CRISPR/Cas9

In the last decade, CRISPR/Cas9 has emerged as an essential tool for genome editing and we have worked hard to apply these methods to butterflies. We use CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to functionally validate candidate genes and study gene function by generating knock-outs. We are also working to expand the CRISPR methodology toolkit in butterflies and make them an even more tractable experimental system. In addition to CRISPR/Cas9, we utilize a variety of other methods to study functional genomics in butterflies, including comparative transcriptomics, ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq and RNAi.

Selected Publications

Westerman, E., N. VanKuren, D. Massardo, A. Tenger-Trolander, W. Zhang, R. I. Hill, M. Perry, E. Bayala, K. Barr, N. Chamberlain, T. E. Douglas, N. Buerkle, S. E. Palmer and M. R. Kronforst. 2018. Aristaless controls butterfly wing color variation used in mimicry and mate choice. Current Biology 28: 3469-3474.  ScienceDaily  Futurity  Phys.org

Mazo-Vargas, A., C. Concha, L. Livraghi, D. Massardo, R. W. R. Wallbank, L. Zhang, J. D. Papador, D. Martinez-Najera, C. D. Jiggins, M. R. Kronforst, C. J. Breuker, R. D. Reed, N. H. Patel, W. O. McMillan and A. Martin. 2017. Macro-evolutionary shifts of WntA function potentiate butterfly wing pattern diversity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 114: 10701−10706. Nature News & Views  Washington Post  NY Times  Science Magazine  The Atlantic

Li, X., D. Fan, W. Zhang, G. Liu, L. Zhang, L. Zhao, X. Fang, L. Chen, Y. Dong, Y. Chen, Y. Ding, R. Zhao, M. Feng, Y. Zhu, Y. Feng, X. Jiang, D. Zhu, H. Xiang, X. Feng, S. Li, J. Wang, G. Zhang, M. R. Kronforst and W. Wang. 2015. Outbred genome sequencing and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in butterflies.  Nature Communications 6: 8212.  IGTRCN