 |
Faculty List
Eric Davidson
davidson@caltech.edu
Ph.D., 1963, Rockefeller University
An Integrated Approach to the Study of Embryonic Development in Sea Urchins
The major focus of research in our laboratory is on gene regulatory networks (GRNs) that control development, and the evolution of these networks. Most of our research is done on sea urchin embryos, which provide key experimental advantages. Among these are: an easy gene transfer technology, which makes this a system of choice for studying the genomic regulatory code; availability of embryonic material at all seasons of the year; an optically clear, easily handled embryo that is remarkably able to withstand micromanipulations, injections and blastomere recombination and disaggregation procedures; a very well understood and relatively simple embryonic process; and in-house egg-to-egg culture of the species we work with, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (in a special culture system we have developed, located at Caltech's Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory). There is also a rich collection of arrayed cDNA and BAC libraries for sea urchins. The genome of S. purpuratus is being sequenced at HGSC (Baylor) and this project is expected to be finished in the first half of 2005. A very extensive repertoire of effective molecular technologies for experimentation on sea urchin gene regulatory systems has evolved. The experimental model that we utilize for evolutionary GRN comparisons is another echinoderm, also of local provenance, the starfish Asterina miniata. The embryo of this animal proves to be as excellent a subject for gene regulation molecular biology as is that of the sea urchin.
We pursue an integrated, "vertical" mode of experimental analysis, in that our experiments are directed at all levels of biological organization, extending from the transcription factor-DNA interactions that control spatial and temporal expression of specific genes to the system level analysis of large regulatory networks. It has become apparent that the only level of analysis from which explanations of major developmental phenomena directly emerge, is the system level represented by the sea urchin GRN.
