Scott C Dawson
Associate Professor
scdawson@ucdavis.edu
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Office
237 BRIGGS
530-752-3633
Degrees:
2000
PhD
University of California - Berkeley
Molecular and Cell Biology
1989
BS
University of Michigan
Biology
Research Contribution to Society:
My lab is interested in the evolution and function of the cytoskeleton in anaerobic protists. We investigate the mechanism by which the widespread protistan parasite Giardia lambia to the attaches to host intestinal villi using novel MT-based structure termed the “ventral disc”. Our lab employs multiphasic approaches to define the primary structural elements of the ventral disc at high resolution, to identify and analyze disc protein function, and to quantify attachment dynamics and test attachment hypotheses using high resolution live imaging. Giardia also has eight flagella organized into four pairs that are critical for motility,cell division and possibly for excystation. We are interested in how (and why) the eight Giardia flagella are uniquely specified in their function. Lastly, Few genomes of free-living microbial eukaryotes are sequenced, despite their critical importance in ecology, evolution, and basic cellular biology. Our lab is also interested in early eukaryotic evolution, and has been involved in the recent sequencing and analysis of the genomes of the free-living amoeboflagellate Naegleria gruberi and diplomonad Spironucleus vortens. We are currently using genomic approaches to investigate nature of the association between free-living anaerobic protists and methanogenic archaea in the bovine rumen.
Awards:
2007 National Academy Education Fellow in the Life Sciences
Department and Center Affiliations:
Microbiology
Professional Societies:
American Society for Cell Biology
American Society for Microbiology
CBS Graduate Group Affiliations:
Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Specialties / Focus:
Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Cell Biology
Graduate Groups not Housed in CBS:
Microbiology
Publications:
Last updated 3/16/2012
Woessner, D.J., and Dawson, S.C. (2012). The Giardia “median body protein” is a ventral disc protein that is critical for maintaining a domed disc conformation during attachment. Eukaryotic Cell (in press)
Fritz-Laylin, L.K., Prochnik, S.E., Ginger, M.L., Dacks, J., Carpenter, M.L., Field, M.C., Kuo, A., Paredez, A., Chapman, J., Pham, J.K., Shengqiang, S., Neupane, R., Cipriano, M.J., Mancuso, J., Tu, H., Salamov, A., Lindquist, E., Shapiro, H., Lucas, S., Grigoriev, I.V., Cande, W.Z., Fulton, C., Rokhsar, D.S., and Dawson, S.C. (2010). The genome of Naegleria gruberi illuminates early eukaryotic versatilty. Cell (in press).
Hirst, M. B., Kita, K., and Dawson, S.C. (2011). ImmunoFISH of microbial eukaryotes: combining molecular and morphological information. PLoS One 6(12): e28158
House, S.A., Richter, D., Pham, J.K., and Dawson, S.C. (2011). Giardia Flagellar Motility is Not Directly Required to Maintain Attachment to Surfaces. PLoS Pathogens 7:e1002167
Hagen, K.D., Hirakawa, M.P., House, S.A., Schwartz, C.L., Pham, J.K., Cipriano, M.J., De La Torre, M.J., Sek, A.C., Du, G., Forsythe, B.M., Dawson, S.C. (2011). Novel structural components of the ventral disc and lateral crest in Giardia intestinalis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(12): e1442
Laboratory Personnel:
DawsonLab/231 Briggs Hall
http://dawsonlab.ucdavis.edu
Jonny Pham, Kari Hagen, Moises de la Torre, Dave Woessner, Michael Cipriano, Marissa Hirst, Nell Barash, Anna Wiedmann
Teaching Interests:
Microbial diversity,
Comparative genomics and phylogenetics
Courses:
MIC
105
Bacterial Diversity
Winter
MIC
105L
Bacterial Diversity Laboratory
Winter
MMI
215
Medical Parasitology
Spring
MIC
396
Teaching Biology
Fall