Michael D. Sheets
Credentials: RNA regulation of cell fate and function
Position title: Professor
Email: mdsheets@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-9452
Address:
5260B Biochemical Sciences Building
440 Henry Mall, Madison, WI 53706

Education
• B.S. 1982, Purdue University
• Ph.D. 1989, University of Wisconsin
• Postdoctoral 1990-1992, University of Wisconsin (M. Wickens)
• Postdoctoral 1992-1996, University of California, Berkeley (J. Gerhart)
Honors & Awards
1996 Issued a license on a method to produce human antibodies in E.coli
1997 Issued a Patent on Applications of Prosthetic RNA
1997 Howard Hughes Career Development Institutional Award
1997 March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Scholar
1998 Pew Scholar Biomedical Sciences
1998 Beckman Young Investigator
1999 Shaw Award Milwaukee Foundation
2003 Associate Editor Developmental Dynamics
2008 Executive Board member Beckman Foundation
Research Interests
Post-transcriptional control of vertebrate development. In all animals, temporally and spatially regulated post-transcriptional events direct development during the first hours following fertilization. These post-transcriptional events regulate the expression and/or the activity of maternally derived determinant proteins that control embryonic cell-fate decisions. Our studies of Xenopus laevis embryos have revealed that the expression and activity of specific maternal determinants are regulated by mechanisms that control the translation of maternal mRNAs (McGivern et al 2008, Zhang and Sheets 2009a, and Zhang et al, 2009b) and mechanisms that control the phosphorylation of determinant proteins (McGivern et al 2009).
Regulated mRNA translation is an important mechanism for regulating early cell-fate decisions in vertebrate embryos. Embryonic cells destined to specific fates accumulate distinct determinant proteins encoded by maternal mRNAs. These determinant proteins often function in cell-signaling pathways that direct the activation of select genes in only certain embryonic cells. For embryonic development to proceed normally, the expression of maternal determinants must be tightly controlled both temporally and spatially.
The Xenopus xCR1 protein is a receptor of the nodal signaling pathway, and vertebrate development requires the precise activation of this pathway at a specific time and place during embryogenesis. This requirement is met by restricting the accumulation of xCR1 protein to the animal cells within the developing embryo through the regulated translation of the maternal xCR1 mRNA (Zhang and Sheets, 2009). The maternal xCR1 mRNA is translated in animal cells while the xCR1 mRNA in vegetal cells is translationally repressed. The functional unit of mRNA translation is the mRNP that consists of the relevant mRNA regulatory sequences associated with specific RNA binding proteins. We have defined the mRNP that mediates repression in vegetal cells as consisting of the xCR1 mRNA’s 3′ UTR associated with the Pumilio and CUG-BP1 proteins (Zhang and Sheets, 2009). We are currently focused on understanding the mechanisms by which the xCR1 mRNP represses translation in one cell type but not the other. These mechanisms are key to understanding not only the spatially regulated translation of the xCR1 mRNA, but how such translational events control the earliest cell fate decisions made during vertebrate development.
Publications
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- McLaughlin, M.T., M.R. Sun, T.G. Beames, A.C. Steward, J.W.M. Theisen, H.M. Chung, J.L. Everson, I.P. Moskowitz, M.D. Sheets, and R.J. Lipinski. (2023). Frem1 activity is regulated by Sonic hedgehog signaling in the cranial neural crest mesenchyme during midfacial morphogenesis. Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists, 252: 483-494.
- Kanzler, C.R., M. Donohue, M.E. Dowdle, and M.D. Sheets. (2022). TurboID functions as an efficient biotin ligase for BioID applications in Xenopus embryos. Developmental biology, 492: 133-138.
- Dowdle, M.E., C.R. Kanzler, C.R.K. Harder, S. Moffet, M.N. Walker, and M.D. Sheets. (2022). Bicaudal-C Post-transcriptional regulator of cell fates and functions. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 10: 981696.
- Maerker, M., M. Getwan, M.E. Dowdle, J.C. McSheene, V. Gonzalez, J.L. Pelliccia, D.S. Hamilton, V. Yartseva, C. Vejnar, M. Tingler, K. Minegishi, P. Vick, A.J. Giraldez, H. Hamada, R.D. Burdine, M.D. Sheets, M. Blum, and A. Schweickert. (2021). Bicc1 and Dicer regulate left-right patterning through post-transcriptional control of the Nodal inhibitor Dand5. Nature communications, 12: 5482.
- Dowdle, M.E., S. Park, S. Blaser Imboden, C.A. Fox, D.W. Houston, and M.D. Sheets. (2019). A single KH domain in Bicaudal-C links mRNA binding and translational repression functions to maternal development. Development (Cambridge, England), 146: .
- Sheets, M.D. (2019). Assaying NanoLuc Luciferase Activity from mRNA-Injected Xenopus Embryos. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 1920: 33-39.
- Slosarek, E.L., A.L. Schuh, I. Pustova, A. Johnson, J. Bird, M. Johnson, E.B. Frankel, N. Bhattacharya, M.G. Hanna, J.E. Burke, D.A. Ruhl, K. Quinney, S. Block, J.L. Peotter, E.R. Chapman, M.D. Sheets, S.E. Butcher, S.M. Stagg, and A. Audhya. (2018). Pathogenic TFG Mutations Underlying Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia Impair Secretory Protein Trafficking and Axon Fasciculation. Cell reports, 24: 2248-2260.
- Fink, D.M., M.R. Sun, G.W. Heyne, J.L. Everson, H.M. Chung, S. Park, M.D. Sheets, and R.J. Lipinski. (2018). Coordinated d-cyclin/Foxd1 activation drives mitogenic activity of the Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway. Cellular signalling, 44: 1-9.
- Dowdle, M.E., S.B. Imboden, S. Park, S.P. Ryder, and M.D. Sheets. (2017). Horizontal Gel Electrophoresis for Enhanced Detection of Protein-RNA Complexes. Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE, .
- Sheets, M.D., C.A. Fox, M.E. Dowdle, S.I. Blaser, A. Chung, and S. Park. (2017). Controlling the Messenger: Regulated Translation of Maternal mRNAs in Xenopus laevis Development. Advances in experimental medicine and biology, 953: 49-82.