Research Interests

Research in my lab focuses on understanding how vertebrate embryos are properly patterned along the primary body axis, from head to tail. We make use of a tractable teleost model system, the zebrafish (Danio rerio), as a starting point for our studies, but also use other model or non-model vertebrates where called for. We are pursuing three major areas of research:

(1) Investigation of the consequences of gene duplication events during vertebrate evolution.

(2) Investigation of hindbrain patterning mechanisms.

(3) Investigation of endoderm regionalization, with particular emphasis on the pancreas.

A long term interest of my lab is the function and evolution of vertebrate Hox genes. The Hox genes are an evolutionarily conserved family of transcription factors implicated in conferring identity to specific regions of the anteroposterior (AP) axis of all bilaterian embryos. Hox gene evolution has been characterized by gene duplication events and teleost vertebrates have more Hox clusters than tetrapods as the result of a whole genome duplication event in their lineage (Hurley et al., 2007a). As duplication events are believed to have been important in providing new genetic material for evolution to act upon, we are using the zebrafish and other teleosts to examine the fates of duplicated genes (e.g. Prince and Pickett, 2002; Hurley et al. 2007b).

A subset of Hox genes are expressed in the anterior of the embryo. We are investigating both functions and regulation of Hox genes to determine how they pattern the hindbrain and pharyngeal region, and how these patterning mechanisms have evolved. (McClintock et al. 2002; Rohrschneider et al. 2007). A major ongoing project seeks to understand how downstream target genes that are regulated by Hoxb1a during hindbrain regionalization control facial neuron migration.

Our third major area of interest is regionalization of the endoderm germ layer. Unlike neural tissue or mesoderm little is currently known about how this germ layer becomes patterned to form the digestive tract and associated organs such as liver and pancreas. We have shown that retinoic acid (RA) plays a critical role in specification of the pancreas in both zebrafish (Stafford and Prince, 2006) and tetrapod models. Ongoing work focuses on establishing how RA specifies pancreas cells, exploring the roles of other signaling pathways in pancreas specification and endoderm regionalization, and exploring potential roles for Hox genes in these processes.

For more information on the Prince lab go to http://princelab.bsd.uchicago.edu.
For more information on Evolution and Development at The University of Chicago go to http://ucevodevo.uchicago.edu.

Selected Publications

Reviews:
Prince VE and Pickett FB. 2002. Splitting pairs: Diverging fates of duplicated genes. Invited review, Nature Reviews Genetics 3, 827-837. (PubMed)

Hurley I, Hale, M.and Prince VE. 2005. Duplication events and the evolution of segmental identity. Invited review for Evolution and Development 7, 556-567. (PubMed)

Articles:
McClintock J, Carlson R, Mann D and Prince VE. 2001. Consequences of Hox gene duplication in the vertebrates: An investigation of the zebrafish hox paralogue group 1 genes. Development 128, 2471-2484. (PubMed)

McClintock J, Kheirbek M and Prince VE. 2002. Knock-down of duplicated zebrafish hoxb1 genes reveals distinct roles in hindbrain patterning and a novel mechanism of duplicate gene retention. Development 129, 2339-2354. (PubMed)

Stafford D and Prince VE. 2002. Retinoic acid signaling is required for a critical early step in zebrafish pancreatic development. Current Biology 12, 1215-1220. (PubMed)

McClintock JM, Jozefowicz C, Assimacopoulos S, Louvi A, Grove EA, and Prince VE. 2003. Conserved expression of vertebrate Hoxa1 genes in neurons at the ventral forebrain/midbrain boundary of vertebrates. Development, Genes and Evolution 213, 399-406. (PubMed)

Hale M, Kheirbek M, Schriefer JE, and Prince VE. 2004. The function of Mauthner cell duplicates in startle behavior: Insights into the evolution of new neural circuits. J. Neurosci. 24, 3070-3076. (PubMed)

Stafford D, White R, Kinkel, M, Linville A Schilling TF and Prince VE. 2006. Retinoids signal directly to zebrafish endoderm to specify insulin-expressing beta-cells. Development 133, 949-956. (PubMed)

Hurley IA, Mueller RL, Dunn, KA, Schmidt EJ, Friedman M, Ho RK, Prince VE, Yang Z, Thomas MG and Coates MI. 2007. A New Time-scale for Ray-Finned Fish Evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274, 489-498. (PubMed)

Hurley, IA, Scemama, J-L and Prince, VE. 2007. Consequences of hoxb1 duplication in teleost fish. Evol Dev. 2007 9, 540-54. (PubMed) (pdf)

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