Caenorhabditis elegans has been a highly productive model organism. However, most of the knowledge gained from the species has come a single strain isolated in Bristol, England in 1951. However, there exists significant potential in the natural variation present in the species to make discoveries. In this dissertation, I describe...
Meiosis is a specialized form of cell division where chromosomes are duplicated once and segregated twice, in order to reduce the chromosome number by half to generate haploid gametes. In contrast to mitosis, oocyte meiosis in many species occurs in the absence of centrosomes, the microtubule organizing centers that nucleate...
Chromatin organization involves a hierarchy of length scales ranging from a few tens of nanometers in nucleosomes to hundreds of nanometers for chromosomal territories. This physical nanostructure is regulated by the genetic code, differential methylation and histone modifications that comprise the histone code, as well as non-molecular factors, such as...
The neural crest is a unique, vertebrate specific stem cell population that gives rise to a diverse set of derivatives in the embryo, including sensory neurons, glial cells, melanocytes, and craniofacial structures such as cartilage, bone, and connective tissue. Unlike other multipotent stem cell populations present at this time, neural...
The follicle is the functional unit of the mammalian ovary and serves as a tightly controlled microenvironment where granulosa cells nurture the growth and maturation of the oocyte. Early events in follicular development are autonomous of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis and are instead controlled by local factors that are used in...
The purpose of the egg is to give rise to offspring in sexually reproducing organisms. Zinc thresholds became connected to egg quality from initial breakthrough discoveries in M. musculus which demonstrated that large-scale zinc fluxes occur during meiotic maturation, and these fluxes are required to maintain female egg viability. Numerous...
What follows is a strictly post-genomic dissertation. Over the past five years, I have strived to leave the nucleus behind, and even the endoplasmic reticulum and golgi apparatus. The human genome was sequenced over 15 years before the submission of this document, and the world changed somewhat less than anticipated—besides...
Certain inducible genes show faster reactivation if they were recently expressed. This epigenetic phenomenon is called transcriptional memory and is inherited for several generations after the first round of induction. During this phase, genes show several conserved molecular features that are essential for faster reactivation: peripheral localization of the gene,...
Methanobactins (Mbns) are a growing family of ribosomally produced, post-translationally modified natural products that exhibit a high affinity for copper. These compounds were initially identified in methanotrophic bacteria, which oxidize methane to methanol as their sole source of carbon. One of the key enzymes in this metabolic pathway, particulate methane...
The cellular abundance of mature microRNAs (miRNAs) is dictated by the efficiency of nuclear processing of primary miRNA transcripts (pri-miRNAs) into pre-miRNA intermediates. The Microprocessor complex, composed of Drosha and DGCR8 carries this out, but it has been unclear what controls Microprocessor's differential processing of various pri-miRNAs. Here, I show...