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Enamul Huq
Professor
Molecular BiosciencesLight signal transduction in plants witha a focus on mechanisms of light-regulated protein degradation and pre-mRNA splicing in Arabidopsishuq@austin.utexas.edu
Phone: 512-471-9848
Office Location
NMS 5.122
Postal Address
2506 SPEEDWAY
AUSTIN, TX 78712-
Dr. Enamul Huq received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1987 and 1988, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Purdue University in 1997. As a graduate student in Dr. Thomas K. Hodges lab, he worked on characterizing hypoxia inducible gene expression in rice. He did his post-doctoral research with Dr. Peter Quail at UC Berkeley, where he isolated and characterized phytochrome interacting factors (PIFs) in Arabidopsis.
Dr. Huq began his academic career as an Assistant Professor of Molecular Cell & Developmental Biology (MCDB) at The University of Texas at Austin in 2003 and is now a Professor of Molecular Biosciences. Research in the Huq lab is focused on understanding how plants sense, interpret and respond to environmental light conditions that regulate almost every aspect of the plant life cycle from seed germination to flowering time. Specifically, the Huq lab focuses on the red/far-red light photoreceptors (phytochromes) and their interacting factors (Phytochrome Interacting Factors, PIFs) to understand early signaling events that regulate a large number of gene expression and ultimately leads to photomorphogenesis.
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Research Summary:
Our research is aimed at understanding light signal transduction, specifically those pathways mediated by the phytochrome (phy) family of sensory photoreceptors that absorb light in the red and far-red region of the spectrum. The phy system, consisting of five members in Arabidopsis (phyA-phyE), controls almost every aspect of the plant life cycle including seed germination, de-etiolation and flowering time. To understand early phy signaling events, phy interacting factors, such as PIF1, have been isolated and characterized. PIF1 is a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor that interacts strongly with the biologically active form of phyA and phyB. PIF1 overexpression and pif1 mutants showed defective seedling de-etiolation including, aberrant hypocotyl elongation and developmentally regulated loss of greening, suggesting that PIF1 is a key regulator of the phy-mediated control of seedling de-etiolation process. Future projects include investigating the molecular function of PIF1, identifying and functionally characterizing PIF1 interacting proteins and PIF1 target genes using biochemical, genetic and functional genomic approaches.
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Publications:
2024 Cai, X., Lee, S., Jaime, A.P.G., Sun, Y., Tang, W. and Huq, E. PHOSPHATASE 2A dephosphorylates PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR3 to modulate photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell 36: 4457-4471.
2024 Chang, H-H., Huang, L-C., Browning, K.S., Huq, E. and Cheng, M-C. The phosphorylation of carboxyl-terminal eIF2α by SPA kinases contributes to enhanced translation efficiency during photomorphogenesis. Nature Communications 15:3467.
2024 Wang, W., Kim, J., Martinez, T.S., Huq, E. and Sung, S. COP1 controls light-dependent chromatin remodeling. PNAS 121 (8): e2312853121.
2023 Lee, S.W., Choi, D., Moon, H., Kim, S., Kang, H., Paik, I., Huq, E., and Kim, D-H. PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTORS (PIFs) are involved in starch degradation adjustment via inhibition of carbon metabolic regulator QUA-QUINE STARCH (QQS) in Arabidopsis. Plant J 114: 110-123.
2022 Kathare, P.K., Xin, R., Ganesan, A.S., June, V.M., Reddy, A.S.N. and Huq, E. SWAP1-SFPS-RRC1 splicing factor complex modulates pre-mRNA splicing to promote photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. PNAS 119 (44): e2214565119.
2021 Lee, S., Wang, W. and Huq, E. Spatial regulation of thermomorphogenesis by HY5 and PIF4 in Arabidopsis. Nature Communications 12 :3656.
2021 Cheng, M-C., Paik, I., Kathare, P.K. and Huq, E. Phytochrome signaling networks. Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 72: 217-244.
2021 Wang, W., Paik, I., Kim, J., Hou, X., Sung, S. and Huq, E. Direct phosphorylation of HY5 by SPA kinases to regulate photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. New Phytologist 230:2311-2326.
2021 Kathare, P.K. and Huq, E. Light-regulated pre-mRNA splicing in plant. Curr. Opinion Plant Biol. 63: 102037.
2020 Lee, S., Paik, I. and Huq, E. SPAs promote thermomorphogenesis via regulating the phyB-PIF4 module in Arabidopsis. Development 147 (19): dev.189233. doi: 10.1242/dev.189233.2020 Cheng, M-C., Enderle, B., Kathare, P.K., Islam, R., Hiltbrunner, A. and Huq, E. PCH1 and PCHL directly interact with PIF1, promote its degradation and inhibit its transcriptional function during photomorphogenesis. Molecular Plant (DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2020.02.003).2019 Paik, I., Chen, F., Pham, V.N., Zhu, L., Kim, J-I. and Huq, E. A phyB-PIF1-SPA1 kinase regulatory complex promotes photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. Nature Comm. 10: 4216.2019 Xin, R., Kathare, P.K., and Huq, E. Coordinated regulation of pre-mRNA splicing by the SFPS-RRC1 complex to promote photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 31: 2052-2069.2018 Pham, V.N., Xu, X., and Huq, E. Molecular bases for the constitutive photomorphogenic phenotypes in Arabidopsis. Development 145 (23): dev169870.2018 Pham, V.N., Kathare, P.K. and Huq, E. Phytochromes and Phytochrome Interacting Factors. Plant Physiol. 176: 1025-1038. DOI:10.1104/pp.17.01384.2017 Enderle, B., Sheerin, D.J., Paik, I., Kathare, P.K., Schwenk, P., Klose, C., Ulbrich, M., Huq, E. and Hiltbrunner, A. PCH1 and PCHL promote photomorphogenesis in plants by controlling phytochrome B dark reversion. Nature Communications. 8: 2221. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02311-8.. SPF45-related SPLICING FACTOR FOR PHYTOCHROME SIGNALING promotes photomorphogenesis by regulating pre-mRNA splicing in Arabidopsis. PNAS 114 (33) :E7018-E7027.2016 Zhu, L., Xin, R., Bu, Q., Shen, H., Dang, J. and Huq, E. A negative feedback loop between PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTORs and HECATEs fine tunes photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 28(4):855-874.
2015 Zhu L, Bu Q, Xu X, Paik I, Hunag X, Hoecker U, Deng XW, Huq E. CUL4 forms an E3 ligase with COP1 and SPA to promote light-induced degradation of PIF1. Nature Communications. 6:7245
2014 Xu, X., Paik, I., Zhu, L., Bu, Q., Huang, X., Deng, X.W. and Huq, E., PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR1 enhances the E3 ligase activity of CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC1 to synergistically repress photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 26(5):1992-2006.
2004 Huq, E., Al-Sady, B., Hudson, M.E., Kim, C., Apel, K. and Quail, P.H. , PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 1 is a critical bHLH regulator of chlorophyll biosynthesis. , Science 305: 1937-1941.
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