Developmental Biology Alliance
University of Georgia
An UGA Assistant Professor of Genetics was recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study neural tube defects in mice. The goal of Jianfu Chen’s project is to understand why neural tube defects, the second most common birth defect in humans, occur.
Esther van der Knaap, a professor of horticulture in the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, is exploring the regulation of fruit shape and size in tomatoes as well as in peppers. Much of her research focuses on the molecular genetic mechanisms of cell division and cell size underlying fruit formation, and her work seeks to help boost the yield and quality of fruit and vegetable crops for the agricultural industry.
Three UGA faculty members have been named recipients of the university’s highest early career teaching honor, the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
A team of researchers that includes UGA scientists has identified many of the genetic changes that take place in burying beetles as they assume the role of parent. Their findings, published recently in the journal Nature Communications, may provide clues about the fundamental genetics of parenthood in insects and other animals.
When UGA researchers examined the genome of several different snake species, they found something surprising. Embedded in the reptiles’ genetic code was DNA that, in most animals, controls the development and growth of limbs—a strange feature for creatures that are famous for their long, legless bodies and distinctive slither.
Penises and limbs are clearly very different (exaggerated references to third legs aside), but they develop in similar ways. They both involve long bits of tissue that grow out from a small embryonic bud, under the direction of very similar proteins, and molecules. Carlos Infante and Douglas Menke from the University of Georgia has shown that similar enhancers—sequences that switch genes on or off—are also at work in both organs.
Highlighted in the Editors’ Choice section of Science Signaling, our weekly journal from the publisher of Science magazine.
In a prime example of basic bacterial research informing human disease research, microbiologists have identified a potential mechanism for neurodegenerative diseases:
The researchers created a thymus, a butterfly-shaped gland and vital component of the human immune system. Located beneath the breastbone in the upper chest, the thymus is responsible for producing T-lymphocytes, or T-cells, which help organize and lead the body’s fighting forces against threats like bacteria, viruses and even cancerous cells.
“We were all surprised by how well this works,” said Nancy Manley, professor of genetics in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the paper describing their finding in Nature Cell Biology.
Scott Dougan and his research team are discovering new roles for a specific gene known as Max’s Giant Associated protein, or MGA. A little studied protein, MGA appears to control a number of developmental processes and also may be connected to cancer development.
