David Raible
Associate Professor of Biological Structure
Adjunct Associate Professor of Genome Sciences and of Biology

My lab is interested in how, during embryonic development, cells of the nervous system acquire their specific fates, so that they display the distinct characteristics necessary for their proper function. We have been examining how neural crest cells make cell fate choices in the zebrafish embryo, an emerging vertebrate developmental system with distinct advantages for cellular, molecular and genetic study. The neural crest generates the neurons and glia of the peripheral nervous system, as well as pigment cells and craniofacial cartilages. We are interested in how environmental factors such as wnts and BMPs are involved in specifying these cell fates. We have also performed a genetic screen to identify genes involved in the specification of particular lineages. We have identified mutations affecting the development of dorsal root ganglia, the enteric nervous system, jaw cartilages and pigment cells. Our overall goal is to determine how these genes regulate differentiation into specific cell types, identify upstream factors regulating their expression and the downstream effectors that confer specific cell characteristics.

Publications:

Dorsky, R.I., Moon, R.T. and Raible, D.W. (1998). Control of neural crest fate by the Wnt signalling pathway. Nature, 396: 370-373

Lister, J.A., Robertson, C.P., Lepage, T., Johnson, S.L. and Raible, D.W. (1999). nacre encodes a zebrafish microphthalmia-related protein that regulates neural crest-derived pigment cell fate. Development 126: 3757-3767.

Dorsky, R.I., Raible, D.W. and Moon, R.T. (2000). Direct regulation of nacre, a zebrafish MITF homologue required for pigment cell formation, by the Wnt pathway. Genes Devel. 14:158-162.

Lister, J.A., Close, J. and Raible, D.W. (2001). Duplicate mitf genes in zebrafish: complementary expression and conservation of melanogenic potential. Dev. Biol., 237: 333-344.

Andermann, P., Ungos, J. and Raible, D.W. (2002). Neurogenin1 defines zebrafish cranial sensory ganglia precursors. Dev. Biol., 251: 45-58.

Harris, J.A., Cheng, A.G., Cunningham, L.L., MacDonald, G., Raible, D.W. and Rubel, E.W. (2003). Neomycin-induced hair cell death in the lateral line of zebrafish (Danio rerio): a model system to study hair cell survival. JARO, 4: 219-234.

Elworthy, S., Lister, J.A., Carney, T.J., Raible, D.W. and Kelsh, R.N. (2003). Transcriptional regulation of mitfa accounts for the sox10 requirement in zebrafish melanophore development. Development, 130: 2809-2818.

Ungos, J.M., Karlstrom, R.O. and Raible, D.W. (2003). Hedgehog signaling is directly required for the development of zebrafish dorsal root ganglia neurons. Development, 130:5351-5362.

Shepherd, I.T. Pietsch, J., Elworthy, S., Kelsh, R.N. and Raible, D.W. (2004). Roles for GFRa1 receptors in zebrafish enteric nervous system development. Development, 131: 241-249.

Lewis, J.L., Bonner, J., Modrell, M., Ragland, J.W., Moon, R.T., Dorsky, R.I., and Raible, D.W. (2004). Reiterated Wnt signaling during zebrafish neural crest development. Development, 131:1299-308.

additional publication listings available via PubMed