PI: Eric
S.
Haag
Associate
Professor
Telephone:
(301)
405-8534
Office: Biology/Psychology
Room 0256
Lab: Biology/Psychology Room
0245
Email: ehaag@umd.edu
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The
Haag Lab, April,
2012
We
are (L to R): Qinwen Liu, Joe Ross, Eric Haag, Cristel Thomas, Gavin
Woodruff, (not shown: Becca Matteson)
Haag
Lab People
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C.
briggsae
hermaphrodite (above) and male (left)
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Research Interests
The Haag laboratory
studies the developmental genetics of evolutionary change in
animals.
Of particular interest to us are reproductive adaptations whose
evolution required major developmental novelties. Currently we
focus on the evolution of self-fertile hermaphroditism in
nematodes.
We use the model nematode Caenorhabditis
elegans as a starting point, which confers several
advantages.
First, sister species of C. elegans have different reproductive
modes that are based on differences in sex determination in a single
tissue--the germ line. Second,
C. elegans sex determination has been subjected to intense genetic,
molecular, and biochemical investigation, which provides a wealth of
potential
mechanisms for investigation. Third, many of the tools
available to C. elegans researchers are applicable to its
relatives
as well, such as classical genetics, RNA interference-mediated reverse
genetics, and even complete genome sequence.
We seek to identify
the molecular and genetic mechanisms that distinguish the sex
determination
of androdioecious (hermaphrodite/male) species from that of
gonochoristic
(male/female) species of worms. We also use independently evolved
hermaphrodites as a laboratory to explore convergent evolution.
In addition, we are interested in the
evolutionary
forces that drive the rapid evolution of sex determination even in the
absence of overt phenotypic change, and the molecular and genomic
responses
to these forces.
Work
in the lab currently includes
the following
projects:
- classical
and reverse genetic analysis of sex determination in other Caenorhabditis
species, especially C. briggsae
- evolutionary dynamics of germline RNA-binding proteins
- basic
and comparative characterization of key proteins of the nematode sex
determination
pathway
- genome-level consequences of mating system evolution
in Caenorhabditis
species
- interspecies hybrid genetics
Feel free to
contact Eric if you are
interested in participating in this work. Our lab
(a.k.a. The Palace of Worm Sex) is on the ground floor of the Biology/Psychology
Building.
At left, a
self-fertile XX C. briggsae
fem-3(nm63) deletion
mutant. This
phenotype (or
lack therof) differs
from the
self-sterility seen in the
equivalent C. elegans fem-3
mutant.
(see Hill et al. 2006)
Recent Publications:
Hill, RC, Carvalho,
C, Salogiannis, J, Schlager, B,
Pilgrim, D, and Haag, ES (2006) Genetic flexibility in the
convergent evolution of hermaphroditism in Caenorhabditis nematodes. Developmental Cell 10: 531-38
PDF Suppl. Mats.
Haag, ES
(2007)
Compensatory vs. pseudocompensatory
evolution in molecular and developmental interactions. Genetica
129: 45-55. PDF
Haag, ES,
Chamberlin, H, Coghlan, A, Fitch, DHA, Peters, AD,
and Schulenburg, H (2007) Caenorhabditis evolution: if they all look alike, you
aren't
looking hard enough. Trends
in Genetics 23:
101-04. PDF
Kelleher, DF, de
Carvalho, CE, Doty AV, Layton M, Cheng AT, Mathies LD, Pilgrim D,
Haag ES (2008) Comparative genetics of sex determination:
Masculinizing
mutations in Caenorhabditis
briggsae. Genetics 178: 1415-29. PDF
Suppl.
Mats.
Barriere, A,
Yang, S-P, Pekarek, E, Thomas, CG, Haag, ES, and Ruvinsky, I
(2009) Detecting heterozygosity in shotgun genome assemblies:
Lessons
from obligately outcrossing nematodes. Genome Research 19: 470-480. PDF
Haag, E.S. (2009)
Caenorhabditis nematodes as a model for the adaptive evolution of germ
cells. Chpt. 3 in Current
Topics in Developmental Biology, 86: 43-66 (W. Jeffery, ed.) PDF
Hill, RC and Haag,
ES (2009) A sensitized genetic background reveals evolution near
the terminus of the Caenorhabditis
germline sex determination pathway. Evolution & Development 11:
333-342 PDF
Koboldt, DC, Staisch, J, Thillainathan, B,
Haines, K, Baird, SE, Chamberlin, HM, Haag, ES, Miller, RD, and Gupta,
BP (2010) A toolkit for rapid gene mapping in the nematode Caenorhabditis
briggsae. BMC Genomics 11: 236. PDF
Woodruff, G.C., Eke, O., Baird, S.E.,
Félix, M.A., and Haag, E.S. (2010). Insights into species
divergence and the evolution of hermaphroditism from fertile
interspecies hybrids of Caenorhabditis nematodes. Genetics 186: 997-1012. PDF
Ross, J.A., Koboldt, D.C., Staisch, J.E.,
Chamberlin, H.M., Gupta, B.P., Miller, R.D., Baird, S.E., and Haag,
E.S.* (2011). Caenorhabditis briggsae recombinant inbred line genotypes
reveal inter-strain incompatibilities and the evolution of
recombination. PLoS Genetics
7: e1002174 PDF
Haag, E.S. and Lenski, R.E. (2011) L’enfant
terrible at 30: the maturation of evolutionary developmental
biology. Development
138: 2633-38. PDF
Beadell, A.V., Liu, Q., Johnson, D.M., and
Haag, E.S. (2011) Independent recruitments of a translational
regulator in the evolution of self-fertile nematodes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 108:
19672-27 PDF
Liu, Q., Stumpf, C., Thomas, C.G., Wickens, M., and Haag E.S. (2012) Context-dependent function of a conserved translational regulatory module. Development 139: 1509-21.PDF
Thomas, C.G., Woodruff, G.C., and Haag, E.S. (2012) Causes and consequences of the evolution of reproductive mode in Caenorhabditis nematodes. Trends in Genetics 28: 213-220.
Thomas, C.G., Li, R., Smith, H.E., Woodruff, G.C., Oliver, B., and Haag, E.S. (2012). Simplification and desexualization of gene expression in self-fertile nematodes. Current Biology 22: 2167-2172.
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