wilkinson

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titleboxWILLIAM R. JEFFERY titlebox

professor pictureProfessor

email:jeffery@umd.edu
phone:
301.405.5202 (office)
301.405.7377 (lab)
fax:301.314.9358
office:2272 Bio-Psych
graduate programs: Biology, BEES
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RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am interested in the evolution of development. Several different animals are used in my research. The teleost Astyanax mexicanus is a single species with eyed surface dwelling and blind cave dwelling forms. I want to understand the developmental and evolutionary mechanisms responsible for phenotypic changes in Astyanax cavefish. I am also interested in the ancestry of the neural crest in chordates. For this research I use sea squirts (ascidians), especially Ciona intestinalis, which has a completely sequenced genome.

Recent Publications


Espinasa L, Jeffery WR. Conservation of retinal circadian rhythms during cavefish eye degeneration. Evol Dev. 2006 Jan-Feb;8(1):16-22.

Strickler AG, Yamamoto Y, Jeffery WR. The lens controls cell survival in the retina: Evidence from the blind cavefish Astyanax. Dev Biol. 2007 Nov 15;311(2):512-23. Epub 2007 Sep 7.

Jeffery WR. Chordate ancestry of the neural crest: new insights from ascidians. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2007 Aug;18(4):481-91. Epub 2007 Apr 19.

Jeffery WR. Ascidian neural crest-like cells: phylogenetic distribution, relationship to larval complexity, and pigment cell fate. J Exp Zoolog B Mol Dev Evol. 2006 Sep 15;306(5):470-80.