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Postdoctoral Fellow, University
of Illinois, 1998
Ph.D. Entomology, University of Illinois, 1992
M.S. Entomology, Purdue University, 1987
B.S. Biology, St. Louis University, 1985
Research interests: I
am interested in all aspects of the biology of
a family of transposons known as mariners or mariner-like
elements. All organisms contain transposable elements
of various kinds. These are genes that occupy
no necessarily-fixed location in the genome as
do other genes. Instead, transposable elements
move around the genome and as a consequence are
able to make copies of themselves. In doing so,
they can do real harm to the host organism by
causing chromosomal breakage and gene inactivation
through insertion into those genes. Hence, there
is a balance that the transposon needs to make
between high activity (which would kill the host)
and no activity (which would mean elimination
of the transposon from the genome). In a very
real sense, these genes are the pinnacle of selfish
DNA.
Mariners are a very interesting family of transposable elements due to their widespread occurrence in animals. Many animal species, from hydra to humans, contain mariner-family elements of one kind or another. In addition to broad host range, mariners are extremely diverse. There are at least 13 different subfamilies of mariners that have been identified to date. Perhaps most interestingly, virtually identical mariner elements have been identified in very diverse species, suggesting that these genes jump from species to species over the course of their evolution. A corollary of this observation is the likelihood that these elements require no factors for transposition other than their self encoded transposases, a feature which makes them ideal candidates for development into generalized genetic tools and perhaps gene therapy agents.
The primary goal of my research is to understand how a particular mariner, the Himar1 element from the horn fly, Haematobia irritans, functions on the biochemical and genetic levels. To this end, I have reconstituted the transposition of this element in vitro and am actively investigating how the transposase protein encoded by Himar1 is able to perform all of the functions necessary to move its cognate gene from one DNA molecule to another. A fundamental understanding of how this occurs will allow me to better understand the evolution of these genes and to create efficient genetic tools from them for use in microorganisms, insects, and vertebrates.
Representative Publications:
1. Barry EG, Witherspoon DJ, and Lampe DJ. 2004. A bacterial genetic screen identifies functional coding sequences of the insect mariner transposable element Famar1 amplified from the genome of the earwig, Forficula auricularia . Genetics 166 : 823-833.
2. Lipkow K, Buisine N, Lampe DJ, and Chalmers, R. 2004. Early intermediates of mariner transposition: catalysis without synapsis of transposon ends suggests a novel architechture of the synaptic complex. Molecular and Cellular Biology 24 : 8301-8311.
3. Bextine B, Lauzon C, Potter S, Lampe D, and Miller TA. 2004. Delivery of a genetically marked Alcaligenes sp. to the glassy-winged sharpshooter for use in a paratransgenic control strategy. Current Microbiology 48 : 327-331.
4. Lampe DJ, Witherspoon DJ, Soto-Adames FN, Robertson HM. 2003. Recent horizontal transfer of mellifera subfamily mariner transposons into insect lineages representing four different orders shows that selection acts only during horizontal transfer. Molecular Biology and Evolution . 20 :554-62.
5. Akerley, B.J. and Lampe, D.J. 2002. The GAMBIT system for analysis of virulence and essential genes. Methods in Enzymology 358 : 100-8.
6. Lampe, D. J., K. K. O. Walden and H. M. Robertson 2001. Loss of transposase-DNA interaction may underlie the divergence of mariner-family transposable elements and the ability of more than one mariner to occupy the same genome. Molecular Biology and Evolution 18 : 954-961.
7. Hamer, L., Woessner, J., Montenegro-Chamorro, M.V., Adachi, K., Tarpey, R.W., Lampe, D.J., Slater, T., Ramamurthy, L., and Hamer, J.E. 2001. Gene discovery and gene function assignment in filamentous fungi. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 98 : 5110-5115.
8. Zhang, J.K., Pritchett, M.A., Lampe, D.J., Robertson, H.M., Metcalf, W.W. 2000. In vivo transposon mutagenesis of the methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina acetivorans C2A using a modified version of the insect mariner -family transposable element Himar1 . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
97 : 9665-9670.
9. Pelicic, V., Morelle, S., Lampe, D., Nassif, X. 2000. Mutagenesis of Neisseria meningitidis by In vitro transposition of Himar1 mariner . Journal of Bacteriology 182 : 5391-5398.
10.
Lampe, D. J., Akerley, B.J., Rubin, E. J., Mekalanos, J.J., and Robertson, H.M. 1999 Hyperactive mutants of Himar1 mariner transposase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , USA 96 :11428-11433.
My Personal Page
Office Phone: (412) 396-6322
Email: lampe@duq.edu |
