Christopher J Lowe
Research Summary / Selected Publications
My research interests are in the field of evolution and development, and more specifically the evolution of the deuterostomes. This major metazoan lineage is made up of four major groups; chordates, echinoderms, hemichordates, and a very recent addition; xenoturbellids. The early evolutionary history of the deuterostomes remains poorly understood and surprisingly even the evolutionary origins of our own phylum, the chordates, remains a major puzzle for zoologists. This uncertainty is partly due to a poor early fossil record for this lineage, but also due to the enormous morphological disparity in adult body plans between the major groups. Reconstructing the body plan of a plausible common ancestor based on extant forms is fraught with difficulties. My work attemps to make some headway in this area, and has focused on investigating the role of developmental genes that underlie these divergent body plans and morphologies in hemichordates and echinoderms. By comparing the expression and roles of these genes to their orthologues in chordates I am trying to gain insights into early events in deuterostome evolution.
My research interests are in the field of evolution and development, and more specifically the evolution of the deuterostomes. This major metazoan lineage is made up of four major groups; chordates, echinoderms, hemichordates, and a very recent addition; xenoturbellids. The early evolutionary history of the deuterostomes remains poorly understood and surprisingly even the evolutionary origins of our own phylum, the chordates, remains a major puzzle for zoologists. This uncertainty is partly due to a poor early fossil record for this lineage, but also due to the enormous morphological disparity in adult body plans between the major groups. Reconstructing the body plan of a plausible common ancestor based on extant forms is fraught with difficulties. My work attemps to make some headway in this area, and has focused on investigating the role of developmental genes that underlie these divergent body plans and morphologies in hemichordates and echinoderms. By comparing the expression and roles of these genes to their orthologues in chordates I am trying to gain insights into early events in deuterostome evolution.
Aronowicz J, and Lowe C.J. Hox gene expression in the hemichordate S. kowalevskii and the evolution of deuterostome nervous systems. Integrative and Comparative Biology. ePUB Oct18.
Bourlat SJ, Juliusdottir T, Lowe CJ, Freeman R, Aronowicz J, Kirschner M, Lander ES, Thorndyke M, Nakano H, Kohn AB, Heyland A, Moroz LL, Copley RR, Telford MJ.
Deuterostome phylogeny reveals monophyletic chordates and the new phylum Xenoturbellida.
Nature. 2006 Nov 2;444(7115):85-8. Epub 2006 Oct 18.
Lowe C. J., Terasaki M., Wu, M., Freeman, R.M. Jr., Runft, L., Kwan, K., Haigo, S., Aronowicz, J., Lander E., Gruber, C., Smith, M., Kirschner, M., Gerhart, J. (2006) Dorsoventral patterning in hemichordates: insights into early chordate evolution. PLoS Biology 2006 Sep;4(9):e291
Lowe C. J. Origins of the chordate central nervous system: insights from hemichordates. Evolution of Nervous Systems (2006) Volume 3 Evolution of Nervous Systems in Non-Mammalian Vertebra. Eds T. Bullock. Elsevier. In Press.
Gerhart, J. Lowe, CJ., Kirschner M. Hemichordates and origin of chordates (2005). Curr Opin Genet Dev. 15(4):461-7.
Lowe, C. J., Wu, M., Salic, A., Evans, L., Lander, E., Stange-Thomann, N., Gruber, C. E., Gerhart, J. and Kirschner, M. (2003). Anteroposterior patterning in hemichordates and the origins of the chordate nervous system. Cell 113, 853-65.
Lowe, C. J., Issel-Tarver, L. and Wray, G. A. (2002). Gene expression and larval evolution: changing roles of distal-less and orthodenticle in echinoderm larvae. Evol Dev 4, 111-23.
Lowe, C. J. and Wray, G. A. (1997). Radical alterations in the roles of homeobox genes during echinoderm evolution. Nature 389, 718-21.
Aronowicz J, and Lowe C.J. Hox gene expression in the hemichordate S. kowalevskii and the evolution of deuterostome nervous systems. Integrative and Comparative Biology. ePUB Oct18.
Bourlat SJ, Juliusdottir T, Lowe CJ, Freeman R, Aronowicz J, Kirschner M, Lander ES, Thorndyke M, Nakano H, Kohn AB, Heyland A, Moroz LL, Copley RR, Telford MJ.
Deuterostome phylogeny reveals monophyletic chordates and the new phylum Xenoturbellida.
Nature. 2006 Nov 2;444(7115):85-8. Epub 2006 Oct 18.
Lowe C. J., Terasaki M., Wu, M., Freeman, R.M. Jr., Runft, L., Kwan, K., Haigo, S., Aronowicz, J., Lander E., Gruber, C., Smith, M., Kirschner, M., Gerhart, J. (2006) Dorsoventral patterning in hemichordates: insights into early chordate evolution. PLoS Biology 2006 Sep;4(9):e291
Lowe C. J. Origins of the chordate central nervous system: insights from hemichordates. Evolution of Nervous Systems (2006) Volume 3 Evolution of Nervous Systems in Non-Mammalian Vertebra. Eds T. Bullock. Elsevier. In Press.
Gerhart, J. Lowe, CJ., Kirschner M. Hemichordates and origin of chordates (2005). Curr Opin Genet Dev. 15(4):461-7.
