Posner, Mason

We are interested in the role that crystallin proteins play in the development of the eye lens and maintenance of transparency. Our current projects involve using the cloche mutant to test the ability of overexpressed proteins to prevent lens cataract, analyzing the function of lens crystallin promoters, and producing targeted gene knockouts of several lens crystallins. We also use a comparative approach to investigate the evolution and thermal adaptation of alpha A-crystallin and the evolution of tissue specific expression.