JONATHAN GRUBER

Home Department
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Thesis Advisor
Anthony D. Long - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Co-thesis Advisor
Brandon Gaut - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Email


In the genes of most eukaryotes, the information needed to produce functional products is contained in discrete regions (exons), with intervening sequence (introns) that must be removed (spliced) from the message encoded by the gene. It is also clear that many genes have multiple patterns of exon inclusion or exclusion (alternative splicing). Jonathon Gruber’s research focuses on searching for genetic variation that affects the splicing choices made in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. This requires 1) identification of alternative splice forms, largely through EST and cDNA database searches and alignments to genomic sequence, 2) quantitative measurement of the levels of different splicing events in different lines of flies, 3) characterization of genetic variation by sequencing genes whose splicing differs among lines, and 4) identification of cis-regulatory elements through association of sequence variation with the splicing phenotype. Knowing the extent to which variation in this trait exists and is heritable will aid in the understanding of the evolution of this ubiquitous phenomenon.

Publications

Vozarova, Barbora, Jose-Manuel Fernandez-Real, William C. Knowler, Lluis Gallart, Robert L. Hanson, Jonathan D. Gruber, Wilfredo Ricart, Joan Vendrell, Cristobal Richart, P. Antonio Tataranni and Johanna K. Wolford (2003). The interleukin-6 (-174) G/C promoter polymorphism is associated with type-2 diabetes mellitus in Native Americans and Caucasians. Human Genetics, 112: 409-413.

Wolford, Johanna K., Jonathan D. Gruber, Victoria M. Ossowski, Barbora Vozarova, P. Antonio Tataranni, Clifton Bogardus, and Robert L. Hanson (2003). A C-reactive protein promoter polymorphism is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Pima Indians. Molecular Genetics and Metabolism, 78(2):136-144.

Gruber, Jonathan D., Peter B. Colligan, and Johanna K. Wolford (2002). Estimation of single nucleotide polymorphism allele frequency in DNA pools by using Pyrosequencing. Human Genetics, 110(5):395-401.