Dmitri Nusinow

Dmitri Nusinow is an American chronobiologist who studies plant circadian rhythms. He was born on November 7th, 1976 in Inglewood, California. He currently resides in St. Louis, and his research focus includes a combination of molecular, biochemical, genetic, genomic, and proteomic tools to discover the molecular connections between signaling networks, circadian oscillators, and specific outputs. By combining these methods, he hopes to apply the knowledge elucidated from the Arabidopsis model to other plant species.
Education and Career
Nusinow received his bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1998. During his undergraduate years, Nusinow worked in Jay Gralla’s lab and studied in vitro analysis of RNA Pol II transcription in the fission yeast, S.pombe. He continued his education to earn his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) from 1999 to 2006. During his first four years of graduate school, Nusinow attempted to create a quadruple knock-in (KI) mouse that would purify the protein RNA complex of X-inactive specific transcript (Xist), which plays a key role in dosage compensation in female mammals. The method was unsuccessful, so Nusinow shifted his focus on the mammalian histone variant macroH2A. He discovered that the inhibition of PARP1 by macro-H2A1 contributed to X chromosome inactivation. While in graduate school, he attended a seminar by Roger Hangarter who showed circadian regulated movements in sunflowers. This seminar inspired Nusinow to switch and study circadian rhythms in plants. In 2007, he became a researcher at the Scripps Institute with Steve Kay, and continued with the lab when it moved to University of California San Diego (UCSD) for five additional years. While in Kay’s lab, he was influenced by fellow researcher Takato Imaizumi to study ELF3 in plants. Nusinow then became an Principal Investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and an Adjunct Professor at Washington University in St. Louis in 2012. He now studies to understand how the circadian clock is integrated with environmental signals to control growth, development, and physiology in order to improve the productivity in plants.
Scientific Contributions to Circadian Rhythms in Arabidopsis
Photosensitivity of FKF1/GI Complex
In 2007, Sawa, Nusinow, Kay, and Imaizumi identified how Arabidopsis proteins FKF1 (Flavin-binding, Kelch repeat, F-box 1) and GI (Gigantea) helped regulate flowering photoperiods in Arabidopsis. Proteins ELF3 and ELF4 contain basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) structural motif that binds the proteins to DNA.
* ELF4-ELF3-LUX Complex Links the Circadian Clock to Diurnal Control of Hypocotyl Growth (2011)
* PCH1 Integrates Circadian and Light-Signaling Pathways to Control Photoperiod-Responsive Growth in Arabidopsis (2016)
Personal Life
Nusinow currently resides in St. Louis with his wife and two kids. He is also an avid skateboarder.
See Also
* Circadian rhythm
* Plant biology
* Pseudo-response regulator (PRR)
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