| Post: | Senior Research Fellow |
| Location: | JMS Building 4C14 |
| Email: | J.P.Couso@sussex.ac.uk |
| Telephone numbers | |
| Internal: | 7448 |
| UK: | (01273) 877448 |
| International: | +44 1273 877448 |
Biography
Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
BSc., Ph.D. (Madrid)
Research
Our studies of proximal-distal (PD) development in the appendages of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster has led us to the discovery of a new class of non-canonical eukaryotic genes. This new class, defined by the tarsal-less gene, encodes only small Open Reading Frames of less than 50 aminoacids, sometimes in polycistronic RNA messengers. We are currently trying to A) understand the molecular mechanisms of tarsal-less function, and B) characterise new genes of this class, of which there may be hundreds.
In addition, we carry out research on the evolution of serially repeated structures (such as appendages and body segments) in insects and arthropods.
For more information see the Developmental Genetics Research Group .
Teaching
Genes and Development
Animal Diversity
Selected publications
2008
Ancestral Notch-mediated segmentation revealed in the cockroach Periplaneta Americana (with Jose Pueyo-Marques and Robert Lanfear) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America Volume 105 pp. 16641-16619
2007
Peptides encoded by short ORFs control development and define a new eukaryotic gene family (with Maximo Galindo-Orozco, Jose Pueyo-Marques and Sylvaine Fouix) in Public Library of Science (Biology) Volume 5 pp. 1052-1062
2005
Parallels between the proximal-distal development of vertebrate and arthropod appendages: homology without an ancestor? (with Jose Pueyo-Marques) in Current Opinion in Genetics and Development Volume 15 pp. 439-446
2004
Chip-mediated partnerships of the homeodomain proteins Bar and Aristaless with the LIM-HOM proteins Apterous and Lim1 regulate distal leg development (with Jose Pueyo-Marques) in Development Volume 131 pp. 3107-3120
2002
Leg patterning driven by Proximal-Distal interactions and EGFR signaling (with Maximo Galindo-Orozco, Sarah Bishop and Greig, S (internal author)) in Science Volume 297 pp. 256-259