Jenna Christensen Assistant Professor

Research Summary:

Across the tree of life, cells display remarkable diversity in traits including cellular organization and morphology. These adaptations are critical to the survival of a cell or organism within its unique environment. To perform fundamental cellular processes, each cell must be able to transport cargos such as organelles, vesicles, mRNAs, and protein complexes with spatial and temporal precision. Despite understanding many of the players involved in intracellular transport, little is known about why some organisms use one mode of transport over another. For example, human cells and many filamentous fungi use the microtubule-based motors dynein and kinesin for long-distance transport, while yeast and plants primarily use actin-based myosin motors. Our lab takes a comparative biology approach to uncover the fundamental principles behind cargo transport, how these principles are adapted across species, and when organisms use non-traditional forms of intracellular transport. Together, we use comparative genomics, comparative cell biology, cellular proteomics, and biochemical reconstitution/single molecule TIRF microscopy to understand transport regulation on the evolutionary, cellular, and molecular scales.

Selected Publications:

Woronin body hitchhiking on early endosomes is dispensable for septal localization in Aspergillus nidulans. Songster LD, Bhuyan D, Christensen JR, and Reck-Peterson SL. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 2023 June 1;34(7):br9.

Hitchhiking Across Kingdoms: Cotransport of Cargos in Fungal, Animal, and Plant Cells. Christensen JR and Reck-Peterson SL. Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. 2022 October;38:155-178.

Cytoplasmic dynein-1 cargo diversity is mediated by the combinatorial assembly of FTS–Hook–FHIP complexes. Christensen JR, Kendrick AA, Truong JB, Aguilar-Maldonado A, Adani V, Dzieciatkowska M, and Reck-Peterson SL. eLife. 2021 December 9:e74538.

PxdA interacts with the DipA phosphatase to regulate peroxisome hitchhiking on early endosomes. Salogiannis J, Christensen JR, Songster LD, Aguilar-Maldonado A, Shukla N, and Reck-Peterson SL. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 2021 March 15;32(6):492-503.

Hitching a Ride: Mechanics of Transport Initiation through Linker-Mediated Hitchhiking. Mogre SS, Christensen JR, Niman CS, Reck-Peterson SL, and Koslover EF. Biophysical Journal. 2020 March 24;118(6):1357-1369.

View all publications by Jenna Christensen listed in the National Library of Medicine (PubMed).

Selected Honors:

NIH/NIGMS MOSAIC K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2021

NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Fellowship,  2017