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lab profile
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Matthew Rockman New York University
12 Waverly Place
New York, NY 10003
USA
mrockman@nyu.edu
212 998 8490
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| PI: |
YES |
| Taxa Studied: |
Invertebrate Animals |
| Techniques Employed: |
Quantitative PCR (qPCR), Microarrays, Sanger Sequencing, Solexa (Illumina) Sequencing, Bioinformatics/Sequence Analysis, QTL Mapping, SNP Mapping, RNA interference(RNAi), Transgenesis |
| Research Description: |
Our goal is to understand the relationship between the molecular mechanisms that shape phenotypes within individuals and the evolutionary mechanisms that generate and maintain phenotypic variation within populations. This project requires that we identify the functional allelic variants that segregate in nature, understand their molecular mechanisms, characterize their population genetic dynamics, and build models that explain these dynamics in terms of molecular biology and ecology. We use molecular and quantitative genetics to discover the alleles that underlie phenotypic variation. Our primary model system is C. elegans, a bacteria-eating nematode widely distributed across the globe. Natural isolates of this species harbor variation for development, morphology, behavior, and physiology. Related species, including several new Caenorhabditis discovered by the lab, provide comparative data. In parallel, we have initiated work on a new model system, a widely distributed polychaete species with abundant heritable variation for developmental phenotypes. We can collect the polychaetes from sites across the exceptional marine and estuarine setting of the New York area and we are developing molecular tools to discover the loci underlying developmental variation and their distributions in nature. |
| Lab Web Page: |
http://https://files.nyu.edu/mr176/public/ |
| Willing to Host Undergraduates: |
YES |
| Actively Seeking Undergraduates: |
NO |
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