Annual Report 2009 - Department of Zoology - University of ...

Developmental Biology
Our developmental biology focuses on
Drosophila and Xenopus. The Drosophila work
is carried out in the main Department, where five
research groups cooperate and share recently
refurbished facilities. The Xenopus work is based
in the Wellcome/CR UK Gurdon Institute.
a) Neural Development
We seek to understand the development, genetic specification, evolution and function of neural circuits and their ele-
ments using Drosophila as a model. Pat Simpson’s group investigates how evolution of gene cis-regulatory sequences
can drive phenotypic change with a focus on the achaete-scute genes, and their transcriptional regulators. Irene Miguel
Aliaga’s group studies the development of visceral neurons and how they regulate the functions of internal organs such
as the digestive tract. The groups of Matthias Landgraf and Michael Bate work on the embryonic development and
specification of motor circuitry with a special emphasis on the formation of synaptic connections and the patterning of
axonal and dendritic processes.
Louise Brochet-Couton: Identification and study of
locomotor circuitry neurons
Barbara Chwalla: Regulation of dendritic growth,
branching and targeting
Paola Cognigni: Formation and function of visceral
neurons in Drosophila embryonic development
Marta Costa: Evolution of a redundant mechanism for
bristle patterning in Calliphora
Sarah Crisp: Embryonic origins of coordinated movement
Soeren Diegelmann: Molecular and cellular analysis of
cholinergic interneurons and their role in motor circuitry
Jan-Felix Evers: Live imaging and experimental analysis
of synaptogenesis and dendritic growth
Emma Hatton-Ellis: Evolution of the function of the
wingless gene in the development of sensory bristles and
tendons
Zhihua Jin: Generation of an anti-Pannier antibody in
Drosophila
Feng Li: Development and diversification of the larval
neuromuscular system
Alex Mauss: Dendritic targeting and specificity of
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connections in the locomotor system
Carol McKimmie: Achaete-scute regulation and bristle
patterning in Megaselia
Annemarie North: Genetic specification of central neuron
dendrites
Lucia Prieto: Embryonic development and function of
larval olfactory circuitry
Stefan Pulver: Functional analysis of larval motor circuitry
and behaviour
Valia Stamataki: Evolution of an enhancer of achaetescute
in drosophilids
Marco Tripodi: Development and homeostatic regulation
of dendrites in the central nervous system
Jean-Valery Turatsinze: functional evolution of the SOPenhancer
in asense orthologs and in SOP cell specific
genes
Richard Wallbank: Structure and evolution of the cisregulatory
sequences of the pannier gene in drosophilids
Mingyao Yang: Evolution of the cis-regulatory sequences
of the pannier gene in Megaselia and Calliphora
Temur Yunusov: Identification and study of locomotor
circuitry neurons
b) Polarity and Patterning
The interests of our group concern the molecular mechanisms that underlie the origin of cell diversity and animal patterning.
In particular we are interested in how patterns are established within and between cells, using Drosophila as a model
system. Three groups (Peter Lawrence, Isabel Palacios, Helen Skaer) aim to understand subcellular organization in
terms of the differential distribution of molecules in oocytes (Palacios) and in tissues (planar polarity; Lawrence, apicobasal
polarity, Skaer) and the consequences of cell diversity and patterning in terms of tissue morphogenesis and animal
development.