Ramaley C271 (lab)
Research Interests
In my lab, we are interested in understanding the developmental evolution of our own subphylum, the vertebrates. To do this, we study developmental gene expression, regulation, and function in three model organisms; lamprey, amphioxus, and zebrafish. Lamprey, a jawless vertebrate, is the most basal vertebrate amenable to experimental manipulation at embryonic stages. Amphioxus is the most basal extant chordate and is thought to closely resemble the invertebrate ancestor of the vertebrates. Zebrafish, a teleost, is one of the most experimentally tractable vertebrate model systems. By comparing lamprey and amphioxus development with that of zebrafish, and other vertebrates like frog and salamander, we aim to reconstruct the genetic and developmental changes underlying the earliest events in vertebrate evolution.
Selected Publications
Cerny, R, Cattell, M, Sauka-Spengler, T, Fraser, M, Yu, F, Meulemans Medeiros, D. (2010) Evidence for the prepattern/cooption model of vertebrate jaw evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107: 17262-17267.
Yu, J.-K., Meulemans , D., Mckeon, S., Bronner-Fraser, M. (2008). Insights from the amphioxus genome on the origin of vertebrate neural crest. Genome Res 18:1127-1132.
Meulemans, D., Bronner-Fraser, M. (2007). The Amphioxus SoxB Family: Implications for the Evolution of Vertebrate Placodes Int J Biol Sci. 3(6):356-64.
Meulemans, D., Bronner-Fraser, M. (2007). Insights from Amphioxus into the Evolution of Vertebrate Cartilage. PLoS ONE. 2(8):e787.
Sauka-Spengler, T., Meulemans, D., Jones, M., Bronner-Fraser, M. (2007). Ancient Evolutionary Origin of the Neural Crest Gene Regulatory Network. Dev Cell. In press.
Epperlein, H.H. Selleck, M., Meulemans, D., Mchedlishvili, L., Cerny, R., Sobkow, L., Bronner-Fraser, M.,(2007). Migratory patterns and developmental potential of trunk neural crest cells in the axolotl embryo. Dev Dyn. 236, 398-403.
Meulemans, D., Bronner-Fraser, M. (2005). Central role of gene cooption in neural crest evolution. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.) 304B.
Meulemans, D., Bronner-Fraser, M. (2004). Gene-regulatory interactions in neural crest evolution and development. Dev Cell 7, 291-299.
Cerny R, Lwigale P, Ericsson R, Meulemans D, Epperlein HH, Bronner-Fraser M. (2004) Developmental origins and evolution of jaws: new interpretation of "maxillary" and "mandibular". Dev Biol 276 (1): 225-236