Assistant Professor of Biology, Washington & Jefferson College, PA
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Myogenesis (muscle development) is a process that requires coordination of multiple genes to form a correct muscle from their muscle precursors. Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm) has been studied extensively for the last several decades on the physiology and neuron development due to its relatively short life cycle, plus easy access to its muscular and nervous system. In M. sexta, there are two models of muscle development: with association with nerves (e.g. flight muscles), and distributed development. One example of distributed development is found in tergosternal muscle (TSM, a body wall muscle found in the abdomen), which can develop in the absence of motor neurons.
Along with Drs. Tom Lombardi (Computing & Information Studies) and Ron Bayline (Biology), our main goals is to further our understanding of the gene expression and transcriptomes involved in M. sexta muscle development. In particular, we are interested in determining differences in the transcriptomes involved in the flight muscle and TSM development, and what drives the nerve-dependent muscle development in M. sexta.
Since the major genes for basic muscle development and myoblast fusion are conserved within M. sexta, Drosophila melanogaster and humans, understanding the mechanisms controlling muscle development in M. sexta will facilitate our knowledge in the evolutionary relationship and conserved mechanisms of muscle development, as well as gain insight on potential pest control and disease treatment. We plan to utilize the RNA-seq data for identification and annotation of the muscle development genes in the Manduca Base and the tobacco hormworm genome project.
Materials are under development.
Materials are under development.
