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lab profile
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 Angus Davison
University of Nottingham
School of Biology
University Park
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire NG7 2RD
United Kingdom
angus.davison@nottingham.ac.uk
+44-115-823-0322
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| PI: |
YES |
| Taxa Studied: |
Invertebrate Animals |
| Techniques Employed: |
Degenerate PCR, Sanger Sequencing, 454 Pyrosequencing, Solexa (Illumina) Sequencing, Bioinformatics/Sequence Analysis, SNP Mapping, In Situ Hybridization, Transgenesis, RNA interference(RNAi), Morpholinos, RAD genotyping |
| Research Description: |
We are developing the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis as a lab animal to help understand left-right asymmetry, following years of neglect. The primary motivation for using Lymnaea is that molluscan asymmetry is established very early, and is genetically tractable; other "genome-era" molluscs do not vary in their chirality and so are of no direct use to this project. The specific aim of an ongoing project is to utilise the power of ultrahigh-throughput DNA sequencing to directly clone the gene for chirality in Lymnaea stagnalis, working on the hypothesis that the maternal determinant of chirality in snail eggs is a molluscan F-molecule, or at least a molecule that interacts with it. With false positives excluded by genetic mapping, we will then attempt to definitively identify the gene with functional and cytological studies. The general, long-term aim is put in place techniques that will in the future enable a precise understanding of the symmetry-breaking event in snails, stimulating investigative analyses of the same or related molecules in other organisms, including vertebrates. The work is timely because very recent technological advances have made identification of the asymmetry-determining locus feasible within the scale of a relatively short project. Although I am always keen to hear from potential students, I am particularly keen to recruit a person that may wish to develop in situ, in vitro injection or RNAi/transgenic methods for Lymnaea stagnalis. |
| Lab Web Page: |
http://nottingham.ac.uk/Biology/People/angus.davison |
| Willing to Host Undergraduates: |
YES |
| Actively Seeking Undergraduates: |
YES |
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