Meredith Protas
University of San Francisco, CA·Genetics
Why do animals living in permanent darkness lose their eyes, and which genes make that happen? Understanding how eyes form matters for understanding how the eye works, whether it can regenerate, and how developmental problems lead to eye disease.
- Fields
Genetics
Ecology & Evolution
Biology
- Topics
eye degeneration
eye development
eye loss
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Map the genome regions responsible for eye loss in two cave populations of the crustacean Asellus aquaticus and in a surface-population intercross, using RADseq (restriction site-associated DNA sequencing) to read markers across the genome.
- Determine whether other traits are inherited together with eye loss in A. aquaticus, either because the same genetic variants cause them or because different variants sit close together in the genome.
- Compare whether the potentially different genetic mechanisms of eye loss in two cave populations and a surface intercross map to the same or different regions of the A. aquaticus genome.
- Test the function of efr3 and mut-7, two genes whose cave and surface copies were used unequally in hybrid embryos, by examining eye phenotypes and behaviors in fruit flies.
More about the research
Laboratory mutant screens have known biases and offer little natural variation in eye size. This project instead studies Asellus aquaticus, a small freshwater crustacean whose cave-dwelling populations have greatly reduced or missing eyes, while surface-dwelling populations have normal eyes.
Why it matters
Mapping the DNA regions and genes behind natural eye loss could reveal genes involved in eye development and degeneration that standard laboratory screens miss. It may also show whether eye loss is genetically tied to other traits. This knowledge could eventually inform research on eye formation, regeneration and the developmental basis of eye disease, and it builds A. aquaticus into an animal model for eye degeneration.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Patricia Wittkopp
University of Michigan, MI·Genetics
Identify the genes and specific DNA changes behind trait differences within and between fruit fly (Drosophila) species, and determine how they alter molecular, cellular and developmental processes.
Elke Buschbeck
University of Cincinnati, OH·Biology
Test predictions of EyeVolve, the lab's computational model of eye development, that camera-type eyes in sunburst diving beetle (Thermonectus marmoratus) larvae arose by expansion of developmental units.
Timothy Linksvayer
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Ecology & Evolution
Identify the gene regulatory networks that control the development of obligate sterility in ant workers, which completely lack reproductive organs.
The school
University of San Francisco: 1 labs on PI Pages, $11M a year on research, 38 research doctorates a year.
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