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Ana Sara did a PhD at the University of Porto, Portugal, within
the GABBA/FCT program (the Graduate Program in Basic and Applied Biology/
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia). This scheme allows students to spend
time in another country; Ana Sara joined our lab first at the University of Reading
and subsequently at Oxford.
In her PhD research Ana demonstrated that the enigmatic worm Buddenbrockia
plumatellae is actually an alternative life cycle stage of the myxozoan Tetracapsula
bryozoides, and also cloned and analysed several homeobox genes from the
placozoan Trichoplax adhaerens, gaining insight into the early
stages of genome evolution in the animal kingdom. She then stayed in Oxford
as a BBSRC-funded research assistant working with David Ferrier, studying the
evolution of Hox gene cluster organisation and function, before moving to Seville
as a Research Fellow.
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Buddenbrockia exiting from bryozoan zooid
(Photograph courtesy of Sylvie Tops)
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Living Trichoplax
adhaerens surrounded by Pyrenomonas algae
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Publications
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Monteiro, A.S. and Ferrier, D.E.K. (2006) Hox genes are not always
colinear. Int J Biol Sci. 2,
95–103.
Monteiro, A.S.,
Schierwater, B., Dellaporta, S. and Holland,
P.W.H. (2005) A low diversity of ANTP class homeobox genes in Placozoa. Evolution
and Development 8, 174-182
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Monteiro, A.S., Okamura, B. and Holland, P.W.H. (2002) Orphan worm finds
a home: Buddenbrockia is a myxozoan. Molecular Biology and
Evolution 19, 968-971
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