Keen Alan Wilson
keeawils@indiana.edu

Indiana University
Dept. of Biology
150 Myers Hall
Indiana University
915 East Third Street
Bloomington, IN 47405 USA

Advisors:
Dr. Rudolf Raff, Evolution, Ecology, & Behavior, IU
Dr. Thomas Kaufman, Program in  Genetics

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Research Interests

In the Raff lab, we study two congeneric species of sea urchin which exhibit radically different modes of development, Heliocidaris erythrogramma and Heliocidaris tuberculata. Heliocidaris

tuberculata progresses through the classical indirect development of the sea urchin, forming a pluteus larva which will feed in the water column before metamorphosing into a juvenile urchin 4-6 weeks post fertilization. Heliocidaris erythrogramma exhibits direct development, passing through a brief larval stage without the formation of a feeding pluteus before metamorphosing into a juvenile urchin 4 days post fertilization.

The oral ectoderm, important in many larval features including juvenile formation, is a tissue present in indirect developing urchins and H.e.XH.t hybrid embryos, but strikingly absent from H. erythrogramma larvae. The focus of my current research lies in the isolation and characterization of several transcription factors known to localize within the oral ectoderm of indirect developing urchins from H. erythrogramma, H. tuberculata and hybrid embryos. Several of these factors have been isolated and fully sequenced, and an optimal non-radioactive in-situ hybridization protocol for H. tuberculata has been established for their localization. Additionally, the production of dominant negative versions of two of these transcription factors is complete and morpholino oligos have been produced to two, allowing for the realization of a successful round of knockout injections in Sydney, Australia in January 2001 and 2002. Misexpression assays were begun in the 1999-2000 season and successfully continued in January of 2001 as well as 2002. Combining localization as well as functional data on these factors from our system will provide insight not only into the formation of the oral ectoderm territory, but also into the evolution of direct development within Heliocidaris erythrogramma and the restoration of indirect developing characteristics in hybrid embryos.

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Publications

• Nielsen MG, Wilson KA, Raff EC, Raff RA. Novel gene expression patterns in hybrid embryos between species with different modes of development. Evol Dev. 2000 May-Jun;2(3):133-44.