Group - James Locke | Page 2 | Sainsbury Laboratory

Sasha Eremina

Research Interests

Mana Afsharinafar

Lisa Walker

Dr Katie Abley

I am interested in how genetically identical individuals can differ from each other even within a common environment. Such inter-individual variability can be beneficial when future environmental conditions are unpredictable. This phenomenon has been studied in microbes, where variability between genetically identical cells forms the basis for some forms of antibiotic resistance. Here, specific gene regulatory networks appear to have evolved to amplify stochastic molecular fluctuations, creating differences between genetically identical cells.

Dr Christian Schwall

Locke Lab Members

Current members

Professor James Locke

James graduated from the University of Warwick (2000) in Physics, before completing Maths Part III at Cambridge (2001). James then studied for a joint PhD in Biology and Theoretical Physics at the University of Warwick, with supervision from Professors Andrew Millar and Matthew Turner. During his PhD James used an iterative process of experiment and theory to propose a new feedback loop in the plant circadian (24-hour) clock. For this work he was awarded the Promega Young Geneticist of the Year award (2007).

Journal articles

2024

Abley, K., Goswami, R. and Locke, JCW., 2024. Bet-hedging and variability in plant development: seed germination and beyond. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, v. 379
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0048

2023

Loman, TE. and Locke, JCW., 2023. The σB alternative sigma factor circuit modulates noise to generate different types of pulsing dynamics. PLoS Comput Biol, v. 19
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011265

2022

Greenwood, M., Tokuda, IT. and Locke, JCW., 2022. A spatial model of the plant circadian clock reveals design principles for coordinated timing. Mol Syst Biol, v. 18
Doi: http://doi.org/10.15252/msb.202010140

Davis, W., Endo, M. and Locke, JCW., 2022. Spatially specific mechanisms and functions of the plant circadian clock. Plant Physiol, v. 190
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiac236

2021

Abley, K. and Locke, JCW., 2021. Noisy transcription under the spotlight. Nat Plants, v. 7
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00987-x

Micklem, CN. and Locke, JCW., 2021. Cut the noise or couple up: Coordinating circadian and synthetic clocks. iScience, v. 24
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103051

Abley, K., Formosa-Jordan, P., Tavares, H., Chan, EY., Afsharinafar, M., Leyser, O. and Locke, JC., 2021. An ABA-GA bistable switch can account for natural variation in the variability of Arabidopsis seed germination time. Elife, v. 10
Doi: 10.7554/eLife.59485

Schwall, CP., Loman, TE., Martins, BMC., Cortijo, S., Villava, C., Kusmartsev, V., Livesey, T., Saez, T. and Locke, JCW., 2021. Tunable phenotypic variability through an autoregulatory alternative sigma factor circuit. Mol Syst Biol, v. 17
Doi: http://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20209832

2020

Greenwood, M. and Locke, JC., 2020. The circadian clock coordinates plant development through specificity at the tissue and cellular level. Curr Opin Plant Biol, v. 53
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2019.09.004

Nadezhdin, E., Murphy, N., Dalchau, N., Phillips, A. and Locke, JCW., 2020. Stochastic pulsing of gene expression enables the generation of spatial patterns in Bacillus subtilis biofilms. Nat Commun, v. 11
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14431-9

Cortijo, S. and Locke, JCW., 2020. Does Gene Expression Noise Play a Functional Role in Plants? Trends Plant Sci, v. 25
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2020.04.017

Abley, K., Formosa-Jordan, P., Tavares, H., Chan, E., Leyser, O. and Locke, JCW., 2020. An ABA-GA bistable switch can account for natural variation in the variability of Arabidopsis seed germination time
Doi: 10.1101/2020.06.05.135681

Grant, PK., Szep, G., Patange, O., Halatek, J., Coppard, V., Csikász-Nagy, A., Haseloff, J., Locke, JCW., Dalchau, N. and Phillips, A., 2020. Interpretation of morphogen gradients by a synthetic bistable circuit. Nat Commun, v. 11
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19098-w

