Ann Feke

Email
feke1@otterbein.edu

Assistant Professor
Department of Biology & Earth Science

Dr. Feke is a molecular biologist interested in broad questions about how and why plants tell the time. Plants, like animals, use an endogenous timekeeping mechanism known as a circadian clock, which allows them to coordinate responses to the appropriate time of day. By intersecting this knowledge of time with day/night cues, plants are also able to interpret seasons, and enact appropriate seasonal responses. Despite posited pressures to maintain rhythms of 24 hours, plants exhibit a wide range of variability in cycle duration. Using computational, phenotypic, and molecular approaches, Dr. Feke’s current work focuses on uncovering how this variation occurs, and asking what benefits it may serve for the plant.

Education

  • A.B. in Molecular Biology, Princeton University, 2013
  • M.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, 2015
  • PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, 2019
  • Postdoctoral Experience: Michigan State University, Farré Lab

Publications

  • Ann Feke, Brieanne Vaillancourt, Kaitlyn Acheson, Julia Brose, John P. Hamilton, Dionne Martin, Yi-Wen Wang, Joshua C. Wood, C. Robin Buell, Eva M. Farre, “High resolution transcriptomes of autotetraploid potato reveal expression and sequence conservation among rhythmic genes”, BMC Genomics, 26(1):925 (October 2025)
  • Genevieve M Hoopes, Daniel Zarka, Ann Feke, Kaitlyn Acheson, John P. Hamilton, David Douches, C Robin Buell, Eva M Farré, “Keeping time in the dark: Potato diel and circadian rhythmic gene expression reveals tissue-specific circadian clocks,” Plant Direct, 6(7), (July 2022)
  • Wei Liu, Ann Feke, Chun Chung Leung, Daniel A Tarté, Wenxin Yuan, Morgan Vanderwall, Garrett Sager, Xing Wu, Ariela Schear, Damon A Clark, Bryan C Thines, Joshua M Gendron, “A metabolic daylength measurement system mediates winter photoperiodism in plants,” Developmental Cell 56(17), 2501-2515 (September 2021)
  • Ann Feke, Morgan Vanderwall, Wei Liu, Joshua M Gendron, “Functional domain studies uncover novel roles for the ZTL Kelch repeat domain in clock function”, PLoS One 16(3) (March 2021)
  • Ann Feke, Jing Hong, Wei Liu, and Joshua Gendron, “A Decoy Library Uncovers U-box E3 Ubiquitin Ligases that Regulate Flowering Time in Arabidopsis,” Genetics 215(3), 699-712 (July 2020)
  • Chin-Mei Lee, Man-Wah Li*, Ann Feke*, Wei Liu*, Adam M. Saffer, Joshua M. Gendron, “GIGANTEA recruits the UBP12 and UBP13deubiquitylases to regulate accumulation of the ZTL photoreceptor complex,” Nature Communications 10(1), 3750 (August 2019) *These authors contributed equally to this work
  •  Ann Feke, Wei Liu, Jing Hong, Man-Wah Li, Chin-Mei Lee, Elton Zhou, and Joshua Gendron, “Decoys provide a scalable platform for the genetic analysis of plant E3 ubiquitin ligases that regulate clock function,” eLife (April 2019)
  • Chin-Mei Lee*, Ann Feke*, Man-Wah Li, Christopher Adamchek, Kristofor Webb, José Pruneda-Paz, Eric J. Bennet, Steve A. Kay, and Joshua M. Gendron, “Decoys Untangle Complicated Redundancy and Reveal Targets of Circadian Clock F-Box Proteins” Plant Physiology 177(3), 1170-1186 (July 2018) *These authors contributed equally to this work
  • Chin-Mei Lee, Christopher Adamchek, Ann Feke, Dmitri A. Nusinow, Joshua M. Gendron, “Mapping Protein–Protein Interactions Using Affinity Purification and Mass Spectrometry,” In: Busch W. (eds) Plant Genomics, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1610. Humana Press, New York NY (April 2017)
  • Xinguo Chen, Soyeong Sim, Elisabeth Wurtmann, Ann Feke, and Sandra Wolin, “Bacterial noncoding Y RNAs are widespread and mimic tRNAs” RNA 20(11), 1715-24 (November, 2014)