Bioinformatics and cytogenetics of unusual Drosophila melanogaster X-chromosome morphology.
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Biomedical subjects
Anthony D Long
Publications and source records attributed to Anthony D Long.
Pharmacology, genomics, and the evolutionary biology of ageing.
Aging is a multifold process affected by many genes and thus many biochemical pathways. This conclusion is underscored by the failure to find simple central controls for the aging process during the 20th Century. This situation poses a fundamental challenge to anti-aging medicine: how to develop effective therapies for a genomically complex pathology. We propose such a strategy. As a first step, we recommend the use of model systems in which significant genetic intervention is not proscribed or impractical. Second, we propose that work with such model systems begin with selected lines that have genetic enhancements that allow increased lifespan. Third, genomic methods should be used to identify a number of biochemical pathways for increasing lifespan. Fourth, biochemical pathways that have been identified in model systems would then be available for pharmaceutical development, first in rodents, eventually in a clinical human population. This may seem to be a cumbersome R&D strategy, but starting with human populations or inadequately pre-screened compounds would be unlikely to succeed because of the complexity of the aging problem.
Aging↗
hairy: A quantitative trait locus for drosophila sensory bristle number.
Advances in medicine, agriculture, and an understanding of evolution depend on resolving the genetic architecture of quantitative traits, which is challenging since variation for complex traits is caused by multiple interacting quantitative trait loci (QTL) with small and conditional effects. Here, we show that the key developmental gene, hairy (h), is a QTL for Drosophila sternopleural bristle number, a model quantitative trait. Near-isoallelic lines (NIL) for the h gene region exhibited significant variation in bristle number and failed to complement a hairy mutation. Sequencing 10 h alleles from a single population revealed 330 polymorphic sites in approximately 10 kb. Genotypes for 25 of these and 14 additional sites in the flanking regions were determined for the 57 NIL and associated with variation in bristle number in four genetic backgrounds. A highly significant association was found for a complicated insertion/deletion polymorphism upstream of the transcription start site. This polymorphism, present in 17.5% of the h alleles, was associated with an increase of 0.5 bristle and accounted for 31% of the genetic variance in bristle number in the NIL.
Animals↗
Generating phenotypic variation: prospects from "evo-devo" research on Bicyclus anynana wing patterns.
Understanding the generation of phenotypic variation is an important challenge for modern evolutionary biology, and butterfly wing patterns are an exciting system that can shed some light on this issue. Here, we report on recent advances in the genetics of Bicyclus anynana butterflies. This system provides the potential for a fully integrated study of the evolutionary and developmental processes underlying diversity in morphology.
Animals↗