to identify promoters that confer high-levels of gene expression in monocots. Crop Science 43: 1805-1813.
Sétamou, M., Bernal, J. S., Mirkov, T. E. and Legaspi, J. C. (2003). Effects of snowdrop lectin (GNA) on Mexican rice borer (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) life history parameters. Journal of Economic Entomology 96: 950-956.
Yang, Z. N., Ye, X. R., Molina, J., Roose, M. L. and Mirkov, T. E. (2003). Sequence analysis of a 282-kb region surrounding the Citrus tristeza virus resistance gene (Ctv) locus in Poncirus trifoliata. Plant Physiology 131: 482-492.
K-B. G. Scholthof, T. E. Mirkov, and H. B. Scholthof (2002). Plant Viral Gene Vectors: Biotechnology Applications in Agriculture and Medicine. In: J. K. Setlow (Ed.), Genetic Engineering: Principles and Methods. 24: 67-85.
Sétamou, M., Bernal, J. S., Legaspi, J. C. and Mirkov, T. E. 2002. Parasitism and location of sugarcane borer hosts by Cotesia flavipes (Cameron) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) on transgenic and conventional sugarcane. Environmental Entomology. 32: 1219-1225.
T. Erik Mirkov (2002). The Molecular Basis of Crop Improvement and Genetic Engineering. In: Chrispeels M. J. and Sadava D. (Eds.), Plants, Genes and Crop Biotechnology, Second Edition. pp. 124-151.
Butterfield, M. K., Irvine, J. E., Valdez Garza, M. and Mirkov, T. E. (2002). Inheritance and Segregation of Herbicide and Virus Resistance Transgenes in Sugarcane. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 104: 797-803.
Zhong-Nan Yang and T. Erik Mirkov (2002) Isolation of large terminal sequences of BAC inserts based on double-restriction-enzyme digestion followed by anchored PCR. In: Chen B. Y. and Jones (Eds.), PCR Cloning Protocols, Second Edition, Methods in Molecular Biology. 192: 337-342
Sétamou, M., Bernal, J. S., Legaspi, J. C., Mirkov, T. E. and Legaspi, B. (2002). Evaluation of lectin-expressing transgenic sugarcane against stalkborers (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae): cumulative effects of GNA delivered via artificial diet on life history parameters over two generations. Journal of Economic Entomology. 95: 469-477.
Moonan, F., and Mirkov, T. E. (2002). Analyses of genotypic diversity of North, South and Central American isolates of Sugarcane yellow leaf virus: Evidence for Colombian origins and spatial phylogenetic variation within the species. Journal of Virology 76:1339-1348.
Sétamou, M., Bernal, J. S., Legaspi, J. C., and Mirkov T. E. (2002). Effects of Snowdrop Lectin (GNA) Expressed in Transgenic Sugarcane on Fitness of Cotesia flavipes (Cameron), a Parasitoid of the Non-target Pest Diatraea saccharalis F. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 95:75-83.
Yang, Z. N., Ye, X. R., Choi, S., Molina J., Moonan, F., Wing, R. A., Roose, M. L., and Mirkov, T. E. (2001) Construction of a 1.2 Mb contig including the citrus tristeza virus resistance gene locus using a bacterial artificial chromosome library of Poncirus trifoliata. Genome 44: 382-393.
