Mark Beilstein

About

Mark Beilstein is an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on functional evolution within the plant family Brassicaceae, utilizing protein diversity across land plants to decode the evolutionary history of plant signaling systems. He collaborates with the Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS), a National Science Foundation-funded Science and Technology Center, in these efforts. Beilstein's academic background includes a PhD in Biology from the University of Missouri St. Louis, a MS in Biology from the University of Utah, and a BA in Biology from Grinnell College. His professional experience includes a National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health in Biochemistry & Biophysics at Texas A&M University, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. His research interests encompass evolution in the mustard family Brassicaceae, the evolution of protein complexes, and the evolution of plant signaling systems.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Botany
• Evolutionary biology
• Computational biology

Selected publications

• N6-Methyladenosine Inhibits Local Ribonucleolytic Cleavage to Stabilize mRNAs in Arabidopsis

  Cell Reports · 2018-10-01 · 263 citations

  articleOpen access

  A generally acts as a stabilizing mark through inhibition of site-specific cleavage in plant transcriptomes, and this mechanism is required for proper regulation of the salt-stress-responsive transcriptome.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Phylogenetics of Camelina Crantz. (Brassicaceae) and insights on the origin of gold-of-pleasure (Camelina sativa)

  Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution · 2018-06-19 · 71 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• N⁶‐methyladenosine and RNA secondary structure affect transcript stability and protein abundance during systemic salt stress in Arabidopsis

  Plant Direct · 2020-07-01 · 69 citations

  editorialOpen access

  Abstract After transcription, a messenger RNA (mRNA) is further post‐transcriptionally regulated by several features including RNA secondary structure and covalent RNA modifications (specifically N 6 ‐methyladenosine, m 6 A). Both RNA secondary structure and m 6 A have been demonstrated to regulate mRNA stability and translation and have been independently linked to plant responses to soil salinity levels. However, the effect of m 6 A on regulating RNA secondary structure and the combinatorial i…

  PublisherDOI

• Biased Gene Retention in the Face of Introgression Obscures Species Relationships

  Genome Biology and Evolution · 2020 · 52 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Phylogenomic analyses are recovering previously hidden histories of hybridization, revealing the genomic consequences of these events on the architecture of extant genomes. We applied phylogenomic techniques and several complementary statistical tests to show that introgressive hybridization appears to have occurred between close relatives of Arabidopsis, resulting in cytonuclear discordance and impacting our understanding of species relationships in the group. The composition of introgressed an…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Identification and functional annotation of long intergenic non-coding RNAs in Brassicaceae

  The Plant Cell · 2022 · 51 citations

  Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) are a large yet enigmatic class of eukaryotic transcripts that can have critical biological functions. The wealth of RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data available for plants provides the opportunity to implement a harmonized identification and annotation effort for lincRNAs that enables cross-species functional and genomic comparisons as well as prioritization of functional candidates. In this study, we processed >24 Tera base pairs of RNA-seq data from >16,00…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Telomerase Evolution and Function in Plants

  NSF · $522k · 2014–2018

• Telomerase RNP function and evolution in Arabidopsis

  NIH · $73k · 2010–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Evan S. Forsythe

  Oregon State University Cascades

  30 shared

• Andrew D. L. Nelson

  Ithaca College

  23 shared

• J. Stephen Fink

  16 shared

• Michael A. Schwarzschild

  Harvard University

  15 shared

• Rosario Moratalla

  Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

  13 shared

• Jiang‐Fan Chen

  Zhejiang Lab

  11 shared

• Kyle Palos

  Cornell University

  11 shared

• Dorothy E. Shippen

  Texas A&M University

  10 shared

Labs

• Mark BeilsteinPI

Education

• NIH NRSA Fellow, Biochemistry/Biophysics

  Texas A&M University

  2011

• Mercer Post-doctoral Fellow, Arnold Arboretum

  Harvard University

  2009

• Ph.D. Biology, Biology

  University of Missouri at Saint Louis

  2006

• M.S. Biology, Biology

  University of Utah

  1999

• Biology

  Grinnell College

  1994

Awards & honors

• National Research Service Award (NIH)

Similar researchers at University of Arizona

• Judith Brownh-80
• Eliot Hermanh-58
• David Baltrush-31