UW Genome Sciences

Research:

Research in Celeste's lab focuses on questions concerning patterning and shape -- how individual cells within a sheet become different from each other and how they then work together to create an organ. These processes are important for the normal development of an organism, and it is these processes that are modulated to create new forms. To investigate patterning and shape, we use the model system Drosophila melanogaster, which has outstanding genetic and genomic tools that allow temporal and spatial manipulation of gene activity within individual cells. Genome sequence data from related Drosophila species and several distant insects facilitate identification of evolutionarily important sequences, and this information is coupled to a vast literature on these species' adaptive morphological traits. Celeste has developed a culture system that allows live imaging of developmental events; this tool enables investigation of the mechanisms that execute development and that alter pattern and shape to create evolutionarily diverse forms. Understanding how pattern and shape create form is important because imperfections in these processes cause defects that affect an estimated 3% of live births. For more information on these processes, see the Berg Lab web page.

Selected Publications:

Berg, C., Sieber, M., and Sun, J. 2024. Finishing the egg. Genetics 226: iyad183. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyad183 PMCID: 10763546 

Sustar, A., Strand, L., Zimmerman, S., and Berg, C. 2023. Imaginal disk growth factors are Drosophila Chitinase-like Proteins with roles in morphogenesis and CO2 response. Genetics 223: iyac185. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyac185  PMCID: PMC9910413

O'Hanlon*, K. N., Dam*, R. A., Archambeault, S. L., and Berg, C. A. 2018. Two Drosophilids exhibit distinct EGF pathway patterns in oogenesis.  Development, Genes and Evolution 228: 31 – 48.  * co-first authors.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-017-0601-8  PMCID: PMC5805658 

Zimmerman, S. G., Merrihew, G. E., MacCoss, M. J., and Berg, C. A. 2017.  Proteomics analysis identifies orthologs of human chitinase-like proteins as inducers of tube morphogenesis defects in Drosophila melanogaster.  Genetics 206: 973–984. Highlighted Article.  https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.116.199323  PMCID: PMC5499198 

Osterfield, M., Berg, C. A., and Shvartsman, S. Y. 2017. Epithelial patterning, morphogenesis, and evolution: Drosophila eggshell as a model. Developmental Cell 41: 337 – 348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2017.02.018  PMCID: PMC5443119 

Peters, N. C., and Berg, C. A. 2016. In vitro culturing and live imaging of Drosophila egg chambers: A history and adaptable method. In Oogenesis; Ioannis P. Nezis, ed. Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.) 1457: 35-68. Cover.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3795-0_4 PMCID: PMC5244582. 

Zimmerman, S. G., Peters, N. C., Altaras, A. E., and Berg, C. A. 2013. Optimized RNA ISH, RNA FISH, and protein—RNA double labeling in Drosophila ovaries. Nature Protocols 8: 2158–2179. http://www.nature.com/nprot/journal/v8/n11/full/nprot.2013.136.html  PMCID: PMC4126239 

 

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