Dr. Donald G. Moerman

Director of the Biotechnology Laboratory's Reverse Genetics Core Facility, research in Dr. Moerman's laboratory focuses on muscle development and specifically on the problem of muscle sarcomere assembly. A popular model organism to study muscle is the small free-living soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. There are several advantages in using the nematode, but the paramount one is that a rich variety of mutants with defects specific to muscle are available.

Lundquist EA,Herman RK,Rogalski TM,Mullen GP,Moerman DG,Shaw JE. The mec-8 gene of C. elegans encodes a protein with two RNA recognition motifs and regulates alternative splicing of unc-52 transcripts. Development 122(5):1601-10. (1996).

Moerman DG,Hutter H,Mullen GP,Schnabel R. Cell autonomous expression of perlecan and plasticity of cell shape in embryonic muscle of Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol 173(1):228-42. (1996).

Rogalski TM,Gilchrist EJ,Mullen GP,Moerman DG. Mutations in the unc-52 gene responsible for body wall muscle defects in adult Caenorhabditis elegans are located in alternatively spliced exons. Genetics 139(1):159-69. (1995).

Rogalski TM,Williams BD,Mullen GP,Moerman DG. Products of the unc-52 gene in Caenorhabditis elegans are homologous to the core protein of the mammalian basement membrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan. Genes Dev 7(8):1471-84. (1993).

Gilchrist EJ,Moerman DG. Mutations in the sup-38 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans suppress muscle-attachment defects in unc-52 mutants. Genetics 132(2):431-42. (1992).