User:Joel S Griffitts

Joel Griffitts Department of Micro/Molecular Biology Brigham Young University 780 WIDB Provo, UT 84602 joelg@byu.edu

Research Interests

I think a lot about microbial interactions with bigger organisms. Shown here are nitrogen-fixing symbionts (rhizobia, stained blue) invading an alfalfa root. I love to build streamlined bacterial genetic tools with which to probe this symbiotic interaction. I am also interested in bringing together tools for E. coli genetics, both for teaching purposes and to dabble with on the side.

Education

Ph.D., UCSD

B.S., Stanford

Publications

1. Barrows BD, Griffitts JS, and Aroian RV. Resistance is non-futile: resistance to Cry5B in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. J Invertebr Pathol. 2007 Jul;95(3):198-200. DOI:10.1016/j.jip.2007.04.002 |
2. Barrows BD, Griffitts JS, and Aroian RV. Caenorhabditis elegans carbohydrates in bacterial toxin resistance. Methods Enzymol. 2006;417:340-58. DOI:10.1016/S0076-6879(06)17021-4 |
3. Cappello M, Bungiro RD, Harrison LM, Bischof LJ, Griffitts JS, Barrows BD, and Aroian RV. A purified Bacillus thuringiensis crystal protein with therapeutic activity against the hookworm parasite Ancylostoma ceylanicum. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Oct 10;103(41):15154-9. DOI:10.1073/pnas.0607002103 |
4. Griffitts JS and Aroian RV. Many roads to resistance: how invertebrates adapt to Bt toxins. Bioessays. 2005 Jun;27(6):614-24. DOI:10.1002/bies.20239 |
5. Griffitts JS, Haslam SM, Yang T, Garczynski SF, Mulloy B, Morris H, Cremer PS, Dell A, Adang MJ, and Aroian RV. Glycolipids as receptors for Bacillus thuringiensis crystal toxin. Science. 2005 Feb 11;307(5711):922-5. DOI:10.1126/science.1104444 |
6. Huffman DL, Bischof LJ, Griffitts JS, and Aroian RV. Pore worms: using Caenorhabditis elegans to study how bacterial toxins interact with their target host. Int J Med Microbiol. 2004 Apr;293(7-8):599-607. DOI:10.1078/1438-4221-00303 |
7. Griffitts JS, Huffman DL, Whitacre JL, Barrows BD, Marroquin LD, Müller R, Brown JR, Hennet T, Esko JD, and Aroian RV. Resistance to a bacterial toxin is mediated by removal of a conserved glycosylation pathway required for toxin-host interactions. J Biol Chem. 2003 Nov 14;278(46):45594-602. DOI:10.1074/jbc.M308142200 |
8. Griffitts JS, Whitacre JL, Stevens DE, and Aroian RV. Bt toxin resistance from loss of a putative carbohydrate-modifying enzyme. Science. 2001 Aug 3;293(5531):860-4. DOI:10.1126/science.1062441 |
9. Marroquin LD, Elyassnia D, Griffitts JS, Feitelson JS, and Aroian RV. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin susceptibility and isolation of resistance mutants in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 2000 Aug;155(4):1693-9. DOI:10.1093/genetics/155.4.1693 |
10. Cutler SR, Ehrhardt DW, Griffitts JS, and Somerville CR. Random GFP::cDNA fusions enable visualization of subcellular structures in cells of Arabidopsis at a high frequency. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 Mar 28;97(7):3718-23. DOI:10.1073/pnas.97.7.3718 |