Person
Minguillón, Carolina
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Biography and Research Interest
Description
How the final form of a given embryo, tissue or organ is acquired during embryonic development, a process referred to as morphogenesis, is a key question for developmental biologists. Morphogenesis is driven by distinct combinations of gene expression that lead to changes in a range of cellular properties such as cell motility, cell adhesion and cell polarity, among others.
Research in our lab aims to shed some light into specific aspects of profound morphogenetic changes that occur during vertebrate embryonic development. Briefly, we aim to characterise the morphogenetic events that are required for proper development of the vertebrate heart and limbs. We expect that the development of these two tissues will tell us about morphogenetic processes involving cell migration, cell-cell communication, cell adhesion and later cell differentiation.
The animal model we use is zebrafish due to their ease of embryo accessibility, relatively low cost, and the great advantage of looking at the expression of a fluorescent reporter gene in the transparent, ex utero developing living embryo. Moreover, the long-standing use of this system as an experimental model is marked by the constant development of new techniques such as morpholino knock-down or transgenesis.
Objectives
The two main research objectives of the lab are as follows:
1. analysis of the morphogenetic processes that the embryonic heart and limbs undergo under normal developmental conditions
We aim to follow in vivo the precursor cells that will give rise to the heart and limbs during development using transgenic lines that express a fluorescent reporter in these tissues using live-embryo time-lapse analyses. We generate these reporter transgenic lines in the lab, by combining in silico identification of candidate regulatory regions of genes that are expressed in our favourite tissues linked to in vivo testing of these candidate regions using zebrafish as a model system.
2. alterations of the morphogenetic processes that the embryonic heart and limbs undergo under certain mutant conditions: a candidate approach
We aim to analyse in detail how and at which level the morphogenetic processes that the embryonic heart and limbs undergo are disrupted when certain zebrafish genes, that we have described and isolated through various approaches in the lab, are mutated. Again, the animal model we use is zebrafish due the constant development of new techniques such as morpholino knock-down or transgenesis.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY:
UNIVERSITY DEGREE:
September, 1998 – July, 2002
B.Sc. in Biology
Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona
PhD DEGREE:
January, 1998 – July, 2002
Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona
UB PhD Fellowship awarded
Generalitat de Catalunya PhD Fellowship awarded
“Evo-Devo at the origin of vertebrates: insights from amphioxus extended-Hox genes and somitogenesis”
European mention PhD awarded
Supervisor: Dr. Jordi Garcia-Fernàndez
POST DOCTORAL RESEARCH:
September, 2002 – October 2007
Division of Developmental Biology. MRC-National Institute for Medical Research
EMBO Long-Term Fellowship awarded
MRC Career Development Fellowish awarded
“Investigating the signals required for limb-type specification and the adquisition of limbs during evolution”
Supervisor: Dr. Malcolm Logan
PI RESEARCH:
November, 2007 – current
CSIC-Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona. Department of Developmental Biology
Ramón y Cajal Investigator
“Comparative genomics of the Tbx clusters: a multi-disciplinary functional approach”
How the final form of a given embryo, tissue or organ is acquired during embryonic development, a process referred to as morphogenesis, is a key question for developmental biologists. Morphogenesis is driven by distinct combinations of gene expression that lead to changes in a range of cellular properties such as cell motility, cell adhesion and cell polarity, among others.
Research in our lab aims to shed some light into specific aspects of profound morphogenetic changes that occur during vertebrate embryonic development. Briefly, we aim to characterise the morphogenetic events that are required for proper development of the vertebrate heart and limbs. We expect that the development of these two tissues will tell us about morphogenetic processes involving cell migration, cell-cell communication, cell adhesion and later cell differentiation.
The animal model we use is zebrafish due to their ease of embryo accessibility, relatively low cost, and the great advantage of looking at the expression of a fluorescent reporter gene in the transparent, ex utero developing living embryo. Moreover, the long-standing use of this system as an experimental model is marked by the constant development of new techniques such as morpholino knock-down or transgenesis.
Objectives
The two main research objectives of the lab are as follows:
1. analysis of the morphogenetic processes that the embryonic heart and limbs undergo under normal developmental conditions
We aim to follow in vivo the precursor cells that will give rise to the heart and limbs during development using transgenic lines that express a fluorescent reporter in these tissues using live-embryo time-lapse analyses. We generate these reporter transgenic lines in the lab, by combining in silico identification of candidate regulatory regions of genes that are expressed in our favourite tissues linked to in vivo testing of these candidate regions using zebrafish as a model system.
