Mitrick Johns Associate Professor

Education

  • Ph.D., 1980, University of Oregon
  • B.S., 1973, Yale University
  • Fields of Interest: plant and animal molecular biology

Research Interests

My research work involves computer-based analyses of DNA sequence information. I am interested in the genetic mechanisms that affect plant genomes, including tandem duplications, transposable element-mediated gene duplications, and intron loss through reverse transcription. My primary work at present involves comparing the genomic sequences of the japonica and indica subspecies of rice.

Representative Publications

Kolondam, B., Rao, P., Sztuba-Solinska, J., Weber, P., Dzinott, A., Johns, M., Bujarski, J. J. (2015). Co-infection with two strains of Brome mosaic bromovirus reveals common RNA recombination sites in different hosts. Virus Evolution, 1(1), vev021.

Cary, J.W., Han, Z., Yin, Y., Lohmar, J. M., Shantappa, S., Harris-Coward, P. Y., Mack, B., Ehrlich, K. C., Wei, Q., Arroyo-Manzanare, N., Uka, V., Vanhaecke, L., Bhatnagar, D., Yu, J., Nierman, W. C., Johns, M., Sorensen, D., Shen, H., De Saeger, S., Di Mavungu, D., Calvo, A. M. (2015). Transcriptome analysis of Aspergillus flavus reveals veA-dependent regulation of secondary metabolite gene clusters, including the novel aflavarin cluster. Eukaryotic Cell, 14, 983-997.

Yanbin, Y., Johns, M., Cao, H., Rupani, M. (2014). A survey of plant and algal genomes and transcriptomes reveals new insights into the evolution and function of the cellulose synthase superfamily. BMC genomics, 15(1), 260.

Eppinger, M., Bunk, B., Johns, M., Edirisingh, J. N., Kutumbaka, K. K., Koenig, S. S. K., Creasy, H. H., Rosovitz, M. J., Riley, D. R., Daugherty, S., Martin, M., Elbourne, L. D. H., Paulsen, I., Biedendieck, R., Braun, C., Grayburn, S., Dhingra, S., Lukyanchuk, V., Ball, B., ul-Qamar, R., Seibel, J., Bremer, E., Jahn, D., Ravel, J., Vary, P. S. (2011). Genomic sequences of the biotechnologically important B. megaterium strains QM B1551 and DSM319. J. Bacteriol., 193, 4199-4213.

Hou, M., Yao, P., Antonou, A., Johns, M. (2011). Pico-inplace-inversions between human and chimpanzee. Bioinformatics, 27(23), 3266-3275.

Ditty, J.L., Kvaal, C.A., Goodner, B., Freyermuth,S.K.,  Bailey, C., Britton, R.A., Gordon, S.G., Heinhorst, S., Reed, K., Xu, Z.,  Sanders-Lorenz,E.R.,  Axen, S., Kim, E., Johns, M., Scott, K., Kerfeld C.A. (2010).  Incorporating Genomics and Bioinformatics across the Life Sciences Curriculum, PLoS Biol 8(8): e1000448.

Leseberg, C. H., Eissler, C. L., Wang, X., Johns, M.A., Duval, M. R., and Mao, L. 2008. Interaction study of MADS-domain proteins in tomato. J. Exp. Botany. In Press.

Johns, M.A. and Mao, L. 2007. Differentiation of the two rice subspecies indica and japonica: a Gene Ontology perspective. Funct. Integr. Genomics. 7:135-151. DOI 10.1007/s10142-006-003601.

Johns, M.A. and Mao, L. 2007. Differentiation of the two rice subspecies indica and japonica: a Gene Ontology perspective. Funct. Integr. Genomics. 7:135-151.  DOI 10.1007/s10142-006-003601.

Iniguez-Luy, F.L., Sass, M.E., Jung, G., Johns, M.A., and Nienhuis, J.  2006. Development of robust SCAR markers that distinguish the six cultivated Brassica species and subspecies of the U-triangle.  Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 131:424-432.

Guddeti S, Zhang DC, Li AL, Leseberg CH, Kang H, Li XG, Zhai WX, Johns MA, Mao L. (2005) Molecular evolution of the rice miR395 gene family.  Cell Res. 15:631-8.

Johns, M.A., P. Skroch, J. Nienhuis, P. Hinrichsen, G. Bascur, and C. Munoz-Schick. 1997. Gene pool classification of common bean landraces from Chile based on RAPD and morphological data. Crop Science 37:605-613.

Sachay, J.E., Wallace, R.L., Johns, M.A. Phosphate stress response in hydroponically-grown maize. Plant and Soil 132:85-90; 1991.

Johns, M.A. Naturally occurring active Ac transposable element in the maize CO159 inbred line. Maydica 36:189-195; 1991.

Johns, M.A. Sequences related to the maize transposable element Ac in the genus Zea. J. Mol. Evol. 30:493-499; 1990.

Johns, M.A., Fuerstenberg, S.I., Hennelly, C.A. Non-random chromosomal distribution of Ac-like sequences in inbred maize. Genet. Res. 55:71-80; 1990.

Fuerstenberg, S.I. Johns, M.A. Distribution of Bs1 retrotransposons in Zea and related genera. Theor. Appl. Genet. 80:680-686; 1990.

Johns, M.A., Babcock, M.S., Fuerstenberg, S.M., Fuerstenberg, S.I., Freeling, M., Simpson, R.B. An unusually compact retrotransposon in maize. Plant Mol. Biol. 12:633-642; 1989.

Johns, M.A., Postlethwait, J.H. Naturally occurring quantitative variants of acid phosphatase-1 in Drosophila melanogaster. Biochem. Genet. 23:465-482; 1985.

Johns, M.A., Mottinger, J., M. Freeling, M. A low copy number, copia-like transposon in the maize genome. EMBO J. 4:1093-1102; 1985.

Fedoroff, N., Shure, M., Kelly, S., Johns, M., Furtek, D., Schiefelbein J., Nelson, O. Isolation of Spm controlling elements from maize. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 49:339-345; 1985.

Contact

Photo of Mitrcik Johns

Mitrick A. Johns
rjohns@niu.edu
Office: MO. 409 A,
815-753-7836
Plant Molecular Biology Center
Dept Biological Sciences
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115-2861

Course / Lab Information