Clinton MacDonald, Ph.D.
| Associate Professor | clint.macdonald@ttuhsc.edu |
Biography
As an undergraduate at Middlebury College, I developed a keen interest in biological research. Therefore, after a couple of years of "self-discovery," I pursued a Ph. D. at Stony Brook University in the laboratory of David Williams (1990). In Dr. Williams' lab, I worked on RNA-binding proteins and mRNA stability. This was followed by post-doctoral work at Princeton University in the laboratory of Tom Shenk (1990-1995), supported by fellowships from the American Cancer Society and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. At Princeton, I worked on a protein called CstF-64 involved in mRNA polyadenylation. In 1995, I was hired by the Department of Cell Biology & Biochemistry at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, where I remain today. Upon arriving at TTUHSC, I started interacting with colleagues in my new department, many of whom were reproductive biologists. Very soon, these colleagues convinced me that the mechanisms of polyadenylation, which I had thought were well understood, were fundamentally different in male germ cells. The research in my laboratory is now devoted to discovering how mRNA processing and gene expression controls male reproduction. Excitingly, we found that there is a testis-expressed CstF-64 - the protein I had worked on at Princeton - that controls polyadenylation in male germ cells. Today, we are examining different forms of CstF-64 in testis, brain, and many other organs, as well as looking at new mechanisms of mRNA processing.
Research Interests
Tissue-specific Gene Expression, Messenger RNA Processing, and Polyadenylation
Recent Publications
- Monarez, R. R., MacDonald, C. C., and Dass, B. "Polyadenylation proteins CstF-64 and τCstF-64 exhibit differential binding affinities for RNA polymers." Submitted.
- D'mello, V., Liu, J., MacDonald, C. C., and Tian, B. "Alternative mRNA polyadenylation affects detection of gene expression by Affymetrix GeneChips." Submitted.
- Huber, Z., Monarez, R. R., Dass, B., and MacDonald, C. C. (2005). "The mRNA encoding τCstF-64 is expressed ubiquitously in mouse and rat tissues." Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 1061, 163-172.
- Wallace, A. M., Denison, T. L., Attaya, E. N. and MacDonald, C. C. (2004). "Developmental differences in expression of two forms of the CstF-64 polyadenylation protein in rat and mouse." Biol. Reprod. 70, 1080-1087.
- Dass, B., McDaniel, L., Schultz, R. A., Attaya, E., and MacDonald, C. C. (2002). "The gene CSTF2T encoding the human variant CstF-64 polyadenylation protein τCstF-64 is intronless and may be associated with male sterility." Genomics 80, 509-514.
- MacDonald, C. C., and Redondo, J.-L. (2002). "Reexamining the polyadenylation signal: were we wrong about AAUAAA?" Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 190, 1-8.
- Dass, B., Attaya, E. N., Wallace, A. M., and MacDonald, C. C. (2001). "Coordinate overexpression of messenger RNA processing and transcription factors during male germ cell development." Biol. Reprod. 64, 1722-1729.
- Dass, B., McMahon, K. W., Jenkins, N. A., Gilbert, D. J., Copeland, N. G., and MacDonald, C. C. (2001). "The gene for an alternative form of the polyadenylation protein CstF-64 is on chromosome 19 and is expressed in pachytene spermatocytes in mice." J. Biol. Chem. 276, 8044-8050.
- Wallace, A. M., Dass, B., Ravnik, S. E., Tonk, V., Jenkins, N. A., Gilbert, D. J., Copeland, N. G., and MacDonald, C. C. (1999) "Two distinct forms of the 64,000 Mr protein of the cleavage stimulation factor are expressed in mouse male germ cells." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 6763-6768.
- Richardson, J. M., McMahon, K. W., MacDonald, C. C., and Makhatadze, G. I. (1999) "MEARA sequence repeat of human CstF-64 polyadenylation factor is helical in solution. A spectroscopic and calorimetric study." Biochemistry 38, 12869-12875.