Cortijo, S., Bhattarai, M., Locke, JCW. and Ahnert, SE., 2020. Co-expression Networks From Gene Expression Variability Between Genetically Identical Seedlings Can Reveal Novel Regulatory Relationships. Front Plant Sci, v. 11
Doi: http://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.599464

2019

Tokuda, IT., Akman, OE. and Locke, JCW., 2019. Reducing the complexity of mathematical models for the plant circadian clock by distributed delays. J Theor Biol, v. 463
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2018.12.014

Cortijo, S., Aydin, Z., Ahnert, S. and Locke, JC., 2019. Widespread inter-individual gene expression variability in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol Syst Biol, v. 15
Doi: http://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20188591

Greenwood, M., Domijan, M., Gould, PD., Hall, AJW. and Locke, JCW., 2019. Coordinated circadian timing through the integration of local inputs in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS Biol, v. 17
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000407

2018 (Accepted for publication)

Locke, JCW., 2018 (Accepted for publication). Coordination of robust single cell rhythms in the Arabidopsis circadian clock via spatial waves of gene expression eLife,

2018

Jonsson, H., Meyerowitz, , Landrein, BPM., Formosa-Jordan, , Malivert, , Schuster, C., Melnyk, CW., Yang, W., Turnbull, and Locke, JCW., 2018. Nitrate modulates stem cell dynamics in Arabidopsis shoot meristems through cytokinins Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, v. 115
Doi: 10.1073/pnas.1718670115

Locke, JCW., 2018. Molecular time-sharing through dynamic pulsing in single cells Cell Systems, v. 6
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2018.01.011

Martins, B. and Locke, J., 2018. Every microbe matters: Making movies of single cells Microbiology Today, v. 45

Mosheiff, N., Martins, BMC., Pearl-Mizrahi, S., Grünberger, A., Helfrich, S., Mihalcescu, I., Kohlheyer, D., Locke, JCW., Glass, L. and Balaban, NQ., 2018. Inheritance of Cell-Cycle Duration in the Presence of Periodic Forcing Physical Review X, v. 8
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.8.021035

Locke, JCW., Thomas, P., Martins, B. and Tooke, A., 2018. Cell size control driven by the circadian clock and environment in cyanobacteria Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,

Patange, O., Schwall, C., Jones, M., Villava, C., Griffith, DA., Phillips, A. and Locke, JCW., 2018. Escherichia coli can survive stress by noisy growth modulation. Nat Commun, v. 9
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07702-z

2017 (Accepted for publication)

Meyer, HM., Teles, J., Formosa-Jordan, P., Refahi, Y., San-Bento, R., Ingram, G., Jönsson, H., Locke, JCW. and Roeder, AHK., 2017 (Accepted for publication). Fluctuations of the transcription factor ATML1 generate the pattern of giant cells in the $\textit{Arabidopsis}$ sepal eLife, v. 6
Doi: 10.7554/eLife.19131

2017

Landrein, B., Formosa-Jordan, P., Malivert, A., Schuster, C., Melnyk, C., Yang, W., Turnbull, C., Meyerowitz, E., Locke, JCW. and Jönsson, H., 2017. Nitrate modulates stem cell dynamics by regulating<i>WUSCHEL</i>expression through cytokinins
Doi: 10.1101/200303

2016

Abley, K., Locke, JCW. and Leyser, HMO., 2016. Developmental mechanisms underlying variable, invariant and plastic phenotypes. Ann Bot, v. 117
Doi: 10.1093/aob/mcw016

Jung, J-H., Domijan, M., Klose, C., Biswas, S., Ezer, D., Gao, M., Khattak, AK., Box, MS., Charoensawan, V., Cortijo, S., Kumar, M., Grant, A., Locke, JCW., Schäfer, E., Jaeger, KE. and Wigge, PA., 2016. Phytochromes function as thermosensors in $\textit{Arabidopsis}$ Science, v. 354
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf6005

