My first lab note!

A recent paper in Nature about the monarch butterfly used a similar approach to what we will be doing for the cabbage white butterfly. The researchers studying the monarch butterfly were able to identify genes involved in wing color pigmentation and migration, but even more interestingly they found that the ancestors of modern-day monarchs originated from North America, not South America as previously thought. From there, they spread out across the world. Similarly, we hope to learn where in Eurasia the cabbage white butterfly originated. We also want to find genes that help this butterfly adapt to different environments it inhabits, but instead of looking for genes involved in migration, we will be looking for genes involved in adaptation to differences in climate (for example by comparing butterflies that live in Siberia and Canada to those living in Florida and Hawaii). You can read an article about the monarch research here http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/how-one-gene-gives-monarch-butterflies-power-migrate-n215936

I want to let everyone know that we will be placing all the sequence data into an open access site. Thomas Keane (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute) is will to help with the bioinformatics needed to make the sequence data useful. This is tremendous step in the process, and we are hugely grateful. Please keep forwarding the email to your colleagues.

Upon completion of sequencing Thomas Keane at Sanger (UK) has promised to help with the bioinformatics, This is a huge task and we are extremely grateful. George Leikauf

Just finished up an epic prep session. Fredrik and Steve were in the lab till all hours of the night getting tanks and nest boxes clean and ready for the spring egg explosion!

This is what I had written as lab notes: Please critique. Nodding Disease research might provide much needed answers for affected children, their parents and care givers. We were goaded into this research by the lack of answers, the fact that the majority of affected children harbor a parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus, and the tantalizing similarity between a worm protein and a human brain protein. The association and molecular mimicry either hold a clue or are red herrings.

Can I show the sequence similarity between the worm protein and the human protein or actual data?

For anyone who might like more information on geophysics and its application to karst, here is the web address for slides from a talk that Tim gave on this subject at Karlsruhe in June, 2014. www.rascan.org/Geophysics.ppsx Thanks for looking!

For anyone who would like more information on geophysics, particularly the use of geophysics in karst, we are providing the URL for slides from a talk that Tim gave at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in June. If you have any trouble downloading, and would like to have it emailed to you, please contact Tim (tbechtel@fandm.edu). Here is the address: www.rascan.org/Geophysics in Karst Slide Show.ppsx Thanks for looking!