The Role of Gene Duplication in Chordate Developmental Regulation

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This collaborative project between the laboratories at Yale (Ruddle and Wagner) and Boston University (Amemiya) seeks to understand the evolutionary diversification of the vertebrate body plan in molecular and developmental terms. Key organisms such as the lamprey, horned shark, and the primitive bony fish Bichir will be major subjects for research. A primary approach to the problem of the vertebrate radiation will be to isolate and sequence the Hox gene clusters that govern pattern formation on the primary and secondary body axes. In particular, the investigators will be interested in determining copy number of the clusters in the selected species, the identification of conserved non-coding elements that may serve as regulatory elements, the history of Hox cluster duplications and their possible role in vertebrate evolution. Finally, the investigators want to test the neutralist theory with respect to the duplication and diversification of gene complexes governing body plan.