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Photo of Lynch, Jeremy

Jeremy Lynch, PhD

Associate Professor

Biological Sciences

Contact

Building & Room:

4020 MBRB

Address:

900 S. Ashland Ave.

Office Phone:

(312) 996-5460

Email:

jlynch42@uic.edu

CV Link:

Jeremy Lynch, PhD

About

Lab office: 4018 MBRB

I am generally interested in the molecular and cellular mechanisms of the emergence of pattern and form during animal development, and in particular how these mechanisms change in the course of evolution.  My work focuses on these processes in insects, from embryos to adults.  The insects are an ideal model clade with which to approach these questions, due to their species richness, developmental diversity, and the ability to test gene function in a number of species representing a broad phylogenetic range.

Currently, four major topics are being pursued in the lab:  1) The evolution of mechanisms for establishing and patterning the dorsal-ventral (DV) axis of insect embryos, 2) The evolution of germline establishment and function in insects, primarily focusing on holometabolous insects, 3) Mechanisms of insect sex determination and 4) the evolution and development of adult form using a natural evolutionary experiment. In all three cases the wasp Nasonia vitripennis is the main model employed to gain insights into the evolution of the respective processes. This species has the advantages that it is easily kept in the lab, has a fully sequenced genome, and is amenable to both parental RNAi and germline transformation to test gene function. I also use the powerful beetle model Tribolium castaneum and am developing an additional model, the bean beetle Callosobruchus.

A long term goal of the lab is to more fully integrate the evolutionary developmental results with an understanding of the ecological and phylogenetic conditions under which these features arose.

Selected Publications

 

(Complete list of publications on Google Scholar)

  1. Arsala D, Wu X, Yi SV, Lynch JA. Dnmt1a is essential for gene body methylation and the regulation of the zygotic genome in a wasp. PLoS genetics. 2022 May 6;18(5):
  2. Pers D, Buchta T, Özüak O, Wolff S, Pietsch JM, Memon MB, Roth S, Lynch JA. Global analysis of dorsoventral patterning in the wasp Nasonia reveals extensive incorporation of novelty in a regulatory network. BMC biology. 2016 Dec;14(1):63.
  3. Lynch JA, Ozuak O, Khila A, Abouheif E, Desplan C, Roth S. (2011) The Phylogenetic Origin of oskar Coincided with the Origin of Maternally Provisioned Germ Plasm and Pole Cells at the Base of the Holometabola. PLoS Genetics 7(4): e1002029. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002029.
  4. Lynch JA, Roth S. (2011) The Evolution of Dorsal-ventral Patterning Mechanisms in Insects. Genes & Development 25: 107-118. doi:10.1101/gad.2010711.
  5. Lynch JA, Desplan C. (2010) Novel modes of localization and function of nanos in the wasp Nasonia. Development  Oct 7. [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1242/dev.054213.
  6. Lynch JA , Peel AD, Drechsler A, Averof M, Roth S. (2010) EGF Signaling and the Origin of Axial Polarity among the Insects. Current Biology Jun 8: 20(11):1042-7. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.04.023.
  7. Nasonia Genome Working Group, Werren JH, Richards S, Desjardins CA, Niehuis O, Gadau J, Colbourne JK, Beukeboom LW, Desplan C, Elsik CG, Grimmelikhuijzen CJ, Kitts P, Lynch JA, et al. (2010) Functional and evolutionary insights from the genomes of three parasitoid Nasonia species. Science. Jan 15;327(5963):343-8.
  8. Roth S, Lynch JA. (2009) Symmetry breaking during Drosophila oogenesis. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology. Aug;1(2): a001891.
  9. Lynch JA and Desplan C. (2006) A method for parental RNA interference in the wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Nature Protocols 1, 486 – 494. doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.70.
  10. Lynch JA, Brent AE, Leaf DS, Pultz MA, Desplan C. (2006) Localized maternal orthodenticle patterns anterior and posterior in the long germ wasp Nasonia. Nature. Feb 9;439(7077):728-32. doi:10.1038/nature04445.
  11. Arsala D, Wu X, Yi SV, Lynch JA. Dnmt1a is essential for gene body methylation and the regulation of the zygotic genome in a wasp. PLoS genetics. 2022 May 6;18(5):e1010181.
  12. Kemph A, Lynch JA. Evolution of germ plasm assembly and function among the insects. Current Opinion in Insect Science. 2022 Feb 2:100883.
  13. Cohen LB, Jewell R, Moody D, Arsala D, Werren JH, Lynch JA. Genetic, morphometric, and molecular analyses of interspecies differences in head shape and hybrid developmental defects in the wasp genus Nasonia. G3. 2021 Dec;11(12):jkab313.
  14. Pers D, Lynch JA. Ankyrin domain encoding genes from an ancient horizontal transfer are functionally integrated into Nasonia developmental gene regulatory networks. Genome biology. 2018 Dec;19(1):1-20.

Education

PhD, New York University

BS, Ohio State University