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John Postlethwait

Professor, Department of Biology
B.S., 1966, Purdue
Ph.D., 1970, Case Western Reserve

Research Interests

Genetic regulation of animal development including development of the nervous system, the mechanisms of sex determination, the origin of novel morphologies in evolution and the evolution of the vertebrate genome.

CV Email Lab Website

Stickleback at Oregon Books in Print Some Fun Runs

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Vertebrates possess a variety of characters that distinguish them from their non-vertebrate chordate ancestors, including neural crest and epidermal placodes. What is the evolutionary genetic origin of the new molecular genetic functions that mold these novel morphologies? It has been suggested that gene duplication facilitates the evolution of developmental innovations, and vertebrates possess multiple copies of genes probably present in single copies in their chordate ancestors. We have discovered a genome duplication in zebrafish lineage and have collected evidence that suggests that this duplication event may be shared by all teleost fishes. Additional large scale gene or genome duplications preceded the divergence of human and zebrafish lineages. We are investigating the possible roles of gene duplications in the origin of vertebrate innovations, working on the jawed fish zebrafish, the jawless fish lamprey, and a non-vertebrate chordate, the larvacean Oikopleura dioica. We aim to understand the developmental roles of genes related to those involved in making vertebrate developmental novelties by comparing their functions in the non-vertebrate chordate, zebrafish, and mammals.

Oikopleura has a characteristic chordate body plan, with a dorsal, hollow nerve cord, a notochord and pharyngeal gill slits. The fully grown adult has a head/trunk about 1 mm in length, and a posterior tail. Tissue on the head/trunk, termed the oikoplast, secretes a gelatinous 'house', which is an elaborate filter-feeding apparatus and provides buoyancy for this pelagic animal. At sexual maturity, the animal leaves the house and swims to the surface of the ocean, sheds eggs or sperm, and then dies. The life cycle is about 5 to 10 days, depending on temperature. (Photo courtesy of C. Cañestro.)

Trophic developmental ecomorphology for Kinder; learning fun with Oikopleura dioica and stickleback. Dr. Postlethwait with The Science Factory, Eugene OR, July 2007.

Complete list of publications 1969 to 2009

Journal Articles 2005-2009

• Jovelin, R, Yan, Y-L, He, X., Catchen, J, Amores, A, Canestro, C, Yokoi, H, Postlethwait, JH (2009) Evolution of developmental regulation in the vertebrate FgfD subfamily. JEZ Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution. Jun 26. [Epub ahead of print]
• Catchen, JM, Conery, JS, Postlethwait, JH (2009) Automated identification of conserved synteny after whole genome duplication, Genome Research, 19(8):1497-505.  PMC2720179
• Cañestro, C, Catchen, JM, Rodríguez-Marí, A, Yokoi, H, Postlethwait, JH (2009) Consequences of Lineage-specific Gene Loss on Functional Evolution of Surviving Paralogs: ALDH1A and Retinoic Acid Signaling in Vertebrate Genomes. PLoS Genet. 5(5):e1000496. PMC2682703.
• Titus, T., Yan, Y.-L., Wilson, C., Starks, A., Frohnmayer, J., Canestro, C., Rodriguez-Mari, A., He, X., Postlethwait, J.H. (2009) The Fanconi anemia/BRCA gene network in zebrafish: Embryonic expression and comparative genomics. Mutat Res. 668(1-2):117-32. PMC2714409
• Albertson, R.C., Cresko, W., Detrich, III, H.W., Postlethwait, J.H. (2009) Evolutionary Mutant Models for Human Disease. Trends in Genetics, 25(2):74-81. PMC Journal: pending
• Yokoi, H., Yan, Y.-L., Miller, M.R., BreMiller, RA., Catchen, J.M., Johnson. E., and Postlethwait, J.H. (2009) Expression profiling of zebrafish sox9 mutants reveals that Sox9 is required for retinal differentiation. Developmental Biology 329:1–15. PMC2706370.
• He, X., Eberhart, J.K., Postlethwait, J.H. (2009) MicroRNAs and micromanaging the skeleton in disease, development, and evolution. J Cell Mol Med. 13(4):606-18. PMC: pending.
• Nakamura, Y., He, X., Kobayashi, T., Yan, Y.-L., Postlethwait, J.H., Warman, M.L. (2008) Unique roles of microRNA140 and its host gene WWP2 in cartilage biology. J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact. 8(4):321-2. PMC: pending.
• Rotllant, J., Liu, D., Yan, Y.-L., Postlethwait, J. H., Westerfield, M., Du, S.-J. (2008) Sparc (Osteonectin) functions in morphogenesis of the pharyngeal skeleton and inner ear. Matrix Biology 27, 561-72. PMC2642737
• Cañestro, C., Bassham, S., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2008) Evolution of the thyroid: Anterior-posterior regionalization of the Oikopleura endostyle revealed by Otx, Pax2/5/8, and Hox1 expression. Developmental Dynamics 237(5):1490-9.

