Google Scholar
Antunes Lab Webpage
Mauricio Antunes, Ph.D. received his B.S. degree in Agronomy and M.S. degree in Crop
Sciences from the Universidade Federal de Viçosa in Brazil. He then moved to West
Lafayette, Indiana, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in Plant Molecular Biology at Purdue
University, under the supervision of Nick Carpita and Tom Hodges. After completing
his doctoral degree, Antunes joined June Medford's group at Colorado State University
as a postdoctoral fellow, where he was involved in pioneering work in plant synthetic
biology to rationally engineer plants to function as sensitive and specific sensors
of substances of interest to humans. After spending one year working in Maureen McCann's
lab at the Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels (C3Bio) at
Purdue University, Antunes returned to Colorado State University in 2010 as a Research
Assistant Professor in the Biology Department. In 2018, Dr. Antunes joined the Department
of Biological Sciences and the BioDiscovery Institute at UNT. Research in Dr. Antunes'
lab centers on the development and application of tools from the emerging field of
synthetic biology to engineer plants with novel traits that function in a predictable
and tunable manner to result in improved bioproduction.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
-
Development of synthetic transcriptional and post-transcriptional control systems
whose behavior can be modulated by specific inputs.
-
Small RNAs as mobile signaling molecules in plants.
-
Engineering complex synthetic genetic circuits to improve plant production and biosynthesis.
-
Re-wiring metabolic pathways in plants using gene regulatory controls.
FOR PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS
Apply to the Graduate Program in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
CURRENT GRANT-FUNDED PROJECTS
- Establishing the biochemical determinants of microRNA long-distance mobility in plants.
The Welch Foundation. PI: Antunes, $240,000 (6/1/2021 - 5/31/2024)
RECENT SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS
- Amack, S.C.; Ferreira, S.S.; Antunes, M.S. (2023) Tuning the Transcriptional Activity
of the CaMV 35S Promoter in Plants by Single-Nucleotide Changes in the TATA Box. ACS
Synthetic Biology 12(1): 178-185. doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.2c00457.
- Ferreira, S.S.; Antunes, M.S. (2021) Re-engineering plant phenylpropanoid metabolism
with the aid of synthetic biosensors. Frontiers in Plant Science 12:701385. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.701385.
- Amack, S.C.; Antunes, M.S. (2020) CaMV35S promoter - A plant biology and biotechnology
workhorse in the era of synthetic biology. Current Plant Biology 24: 100179. doi:
10.1016/j.cpb.2020.1001792.
- Kassaw, T.K.; Donayre-Torres, A.J.; Antunes, M.S.; Morey, K.J.; Medford, J.I. (2018)
Engineering Synthetic Regulatory Circuits in Plants. Plant Science 273: 13-22. doi:
10.1016/j.plantsci.2018.04.005.
- Bick, M.J.; Greisen, P.J.; Morey, K.J.; Antunes, M.S.; La, D.; Sankaran, B.; Reymond,
L.; Johnsson, K.; Medford, J.I.; Baker, D. (2017) Computational design of environmental
sensors for the potent opioid fentanyl. eLife 6: e28909. doi:10.7554/eLife.28909.
- Yang, H.; Wei, H.; Ma, G.; Antunes, M.S.; Cox, J.; Zhang, X.; Liu, X.; Himmel, M.E.;
Tucker, M.P.; McCann, M.C.; Murphy, A.S.; Peer, W.A. (2016) In planta iron delivery
produces a dual system for enhancement of biomass conversion and iron nutrition in
rice. Plant Biotechnology Journal 14(10): 1998-2009. doi: 10.1111/pbi.12557.
- Schaumberg, K.*; Antunes, M.S.*; Kassaw, T.K.; Xu, W.; Zalewski, C.S.; Medford, J.I.;
Prasad, A. (2016) Quantitative methods for characterization of parts and circuits
for plant synthetic biology. Nature Methods 13(1): 94-100. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3659
(*co-first authors).
- Antunes, M.S.; Hodges, T.K.; Carpita, N.C. (2016) A benzoate-activated promoter from
Aspergillus niger and regulation of its activity. Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology
100: 5479-5489. doi: 10.1007/s00253-016- 7373-3
- Feng, J.; Jester, B.W.; Tinberg, C.E.; Mandell, D.J.; Antunes, M.S.; Chari, R.; Morey,
K.J.; Rios, X.; Medford, J.I.; Church, G.; Fields, S.; Baker, D. (2015) A general
strategy to construct small molecule biosensors in eukaryotes. eLife 4: e10606. doi:
10.7554/eLife.10606.
- Antunes, M.S.; Smith, J.J.; Jantz, D.; Medford, J.I. (2012) Targeted DNA excision
in Arabidopsis by a re-engineered homing endonuclease. BMC Biotechnology 12: 86. doi:
10.1186/1472-6750-12-86
- Morey, K.J.; Antunes, M.S.; Barrow, M.J.; Solorzano, F.A.; Havens, K.L.; Smith, J.J.;
Medford, J.I. (2012) Crosstalk between endogenous and synthetic components - synthetic
signaling meets endogenous components. Biotechnology Journal 7: 846-855. doi: 10.1002/biot.201100487.
- Antunes, M.S.; Morey, K.J.; Smith, J.J.; Albrecht, K.D.; Bowen, T.A.; Zdunek, J.K.;
Troupe, J.F.; Hellinga, H.W.; Medford, J.I. (2011) Programmable ligand detection system
in plants through a synthetic signal transduction pathway. PLoS ONE 6(1): e16292.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016292.
PATENTS
- Benzoate-inducible promoters. Thomas K Hodges, Mauricio S Antunes, Nicholas C Carpita
- US Patent # 7,705,203 - April 27, 2010
- Biological input-output response system and plant sentinels. June I Medford, Mauricio
S Antunes, Kevin J Morey, John Jeff Smith, Homme W Hellinga - US Patent # 8,148,605
- April 3, 2012
- Biological systems input-output response system and plant sentinels. June I Medford,
Mauricio S Antunes - US Patent # 9,062,320 - June 23, 2015
- Compositions and methods for detection of small molecules. June I Medford, Mauricio
S Antunes, Kevin J Morey, Benjamin Jester, Christine Tinberg, Stanley Fields, David
Baker, Matthew Bick - US Patent App. 15/392,962 - 2017
- Synthetic repression of gene expression in plants. June I Medford, Mauricio S Antunes,
Tessema K Kassaw - US Patent App. 15/787,562 - 2018
- Synthetic desalination genetic circuit in plants. June I Medford, Kevin J Morey, Tessema
K Kassaw, Mauricio S Antunes - US Patent App. 16/492,584 - 2020