April Roberts Estrada is a Research Specialist with expertise in plant molecular biology. She runs the experimental biology half of the lab.
Her expertise includes:
- CRISPR-Cas genome editing
- Fragment analysis for alternative splicing analysis
- Plant molecular biology
Publications
Estrada AD, Freese NH, Blakley IC, Loraine AE (2015) Analysis of pollen-specific alternative splicing in Arabidopsis thaliana via semi-quantitative PCR. PeerJ. PMID: 25945312 | Free Full Text
Gupta V*, Estrada A*, Blakley I, Reid R, Patel K, Meyer M, Andersen S, Brown A, Lila M, Loraine A (2015) RNA-Seq analysis and annotation of a draft blueberry genome assembly identifies candidate genes involved in fruit ripening, biosynthesis of bioactive compounds, and stage-specific alternative splicing. GigaScience 4: 5 PMID: 25830017 | Free Full Text
* Co-first authors
Loraine A, McCormick S, Estrada A, Patel K, Qin P (2013) RNA-seq of Arabidopsis pollen uncovers novel transcription and alternative splicing. Plant Physiol 162: 1092-1109. Free PMC Article PMID:23590974
Gulledge AA, Roberts AD, Vora H, Patel K, Loraine AE (2012) Mining Arabidopsis thaliana RNA-seq data with Integrated Genome Browser reveals stress-induced alternative splicing of the putative splicing regulator SR45a. Am J Bot 99: 219-231. Free Full Text PMID:22291167
Biography
April Dawn Roberts Estrada was born and raised in North Carolina, where she spent most of her childhood in the woods. Her love of nature led her to study plant biology and zoology at North Carolina State University, where she pursued research interests in plant molecular biology.
In 2010, she joined the Loraine Lab as a Research Specialist, where she is using RNA-Seq, fragment analysis, and PCR to investigate differential alternative splicing. April has contributed to several research articles, including papers on alternative splicing in pollen and RNA-Seq based annotation of a blueberry genome assembly. She enjoys learning/troubleshooting new techniques and working with plants.