• Catchen, J. M., Conery, J. S., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2008) Inferring Ancestral Gene Order. In: Methods in Molecular Biology: Bioinformatics. Editor: Jonathan Keith. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey. Methods Mol Biol. 452:365-83.

• Eberhart, J. K., He, X., Swartz, M. E., Yan, Y.-L., Song, H., Boling, T. C., Kunerth, A. K., Walker, M. B., Kimmel, C. B., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2008) MicroRNA Mirn140 modulates Pdgf signaling during palatogenesis. Nature Genetics, 40 (3): 290-98.

• Cañestro, C., Yokoi, H., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2007) Evolutionary developmental biology and genomics. Nature Reviews Genetics, 12, 932-42.

• Lewis, Z. R., McClellan, M. C., Postlethwait, J. H., Cresko, W., Kaplan, R. (2007) Female-specific increase in primordial germ cells marks sex differentiation in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). J. Morphol. 269(8):909-21.

• Jovelin, R., He, X., Amores, A., Yan, Y.-L., Shi, R., Qin, B., Roe, B., Cresko, W. A., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2007) Duplication and divergence of fgf8 functions in teleost development and evolution. J. Exper. Zoolog. B Mol. Dev. Evol. 308B, 730-43.

• Miller, M. R., Eames. B. F., Eberhart, J. K., Yan, Y.-L., Postlethwait, J. H. and Johnson, E. A. (2007) RAD marker microarrays enable rapid mapping of zebrafish mutations. Gen. Biol. 8, R105.

• Canestro C, Postlethwait JH. (2007) Development of a chordate anterior-posterior axis without classical retinoic acid signaling. Dev Biol. 305 (2): 522-538

• Sakata SI, Yan Y, Satou Y, Momoi A, Ngo-Hazelett P, Nozaki M, Furutani-Seiki M, Postlethwait JH, Yonehara S, Sakamaki K. (2007) Conserved function of caspase-8 in apoptosis during bony fish evolution. Gene, 396 (1): 134-148

• Sullivan C, Postlethwait JH, Lage CR, Millard PJ, Kim CH. (2007) Evidence for evolving Toll-IL-1 receptor-containing adaptor molecule function in vertebrates. J Immunol. 178 (7): 4517-27. 

• Cresko WA, McGuigan KL, Phillips PC, Postlethwait JH.(2007) Studies of threespine stickleback developmental evolution: progress and promise. Genetica, 29(1): 105-26,

• Postlethwait JH. (2006) The zebrafish genome in context: ohnologs gone missing. J Exp Zoolog B Mol Dev Evol. 306B, Oct. 2006

• Cañestro C , Postlethwait, J.H., Gonzalez-Duarte, R., Albalat, R., (2006). Is Retinioc Acid Genetic Machinery a Chordate Innovation? Evolution & Development, v.8 (5): 394-406, Sept/Oct 2006

• Nolte C, Rastegar M, Amores A, Bouchard M, Grote D, Maas R, Kovacs EN, Postlethwait J, Rambaldi I, Rowan S, Yan YL, Zhang F, Featherstone M. (2006) Stereospecificity and PAX6 function direct Hoxd4 neural enhancer activity along the antero-posterior axis. Dev Biol., 299 (2): 582 -93.

• Postlethwait, J.H. (2006) The Zebrafish genome: A review and case study of msx genes.  Genome Dynamics, 2, pp 183-197

• Phillips, R. B., Amores, A., Morasch, M. R., Wilson, C., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2006) Assignment of zebrafish genetic linkage groups to chromosomes. Cyto Genome Res., 114 (2): 155-62

• Bromee T., Benkatesh, B., Brenner, S., Postlethwait, J.H., Yan, Y.-L., and Larhammar, D. (2006) Uneven evolutionary rates of bradykinin B1 and B2 receptors in vertebrate lineages. Gene, 373: 100-08

• Leveille, F., Ferrer, M.,Medhurst, A.L., Laghmani, E.H., Rooimans, M.A., Bier, P., Steltenpool, J., Titus, T.A., Postlethwait, J.H., Hoatlin, M.E., Joenje, H., and de Winter, J.P. (2006) The nuclear accumulation of the Fanconi anemia protein FANCE depends on FANCC. DNA Repair. 5 (5):556-65

• Titus, T.A., Selvig, D.R., Quin, B., Wilson, I., Starks. A., Roe, B.A. and J.H. Postlethwait (2006) The fanconi anemia gene network is conserved from zebrafish to human. Gene, 371 (2):211-23

• Tallafuss, A., Hale, L. A., Yan, Y. L., Dudley, L., Eisen, J. S., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2006) Characterization of retinoid-X receptor genes rxra, rxrba, rcrbb and rxrg during zebrafish development. Gene Expr Patterns. Gene Expr Patterns

• Hale, L. A., Tallafuss, A., Yan, Y. L., Dudley, L., Eisen, J. S., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2006) Characterization of the retinoic acid receptor genes raraa, rarab and rarg during zebrafish development. Gene Expr Patterns. Gene Expr Patterns, 6(5):546-55