Martins, BM., Das, AK., Antunes, L. and Locke, JC., 2016. Frequency doubling in the cyanobacterial circadian clock Molecular Systems Biology, v. 12
Doi: http://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20167087

2015

Patron, NJ., Orzaez, D., Marillonnet, S., Warzecha, H., Matthewman, C., Youles, M., Raitskin, O., Leveau, A., Farré, G., Rogers, C., Smith, A., Hibberd, J., Webb, AAR., Locke, J., Schornack, S., Ajioka, J., Baulcombe, DC., Zipfel, C., Kamoun, S., Jones, JDG., Kuhn, H., Robatzek, S., Van Esse, HP., Sanders, D., Oldroyd, G., Martin, C., Field, R., O'Connor, S., Fox, S., Wulff, B., Miller, B., Breakspear, A., Radhakrishnan, G., Delaux, P-M., Loqué, D., Granell, A., Tissier, A., Shih, P., Brutnell, TP., Quick, WP., Rischer, H., Fraser, PD., Aharoni, A., Raines, C., South, PF., Ané, J-M., Hamberger, BR., Langdale, J., Stougaard, J., Bouwmeester, H., Udvardi, M., Murray, JAH., Ntoukakis, V., Schäfer, P., Denby, K., Edwards, KJ., Osbourn, A. and Haseloff, J., 2015. Standards for plant synthetic biology: a common syntax for exchange of DNA parts. New Phytologist, v. 208
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13532

Box, MS., Huang, BE., Domijan, M., Jaeger, KE., Khattak, AK., Yoo, SJ., Sedivy, EL., Jones, DM., Hearn, TJ., Webb, AAR., Grant, A., Locke, JCW. and Wigge, PA., 2015. ELF3 controls thermoresponsive growth in Arabidopsis. Curr Biol, v. 25
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.076

Martins, BMC. and Locke, JCW., 2015. Microbial individuality: how single-cell heterogeneity enables population level strategies. Curr Opin Microbiol, v. 24
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2015.01.003

2013

Young, JW., Locke, JCW. and Elowitz, MB., 2013. Rate of environmental change determines stress response specificity PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. 110
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1213060110

Locke, JCW., 2013. Systems biology: How bacteria choose a lifestyle Nature, v. 503
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/nature12837

2012

Young, JW., Locke, JCW., Altinok, A., Rosenfeld, N., Bacarian, T., Swain, PS., Mjolsness, E. and Elowitz, MB., 2012. Measuring single-cell gene expression dynamics in bacteria using fluorescence time-lapse microscopy NAT PROTOC, v. 7
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2011.432

2011

John, M., 2011. A is for Abstract. HSR Proc Intensive Care Cardiovasc Anesth, v. 3

Locke, JCW., Young, JW., Fontes, M., Jiménez, MJH. and Elowitz, MB., 2011. Stochastic pulse regulation in bacterial stress response Science, v. 334
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1208144

Wenden, B., Kozma-Bognár, L., Edwards, KD., Hall, AJW., Locke, JCW. and Millar, AJ., 2011. Light inputs shape the Arabidopsis circadian system Plant Journal, v. 66
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2011.04505.x

2009

Salazar, JD., Saithong, T., Brown, PE., Foreman, J., Locke, JCW., Halliday, KJ., Carré, IA., Rand, DA. and Millar, AJ., 2009. Prediction of Photoperiodic Regulators from Quantitative Gene Circuit Models Cell, v. 139
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2009.11.029

Troein, C., Locke, JCW., Turner, MS. and Millar, AJ., 2009. Weather and Seasons Together Demand Complex Biological Clocks Current Biology, v. 19
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.09.024

Locke, JCW. and Elowitz, MB., 2009. Using movies to analyse gene circuit dynamics in single cells Nature Reviews Microbiology, v. 7
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2056

2008

Locke, JCW., Westermark, PO., Kramer, A. and Herzel, H., 2008. Global parameter search reveals design principles of the mammalian circadian clock BMC Systems Biology, v. 2
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1186/1752-0509-2-16

