Home
Applying for Funding
Symposia and Workshops
Finding a Lab
Join the EDEN Network
Participating Labs
Research Exchange Experiences
Protocols
FAQs
Steering Committee
Extavour Lab
 
lab profile

 

Casper J. Breuker

Oxford Brookes University
Gipsy Lane
Headington
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX3 0BP
United Kingdom

cbreuker@brookes.ac.uk
4.41865E+11

PI: YES
Taxa Studied: Invertebrate Animals
Techniques Employed: Quantitative PCR (qPCR), Solexa (Illumina) Sequencing, Bioinformatics/Sequence Analysis, SNP Mapping, In Situ Hybridization, Antibody Staining, Confocal Microscopy
Research Description: Casper J. Breuker works on the Speckled wood butterfly, Pararge aegeria, as a model organism and investigates in reproductive success under a range of environmental conditions. In order to understand reproductive variation he investigates the developmental genetic regulation of oogenesis and quantifies variation in key regulatory genes among populations. Furthermore, he studies the evolution of those regulatory mechanisms that appear unique to butterflies. Such studies are crucial in elucidating, for example, life-history trade-offs, maternal regulation of embryogenesis, and oocyte pathology. The group was the first to report a butterfly ovarian butterfly transcriptome (including the identification of all the maternal transcripts present in mature oocytes), and identify the unique regulatory aspects of butterfly oogenesis. They described the spatio-temporal maternal gene expression patterns in butterfly ovaries and embryos and characterised in detail the genes implicated in hormonal control of oogenesis and transgenerational hormonal effects in butterflies.
Lab Web Page: http://bms.brookes.ac.uk/research/groups/evolutionarydevelopmentalbiology/evolutionarydev
Willing to Host Undergraduates: YES
Actively Seeking Undergraduates: YES
Copyright © 2010 EDEN Evo-Devo-Eco Network. All Rights Reserved. Site designed by Academic Web Pages.
EDEN Logo: Daniel Christianson. Logo Image: Frederike Alwes.