• Bassham, S. and Postlethwait, J. (2005) The evolutionary history of placodes: a molecular genetic investigation of the larvacean urochordate Oikopleura dioica . Development 132:4259-72

• Woods, I.G., Wilson, C., Friedlander, B., Chang, P., Reyes, D.K., Nix, R., Kelly, R.D., Chu, F., Postlethwait, J.H., and Talbot, W.S. (2005) The zebrafish gene map defines ancestral vertebrate chromosomes. Genome Research, 15:1307-1314

• Canestro, C., Bassham, S., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2005) Development of the central nervous system in the larvacean Oikopleura dioica and the evolution of the chordate brain. Devel. Biol. 285:298-315

• Kuo, M-W., Lou, S-W. Postlethwait, J.H., and Chung, B-C. (2005) Chromosomal organization, evolutionary relationship, and expression of zebrafish GnRH family members. J. Biomed. Sci. 389:19-26

• Albertson, R.C., Payne-Ferreira, T.L., Postlethwait, J., and P.C. Yelick (2005) Zebrafish acvr2a and acvr2b exhibit distinct roles in craniofacial development. Dev. Dyn. 233:1405-18

• Kimmel, C., Ullmann, B., Walker, C., Wilson, C., Currey, M., Phillips, P., Bell, M. A., Postlethwait, J. H., and Cresko, W. (2005) Evolution and Development of Facial Bone Morphology in Threespine Stickleback. PNAS, 102(16):5791-6

• Lagerstrom, M., Fredriksson, R., Bjarnadottier, T., Fridmanis, D., Homquist, T., Andersson, J., Yan, Y., Raudsepp, T., Zoorob, R., Kukkonen, J. P., Lundib, L., Klovins, J., Chowdhary, B., and Postlethwait, J. (2005) Origin of the proclactin-releasing hormone (PRLH) receptors: Evidence of coevolution between PRLH and a redundant neuropeptide Y receptor during vertebrate evolution. Genomics, 85(6):688-703

• Tanaka, M., Hale, L., Amores, A., Yan, Y., Cresko, W., Suzuki, T., and Postlethwait, J. (2005) Developmental genetic basis for the evolution of pelvic fin loss in the pufferfish Takifugu rubripes. Dev Biol. 281(2):227-39

• Rodriguez-Mari, A., Yan, Y., BreMiller, R., Wilson, C., Canestro, C., and Postlethwait, J. (2005) Characterization and expression pattern of Zebrafish anti-Mullerian hormone (amh) relative to sox9a, sox9b, and cyp19a during gonad development. Gene ExprPatterns, 5:655-667

• Yan, Y. L., Willoughby, J., Liu, D., Crump, J. G., Wilson, C., Miller, C. T., Singer, A., Kimmel, C., Westerfield, M., and Postlethwait, J. H. (2005) A pair of Sox: distinct and overlapping functions of Zebrafish sox9 co-orthologs in craniofacial and pectoral fin development. Development 132(5):1069-83.

• Kuo, M., Postlethwait, J., Lee, W., Lour, S., Chan, W., and Chung, B. (2005) Gene duplication gene loss and evolution of expression domains in the vertebrate nuclear receptor NR5A (Ftz-F1) family. Biochem J. 389:19-26

• Gloriam, D., Bjarnadottier, T., Yan, Y., Postlethwait, J., Schioth, H. B., and Fredriksson, R. (2005) The repertoire of trace amine G-protein coupled receptors: Large expansion in Zebrafish. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 35(2):470-82

Books in Print

• Postlethwait, J., and Hopson, J. (2006) Modern Biology. Bolt, Rinehart and Winston, Orlando. (A biology textbook for High Schools)
• Postlethwait, J. and Hopson, J. (2005) Life! RCS Libri S.p.A-Milano. (Italian High School biology text).
• Postlethwait, J., and Hopson, J. (2003) Explore Life. Brooks/Cole Thompson Learning.
• Postlethwait, J. and Hopson, J. (2000) Corso di Biologia, McGraw-Hill editore, 2000 (In Italian).
• Postlethwait, J. and Hopson, J. (1997) Corso di Biologia, McGraw-Hill Italia srl, piazza Emilia, 5, 20129 Milano.  (Italian High School biology text)
• Postlethwait, J., Hopson, J., and Veres, R. (1993) Sciencza Della Vita, McGraw-Hill Italia srl, piazza Emilia, 5, 20129 Milano.  (Italian High School biology text)
• Postlethwait, J., and Hopson, J. (1992, 1995) The Nature of Life. McGraw Hill, New York.
• Postlethwait, J., Hopson, J., and Veres, R. (1992) Biologia, Per Le Scuole Medie Superiori, McGraw-Hill Italia srl, piazza Emilia, 5, 20129 Milano.  (Italian High School biology text).
• Postlethwait, J., Hopson, J., and Veres, R. (1991) Biology! Bringing Science to Life. McGraw-Hill, New York.

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