Akman, OE., Locke, JCW., Tang, S., Carré, I., Millar, AJ. and Rand, DA., 2008. Isoform switching facilitates period control in the Neurospora crassa circadian clock Molecular Systems Biology, v. 4
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2008.5

2006

Edwards, KD., Anderson, PE., Hall, A., Salathia, NS., Locke, JCW., Lynn, JR., Straume, M., Smith, JQ. and Millar, AJ., 2006. FLOWERING LOCUS C mediates natural variation in the high-temperature response of the Arabidopsis circadian clock Plant Cell, v. 18
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.105.038315

Slack, JL., Locke, JCW., Song, S-W., Ona, J. and Richardson, TJ., 2006. Metal hydride switchable mirrors: Factors influencing dynamic range and stability Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, v. 90
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2005.02.015

2005

Locke, JCW., Southern, MM., Kozma-Bognár, L., Hibberd, V., Brown, PE., Turner, MS. and Millar, AJ., 2005. Extension of a genetic network model by iterative experimentation and mathematical analysis. Molecular systems biology, v. 1
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/msb4100018

Locke, JCW., Millar, AJ. and Turner, MS., 2005. Modelling genetic networks with noisy and varied experimental data: The circadian clock in Arabidopsis thaliana Journal of Theoretical Biology, v. 234
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2004.11.038

Le Quéré, P., Weisman, C., Paillère, H., Vierendeels, J., Dick, E., Becker, R., Braack, M. and Locke, J., 2005. Modelling of Natural Convection Flows with Large Temperature Differences: A Benchmark Problem for Low Mach Number Solvers. Part 1. Reference Solutions ESAIM: Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis, v. 39
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1051/m2an:2005027

Book chapters

2022

Greenwood, M., Hall, AJW. and Locke, JCW., 2022. High Spatial Resolution Luciferase Imaging of the Arabidopsis thaliana Circadian Clock.
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1912-4_4

Datasets

2021 (No publication date)

Abley, K., Tavares, H., Formosa-Jordan, P., Chan, EYT., Afsharinafar, M., Leyser, O. and Locke, J., 2021 (No publication date). Data supporting 'An ABA-GA bistable switch can account for natural variation in the variability of Arabidopsis seed germination time', Abley & Formosa-Jordan et al., eLife (2021)

2018 (No publication date)

Landrein, BPM., Formosa-Jordan, P., Malivert, A., Schuster, C., Melnyk, CW., Yang, W., Turnbull, C., Meyerowitz, EM., Locke, JCW. and Jönsson, H., 2018 (No publication date). Research data supporting "Nitrate modulates stem cell dynamics in Arabidopsis shoot meristems through cytokinins"

Locke, JCW., Gould, P., Hall, A. and Domijan, M., 2018 (No publication date). Research Data supporting Coordination of robust single cell rhythms in the Arabidopsis circadian clock via spatial waves of gene expression

Locke, JCW., Martins, B., Thomas, P. and Tooke, A., 2018 (No publication date). Research data supporting Cell size control driven by the circadian clock and environment in cyanobacteria

Internet publications

2018

Cortijo, S., Aydin, Z., Ahnert, S. and Locke, J., 2018. Widespread inter-individual gene expression variability in<i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1101/335380

Conference proceedings

2017

Patange, O., Schwall, C., Griffith, D., Phillips, A. and Locke, J., 2017. Functional phenotypic variability via growth rate mediated feedback in Escherichia coli EUROPEAN BIOPHYSICS JOURNAL WITH BIOPHYSICS LETTERS, v. 46

Group - James Locke

Sasha Eremina

Research Interests

Mana Afsharinafar

Lisa Walker

Dr Katie Abley

Dr Christian Schwall

Locke Lab Members

Professor James Locke

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018 (Accepted for publication)

2018

2017 (Accepted for publication)

2017

2016

2015

2013

2012

2011

2009

2008

2006

2005

2022

2021 (No publication date)

2018 (No publication date)

2018

2017

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