Lab for Evo Devo

 

 

 

 

NRCGD

 

Genetics Otago

Marsden Fund

Betta Bees

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evolution and Development

We study how the developmental processes that make an animal from an embryo change over evolutionary time to give different forms of animal. The laboratory studies five aspects of this; Evolution of the molecular control of segmentation in insects, the developmental genetics of polyphenisms in the Honeybee (Apis mellifera), the evolution of insect axis formation, the molecular control of development in a Rotifer (Brachionus plicatilis), and the molecular basis of life history tradeoffs.

On this website you can find information about people in the lab (both past and present members), projects in the lab, view publications and posters from the lab, browse protocols used in the lab, look for jobs and studentships and contact us. Just press the buttons in the side bar.

The Laboratory for Development and Evolution is a member of the National Research Centre for Growth and Development, Genetics Otago and the Biochemistry Department, University of Otago.

Click here to hear Rosannah and Peter talk about their research into Caste Development in bees.

Where are we?

The Laboratory for Evolution and Development is sited in the Biochemistry Department, Otago School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Dunedin is a city in the south of New Zealand known for its wildlife, weather and University.

Contact Details

You can contact us in the following ways:

By email at peter.dearden@otago.ac.nz

By phone by dialing +64 03 479 7832

Or by post at:

The Laboratory for Evolution and Development, Biochemistry Department, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.

 

Recent Papers

Wilson, M.J., Abbott, H. and Dearden, P.K. The evolution of oocyte patterning in insects: Multiple cell-signaling pathways are active during honeybee oogenesis and are likely to play a role in axis patterning (2011). Evolution and Development. In Press.

Wilson, M.J., McKelvey, B.H., van der Heide, S. and Dearden P.K. Notch signaling does not regulate segmentation in the honeybee, Apis mellifera (2010) Development, Genes and Evolution 220, 7-8, 179-19.

E.J. Duncan and P.K. Dearden (2010) Evolution of a genomic regulatory domain: The role of gene co-option and gene duplication in the Enhancer of Split Complex. Genome Research. 20, 7, 917-928.