David McCauley
Assistant Professor, Zoology Richards Hall 305 & 317 405-325-9038 dwmccauley at ou dot edu http://www.ou.edu/mccauleylab/Home.html Ph.D., Zoology - University of Texas, 1997RESEARCH:
The focus of my lab is on the evolution of vertebrate novelties, particularly related to neural crest cells. Neural crest cells are unique to vertebrates and are thought to have been a key innovation in the evolution of vertebrates from an ancestor lacking this cell type. We use a combination of models to investigate the role of gene duplication and divergence in the origin of novel vertebrate traits. Much of our work centers on the development in a basal vertebrate, the sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus. This primitively jawless fish is a valuable model in which to study the origin and evolution of vertebrate characters, including the neural crest. We combine a variety of cellular and molecular techniques, including dye labeling, gene perturbation, and gene expression studies, to determine how vertebrate complexity may be related to gene duplication in the early vertebrate ancestor, and how these gene duplications are related to evolution of the neural crest. We are also using the well-established zebrafish model to determine how duplicated genes retain ancestral function during development, and how duplication has also resulted in new functions specific to gnathostome vertebrates.
Selected Publications:
Hammond, K. L., Baxendale, S., McCauley, D. W., Ingham, P. W., and Whitfield, T. T. (2008) Expression of patched, prdm1 and engrailed in the lamprey somite reveals conserved responses to Hedgehog signaling. Evol. & Dev. (in press)
Rahimi, R., Allmond, J., Wagner, H., McCauley, D., and Langeland, J. (2008) Lamprey snail highlights conserved and novel patterning roles in vertebrate embryos. Devel. Gen. Evol. (in press)
McCauley, D. W. (2008) SoxE, Type II collagen, and evolution of the chondrogenic neural crest. Zool. Sci. (in press).
McCauley, D. W. and Kuratani, S. (2008) Cyclostome studies in the context of vertebrate evolution. Zool. Sci. (in press).
Trinh, L. A., McCutchen, M. D., Bronner-Fraser, M., Fraser, S. E., Bumm, L. A., and McCauley, D. W. (2007) Fluorescent in situ hybridization employing the conventional NBT/BCIP chromogenic stain. Biotechniques 42: 756-759.
McCauley, D. W. and Bronner-Fraser, M. (2006) Importance of SoxE in neural crest development and the evolution of the pharynx. Nature 441: 750-752.
McCauley, D. W., and Bronner-Fraser, M. (2004) Conservation and divergence of BMP2/4 genes in the lamprey: Expression and phylogenetic analysis suggest a single ancestral vertebrate gene. Evol. & Dev. 6: 411-422.
McCauley, D. W., Hixon, E. and W. R. Jeffery. (2004) Evolution of pigment cell regression in the cavefish Astyanax: A late step in melanogenesis. Evol. & Dev. 6: 209-218.
Meulemans, D., McCauley, D., and Bronner-Fraser, M. (2003) Id expression in amphioxus and lamprey highlights the role of gene cooption during neural crest evolution. Dev. Biol. 264: 430-442.
McCauley, D. W. and Bronner-Fraser, M. (2003) Neural crest contributions to the lamprey head. Development 130: 2317-2327.