Staver Bezhani

Lecturer on Plant Physiology, Aleksander Xhuvani University, Albania.

Research associate, Department of Plant Physiology, Friedrich Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany. “Photosynthetic gene promoters and Translation Termination Factors”.

Postdoctoral research, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, “Transcriptional regulation of developmental transition and role of chromatin remodeling in development”.

Education

Biology and Chemistry undergraduate studies, University of Tirana, Albania.

Graduate in plant biology, “High light induced proteins in barley plants”, University of Tirana, Albania, experimental part was carried on The Institute of Botany, University of Hannover, Germany.  

Courses Taught

Penn Summer Biomedical Research Academy

2008 to present: BIOL 101 and BIOL102 laboratory instructor

Selected Publications

Wu MF., Sang Y., Bezhani S., Yamaguchi N., Han SK., Li Z., Su Y., Slewinski TL., Wagner D. (2012) SWI2/SNF2 chromatin remodeling ATPases overcome polycomb repression and control floral organ identity with the LEAFY and SEPALLATA3 transcription factors.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Feb 28;109(9):3576-81.                                                                                                   

Bezhani, S., Winter, C., Hershman, S., Wagner, JD., Kennedy, JF., Kwon, CS., Pfluger, J., Su, Y., Wagner, D.(2007)  Unique, Shared, and Redundant Roles for the Arabidopsis SWI/SNF Chromatin Remodeling ATPases BRAHMA and SPLAYED .The Plant Cell, Vol. 19: 403–416,

Su, Y., Kwon, CS., Bezhani, S., Huvermann, B., Chen, C., Peragine, A., Kennedy, JF., Wagner, D. (2006). The N-terminal ATPase AT-hook-containing region of the Arabidopsis chromatin-remodeling protein SPLAYED is sufficient for biological activity. Plant J.; 46(4):685-99.

Kwon CS., Hibara, K., Pfluger, J., Bezhani, S., Metha, H., Aida, M., Tasaka, M., Wagner, D. (2006) A role for chromatin remodeling in regulation of CUC gene expression in the Arabidopsis cotyledon boundary  Development 133, 3223-3230

Saddic, LA., Huvermann, B., Bezhani, S., Su, Y., Winter, CM., Kwon, CS., Collum, RP., Wagner, D.(2006) The LEAFY target LMI1 is a meristem identity regulator and acts together with LEAFY to regulate expression of CAULIFLOWER.Development. 133(9):1673-82.

Meurer, J., Lezhneva, L., Amann, K., Godel, M., Bezhani, S., Sherameti, I., Oelmuller, R,. (2002). A Peptide Chain Release Factor 2 Affects the Stability of UGA-Containing Transcripts in Arabidopsis Chloroplasts. The Plant Cell, Vol. 14, 3255–3269.

Bezhani, S., Sherameti, I., Pfannschmidt, T., Oelmuller, R.(2001) A repressor with similarities to pro- and eukaryotic DNA helicases controls the assembly of the CAAT-box binding complex at a photosynthesis gene promoter. .J.Biol. Chem. 276(26): 23785-23789.