Bruce Draper
Assistant Professor
bwdraper@ucdavis.edu
Molecular & Cellular Biology
Office
Life Science 3129
(530) 752-0833
Degrees:
1995
PhD
University of Washington
Zoology
1988
BA
University of California, San Diego
Biochemistry and Cellular Biology
Research Interests:
Germline stem cells
We study mechanisms that regulate the development and function of germline stem cell in zebrafish, with a main focus on female germline stem cells. We study factors that function within the stem cells, as well as those that are required for the development of the somatic gonad, the germ cell niche.
Sex determination and maitenance of the adult sexual phenotype
While zebrafish do not switch sex as adults, our lab has recently discovered that maintenance of the adult female sexual phenotype is an active process that requires continuous input from germ cells, as reduction of germ cell numbers in an adult female results in female-to-male sex reversal. Our current research is focused on determining what signal is produced by the germ cells and how it influences the developmental state of the somatic gonad.
Awards:
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Fellowship (1997-2000)
Department and Center Affiliations:
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Professional Societies:
Society for Developmental Biology
American Association for the Advancement of Science
CBS Graduate Group Affiliations:
Genetics
Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Specialties / Focus:
Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Development
Reproductive Biology
Genetics
Publications:
Last updated 1/28/2013
Dranow, D.B., Tucker, R.P. and Draper, B.W. Germ cells are required to maintain a stable sexual phenotype in adult zebrafish. Dev. Biol. (in press).
Beer, RL and Draper, B.W. (2013) nanos3 maintains germline stem cells and expression of the conserved germline stem cell gene nanos2 in the zebrafish ovary. Dev. Biol.374, 308-318.
Huang, H.Y., Houwing, S., Kaaij, L.J., Meppelink, A., Redl, S., Gauci, S., Vos, H., Draper, B.W., Moens, C.B., Burgering, B.M., Ladurner, P., Krijgsveld, J., Berezikov, E., and Ketting, R.F. (2011) Tdrd1 acts as a molecular scaffold for Piwi proteins and piRNA targets in zebrafish. EMBO J. 30(16): 3298-308.
Wong, A.C., Draper, B.W., and Van Eenennaam, A.L. (2011) FLPe functions in zebrafish embryos. Transgenic. Res. 20(2): 409-415.
Leu, D.H. and Draper, B.W. (2010) The ziwi promoter drives germline-specific expression in zebrafish. Dev. Dyn. 239, 2714-2721.
Houwing, S., Kamminga, L. M., Berezikov, E., Cronembold, D. Girard, A., van der Elst, H., Filippov, D. V., Blaser, H., Raz, E., Moens, C. B., Plasterk, R. H., Hannon, G. J., Draper, B. W., Ketting, R. F. (2007) A role for Piwi and piRNAs in germ cell maintenance and transposon silencing in zebrafish. Cell (in press).
Draper, B. W., McCallum, C. M. and Moens, C. B. (2007) nanos1 is required to maintain oocyte production in adult zebrafish. Dev. Bio. (in press).
Draper, B.W., McCallum, C.M., Stout, J.L., Slade, A.J. and Moens, C.B. (2004) A High-Throughput method for identifying ENU-induced point mutations in zebrafish. Method Cell Biol. 77, 91-112.
Draper, B.W., Stock, D. W. and Kimmel, C.B. (2003). Zebrafish fgf24 functions with fgf8 to promote posterior mesoderm development and is required for pectoral fin formation. Development 130, 4639-4654.
Teaching Interests:
Developmental Biology, Genetics, Genomics
Courses:
BIS
101
Genetics
MCB
251
Molecular Mechanisms in Early Development