Formerly at: Evolution and Development Research Group

Department of Zoology
University of Oxford

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David E.K. Ferrier B.A. D.Phil.
In 2007 became RCUK Fellow and Lecturer in Marine Biology at:

The Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St Andrews,
St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland.

Research interests

My research focuses on the evolution of homeobox gene clusters in animals. These clusters include the famous Hox gene cluster as well as the ParaHox and NK gene clusters, which may all have ancestrally existed as a Mega-homeobox cluster (see Pollard and Holland, (2000). Curr. Biol. 10, 1059-1062). These genes play pivotal roles in the developmental biology of animals, and are intimately linked with the evolution of animal forms and body plans. Whilst the Hox cluster is an established paradigm within Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo), the other clusters are more recent discoveries and the nature of their origin and subsequent evolution remains mysterious.

The ParaHox cluster was originally discovered in amphioxus (Branchiostoma floridae) and also exists in humans (Brooke et al., 1998, Nature, 392, 920-922; Ferrier et al. 2005, Current Biology 15, R820-R822). It is proposed to be the evolutionary sister (paralogue) to the Hox cluster (Ferrier and Holland, 2001, Nature Reviews Genetics, 2, 33-38).  We are examining the evolution, expression and regulation of these genes, and aiming to elucidate the significance of their genomic arrangement.

A complimentary approach to understanding the ParaHox cluster is to examine the genes in other taxa. Whilst Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans are powerful model systems in developmental biology, they are not good systems for examining ParaHox gene evolution because they have lost some of the genes secondarily (Ferrier and Holland, 2001, Evol. Devel., 3, 263-270). We are instead using a newer model system in molecular Evo-Devo: polychaete annelids. Our work involves cloning the annelid worm homologues of the ParaHox genes, as well as other members of the Mega-homeobox cluster, and mapping their genomic locations relative to one another along with their expression during embryogenesis.

Funding
BBSRC

Publications

Collaborators
Chris Amemiya (Seattle) and Ken Dewar (Montreal) – sequencing amphioxus clusters.
Harv Isaacs (York) – ParaHox regulation.
Seb Shimeld, Peter Holland (Oxford), Tania Andreeva (St.Petersburg), Guillaume Balavoine (Paris) and Detlev Arendt (Heidelberg) – polychaete annelids.

Contact details

Dr. David E.K. Ferrier,

    The Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St Andrews,

St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland

e-mail: dekf@st-andrews.ac.uk

Pomatoceros lamarckii (male)