WernerLab
The Werner Lab
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Nature Fly

Current Research


Our lab is interested in the evolution of color patterns, metabolism, and mushroom toxin resistance in fruit flies of the genus Drosophila. We perform gene expression studies and use transgenic techniques to answer questions about the genetic mechanisms that underly these traits. All three of our projects show interesting links to human cancer biology. Our final goal is to use Drosophila as a model to better understand the molecular pathways that lead to diseases such as cancer.



Publications


Books

The Encyclopedia of North American Drosophilids Volume 1: Drosophilids of the Midwest and Northeast
The Encyclopedia of North American Drosophilids Volume 2: Drosophilids of the Southeast
Flea the Flyentist: What is an Invasive Species?

Mushroom Papers

The mechanisms underlying α-amanitin resistance in Drosophila melanogaster: A microarray analysis (2014)
Long-term resistance of Drosophila melanogaster to the mushroom toxin alpha-amanitin (2015)
α-amanitin resistance in Drosophila melanogaster: A genome-wide association approach (2017)
Drosophila, destroying angels, and deathcaps! Oh my! A review of mycotoxin tolerance in the genus Drosophila (2018)
Codon usage bias and dinucleotide preference in 29 Drosophila species (2021)

Pigmentation Papers

Generation of a Novel Wing Colour Pattern by the Wingless Morphogen (2010)
Gain of cis-regulatory activities underlies novel domains of wingless gene expression in Drosophila (2015)
The Making of Transgenic (2020)
The regulation of a pigmentation gene in the formation of complex color patterns in Drosophila abdomens (2020)
From simplicity to complexity: The gain or loss of spot rows underlies the morphological diversity of three Drosophila species (2020)
The modular expression patterns of three pigmentation genes prefigure unique abdominal morphologies seen among three Drosophila species (2020)
From Aedes to Zeugodacus: a review of dipteran body coloration studies regarding evolutionary developmental biology, pest control, and species discovery (2021)
Rna in situ hybridization for detecting gene expression patterns in the abdomens and wings of drosophila species (2021)

Collaboration Papers

Ratiometric Detection of Glutathione Based on Disulfide Linkage Rupture between a FRET Coumarin Donor and a Rhodamine Acceptor (2021)
A FRET‐based near‐infrared fluorescent probe for ratiometric detection of cysteine in mitochondria (2019)
A ratiometric near-infrared fluorescent probe based on a novel reactive cyanine platform for mitochondrial pH detection (2021)

Other Papers

The Drosophilids of a Pristine Old-Growth Northern Hardwood Forest (2018)

Contact


We are always looking for excited, meticulous, and interested students to join our team. If you are intersted in our lab and/or our work, please, do not hestiate to contat us

You can contact Dr. Werner at his email: twerner@mtu.edu. Our lab is located on the 5th floor of DOW, room 525

Interested in the science but not nessecarily working in a lab? Check out Dr. Werner's classes.