Deborah Alongi Johnson, Ph.D.

	Biological Sciences
	Idaho State University
	Office: 256, Gale Life Science
	Email: johndeb2@isu.edu
	Advisors: Jeff Hill, Michael Thomas

B.A., Biology and Secondary Education (dual majors), Prescott College
M.S., Biology, University of Arizona
Ph.D., Biology, Idaho State University

Research: My research interests are in plant molecular genetics, evolutionary genomics and plant biology, ecology and evolution. For my master's thesis research, I conducted a molecular genetic analysis of an endangered cactus species using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and non-coding chloroplast markers. For my Ph.D. dissertation, I investigated the evolution of the monosaccharide transporter (MST) gene family in land plants. My approach included the use of profile hidden Markov models (HMMs) of each MST subfamily to search EST databases in divergent land plant lineages to discover homologous genes in those lineages. I also used likelihood approaches to determine rates of nucleotide substitution in the MST subfamilies within the fully sequenced genomes of Arabidopsis and Oryza sativa (rice) to test hypotheses about the relationships between sequence evolution and expression breadth and level. My long-term research interests include comparative genomic analyses in the earliest land plants to elucidate mechanisms of land plant evolution through gene duplication and genome evolution. I am also interested in pursuing ecological genomic studies to investigate the role of selection in gene duplicate divergence and adaptive evolution.

Funding: NIH-BRIN/INBRE Research Fellowship

Courses Taught (Teaching Internship): Plant Form and Function (Fall 2004)

Graduate Coursework:
Idaho State University - Biochemistry, Signal Transduction, Plant Physiology, Resource Ecology of Plants, Systematic Botany, Biogeography, Bioinformatics for Biologists, Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics. Seminars in Molecular Ecology, Computational Biology, Floral Biology, College Teaching.

Selected Presentations and Publications:

Johnson, D.A. and Thomas, M.A. The Monosaccharide Transporter Gene Family in Arabidopsis and Rice: A History of Duplications, Adaptive Evolution and Functional Divergence. Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24:2412-2423. MBE link

Johnson, D.A., Hill, J.P., and Thomas, M.A. The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2006 6:64. pdf

Johnson, D.A., Hill, J.P., and Thomas, M.A. (2006) The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages. National Meeting for the American Society of Plant Biologists, August 5-9, Boston, MA. pdf poster file

Johnson, D.A. and Hill, J.P. (2006) Student attitudes toward plant biology before and after an inquiry-based, multidisciplinary plant biology course. National Meeting for the American Society of Plant Biologists, August 5-9, Boston, MA. pdf poster file

Johnson, D.A. and Thomas, M.A. (2006) The monosaccharide transporter gene family in Arabidopsis and Oryza sativa: Patterns of subfamily expansion and sequence evolution. Conference for Genomes, Evolution and Bioinformatics, Annual Meeting for the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, May 24-28, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. pdf poster file

Johnson, D.A., Hill, J.P. and Thomas, M.A. (2005) Gene Family Evolution in Divergent Land Plant Lineages: An HMM Approach. The Biology of Genomes Meeting, May 11-15, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York. pdf poster file

Johnson, D.A., Hill, J.P. and Thomas, M.A. (2004) Using Bioinformatics to Discover Monosaccharide Transporter Gene Family Members in Early Land Plant Lineages. Oral Presentation at the Annual BRIN Conference, August 8-11, Pocatello, Idaho.

Johnson, D.A., Hill, J.P. and Thomas, M.A. (2004) Sugar Transporter Gene Family Discovery in the Fern Ceratoperis richardii. Poster presentation at the Botany 2004 Conference, August 1-5, Snowbird, Utah.

Johnson, D.A. and Hill, J.P. (2003) Evolution of the Monosaccharide Transporter Gene Family. Oral Presentation at the Evolution 2003 Conference, June 20-24, Chico, California.

Alongi (Johnson), D.A., and S.P. Moore (1999) Jumpstarting GIS Use in the Classroom: Using ArcView GIS as a Tool to Teach Science and Social Studies in the Secondary Classroom. Proceedings of the 1999 ESRI International User Conference, San Diego, California.

Center for Image Processing in Education. Biotechnologist, 1999. Co-author and Editor.

Alongi (Johnson), D. A. The Arizona Hedgehog: Endangered Species or Not? A Unit of Lessons for the Secondary Classroom. World Wide Web at http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons/alongi/. 1997.

Center for Image Processing in Education. HIP Biology 1 and HIP Biology 2, 1996. Co-author and Coordinating Editor.

Bellsey, R., D.A. Alongi (Johnson), and D.W. Mount. A Genetic Analysis of Three Rare Arizona Plants, Clematis hirsutissima var. arizonicus, Echinocereus triglochidiatus var. arizonicus and Senecio quarens. Arizona Department of Fish and Wildlife Report, 1996.