Sex, ribosomes and DNA methylation during vertebrate germline development

Host: Dr Hardip Patel

Abstract

The germline represents the conveyor of biological information between generations. Our laboratory has been examining to what extent epigenetic memory in the form of DNA methylation is transmitted between generations in vertebrates. In doing so, we have also uncovered much new information about alternative ribosome usage in the zebrafish germline, and how it directly influences fundamental biological processes such as sex determination.

Biography

Dr Tim Hore is an Associate Professor and research group leader at the University of Otago in New Zealand. His research team is interested in long-held developmental puzzles that have an epigenetic basis – such as how do cells remember their identity and what can be done to erase it (Hore et al., 2016; Ravichandran et al., 2022)? How does sex impact on DNA and longevity (Sugrue et al., 2021)? And what molecular information is passed on to children by mothers and fathers, other than DNA sequence, and how did this evolve (Ortega et al., 2019; Bond et al., 2023 unpublished)? Underpinning this work is the development of an open-source molecular biology platform for nucleic acid purification and handling using magnetic beads (Oberacker et al., 2019; https://bomb.bio)