Research Interests

Short Description: evelopmental genetics; cell and molecular biology of C. elegans sperm morphogenesis.

Long Description: The amoeboid sperm of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is used for the genetic analysis of cellular differentiation. Mutants that affect only sperm differentiation are selected and are analyzed by genetic, molecular, electrophysiological and various cytological methods. We focus on mutants defective in cytoplasmic partitioning during asymmetric cellular division, and we also study mutants defective in fertilization. Among the cytoplasmic partitioning mutants are several affected in Golgi membrane traffic, and one is a member of the presenilin family of genes affected in early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Fertilization-defective mutants produce normal-appearing, motile sperm that do not enter the egg after gamete contact; no such mutants have been described in other organisms.

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