2. alterations of the morphogenetic processes that the embryonic heart and limbs undergo under certain mutant conditions: a candidate approach
We aim to analyse in detail how and at which level the morphogenetic processes that the embryonic heart and limbs undergo are disrupted when certain zebrafish genes, that we have described and isolated through various approaches in the lab, are mutated. Again, the animal model we use is zebrafish due the constant development of new techniques such as morpholino knock-down or transgenesis.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY:
UNIVERSITY DEGREE:
September, 1998 – July, 2002
B.Sc. in Biology
Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona
PhD DEGREE:
January, 1998 – July, 2002
Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona
UB PhD Fellowship awarded
Generalitat de Catalunya PhD Fellowship awarded
“Evo-Devo at the origin of vertebrates: insights from amphioxus extended-Hox genes and somitogenesis”
European mention PhD awarded
Supervisor: Dr. Jordi Garcia-Fernàndez
POST DOCTORAL RESEARCH:
September, 2002 – October 2007
Division of Developmental Biology. MRC-National Institute for Medical Research
EMBO Long-Term Fellowship awarded
MRC Career Development Fellowish awarded
“Investigating the signals required for limb-type specification and the adquisition of limbs during evolution”
Supervisor: Dr. Malcolm Logan
PI RESEARCH:
November, 2007 – current
CSIC-Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona. Department of Developmental Biology
Ramón y Cajal Investigator
“Comparative genomics of the Tbx clusters: a multi-disciplinary functional approach”
Non-Zebrafish Publications
Ferrier, D.E., Minguillón, C., Holland, P.W. and Garcia-Fernàndez, J. (2000) The amphioxus Hox cluster: deuterostome posterior flexibility and Hox14. Evolution and Development 2: 284-293.Garcia-Fernàndez, J., Ferrier, D.E.K., Minguillón, C. and Cebrián, C. (2001) The amphioxus genome in Evo-Devo: archetype or “cul de sac”? International Journal of Developmental Biology 41: S137-S138.
Ferrier, D.E., Minguillón, C., Cebrián, C. and Garcia-Fernàndez, J. (2001) Amphioxus Evx genes: implications for the evolution of the Midbrain-Hindbrain Boundary and the chordate tailbud. Developmental Biology 237: 270-281.
Minguillón, C., Ferrier, D.E., Cebrián, C. and Garcia-Fernàndez, J. (2002) Gene duplications in the prototypical cephalochordate amphioxus. Gene 287: 121-128.
Minguillón, C. and Garcia-Fernàndez, J. (2002) The single amphioxus Mox gene: insights into the functional evolution of Mox genes, somites, and the asymmetry of amphioxus somitogenesis. Developmental Biology 246: 455-465.
Minguillón, C. and Garcia-Fernàndez, J. (2003) Genesis and evolution of the Evx and Mox genes and the extended Hox and ParaHox gene clusters. Genome Biology 4: R12.
Minguillón, C., Jiménez-Delgado, S., Panopoulou, G., Garcia-Fernàndez, J. (2003) The amphioxus Hairy family: differential fate after duplication. Development 130: 5903-5914.
Ferrier, D.E.K. and Minguillón, C. (2003) Evolution of the Hox/ParaHox gene clusters. International Journal of Developmental Biology 47: 605-611.
Minguillón, C. and Logan, MP. (2003) The comparative genomics of T-box genes. Briefings in Functional Genomics and Proteomics 2: 224-233.
Minguillón, C. and Logan, MP. (2004) Developmental biology reaches new lineages. Genome Biology 5: 333.
Minguillón, C., Gardenyes, J., Serra, E., Castro, L.F., Hill-Force, A., Holland, P.W., Amemiya, C.T. and Garcia-Fernandez, J. (2005) No more than 14: the end of the amphioxus Hox cluster. International Journal of Biological Sciences 1: 19-23.
Minguillón, C., Del Buono, J. and Logan, MP. (2005) Tbx5 and Tbx4 are not sufficient to determine limb-specific morphologies but have common roles in initiating limb outgrowth. Developmental Cell 8: 75-84.
Horton, AC, Mahadevan, NR, Minguillón, C., Osoegawa, K., Rokhsar, DS., Ruvinsky, I., de Jong, PJ., Logan, MP. and Gibson-Brown, JJ. (2008) Conservation of linkage and evolution of developmental function within the Tbx2/3/4/5 subfamily of T-box genes: implications for the origin of vertebrate limbs. Development Genes and Evolution 218: 613-628.
Garcia-Fernàndez, J., D’Aniello, S., Jiménez-Delgado, S., Pascual-Anaya, J., Maeso, I., Irimia, M., Minguillón, C., Benito-Gutiérrez, E., Gardenyes, J. and Bertrand, S. (2009) From the American to the European Amphioxus: towards Experimental Evo-Devo at the origin of Chordates. International Journal of Developmental Biology, 53:1359-66.
Minguillón, C., Gibson-Brown, J.J. and Logan, M.P. (2009) Tbx4/5 gene duplication and the origin of vertebrate paired appendages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 106:21726-30.