Dr David Ferrier

Reader

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 463480

Email

dekf@st-andrews.ac.uk

Research areas

We aim to understand how the diversity of form in the animal kingdom evolved. The focus of our research is the connection between the evolution of animal genome organisation and development, with a particular concentration on the homeobox-containing genes. The Hox gene cluster is established as a corner-stone of Evolutionary Developmental Biology, but much about the evolution of its organisation and mode of operation remains unknown. Also the Hox cluster is not unique as a homeobox gene cluster controlling animal development, further clusters being the ParaHox and NK clusters, all of which evolved within larger arrays of homeobox genes (the Mega-cluster and Super-Hox cluster). We utilize a variety of organisms in our research (including amphioxus, sea squirts, polychaetes and priapulids), chosen from key points in the phylogeny of the animals to enable reconstruction of the ancestral conditions at major nodes in the animal kingdom; the origin of bilaterians, protostomes, deuterostomes, chordates and vertebrates. 

PhD supervision

• Madeleine Aase-Remedios

Selected publications

• MicroRNA clusters integrate evolutionary constraints on expression and target affinities: the miR-6/5/4/286/3/309 cluster in Drosophila

  Qu, Z., Yiu, W. C., Yip, H. Y., Nong, W., Yu, C. W. C., Lee, I. H. T., Wong, A. Y. P., Wong, N. W. Y., Cheung, F. K. M., Chan, T. F., Lau, K. F., Zhong, S., Chu, K. H., Tobe, S. S., Ferrier, D. E. K., Bendena, W. G. & Hui, J. H. L., 10 Jun 2020, In : Molecular Biology and Evolution. In press, msaa146.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Molecular identification of potential aquaculture pathogens adherent to cnidarian zooplankton

  Clinton, M., Kintner, A. H., Delannoy, C., Brierley, A. S. & Ferrier, D. E. K., 15 Mar 2020, In : Aquaculture. 518, 8 p., 734801.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• More than one-to-four via 2R: evidence of an independent amphioxus expansion and two-gene ancestral vertebrate state for MyoD-related Muscle Regulatory Factors (MRFs)

  Aase-Remedios, M. E., Coll-Lladó, C. & Ferrier, D. E. K., 10 Jun 2020, In : Molecular Biology and Evolution. Advance Access, 17 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Space and time in Hox/ParaHox gene cluster evolution.

  Ferrier, D. E. K., 2019, Perspectives on Evolutionary Developmental Biology: Essays for Alessandro Minelli. Fusco, G. (ed.). Padova: Padova University Press, p. 245-258

  Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding ? Chapter

• Transcriptional regulation of the Ciona Gsx gene in the neural plate

  Hudson, C., Esposito, R., Palladino, A., Staiano, L., Ferrier, D., Faure, E., Lemaire, P., Yasuo, H. & Spagnuolo, A., 15 Apr 2019, In : Developmental Biology. 448, 2, p. 88-100 13 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Pax3/7 duplicated and diverged independently in amphioxus, the basal chordate lineage

  Barton-Owen, T., Ferrier, D. E. K. & Somorjai, I. M. L., 20 Jun 2018, In : Scientific Reports. 8, 11 p., 9414.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• A revised spiralian homeobox gene classification incorporating new polychaete transcriptomes reveals a diverse TALE class and a divergent Hox gene

  Barton-Owen, T., Szabó, R., Somorjai, I. M. L. & Ferrier, D. E. K., 1 Sep 2018, In : Genome Biology and Evolution. 10, 9, p. 2151?2167 17 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Amphioxus SYCP1: a case of retrogene replacement and co-option of regulatory elements adjacent to the ParaHox cluster

  Garstang, M. G. & Ferrier, D. E. K., Jan 2018, In : Development Genes and Evolution. 228, 1, p. 13-30 18 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Amphioxus functional genomics and the origins of vertebrate gene regulation

  Marletaz, F., Firbas, P., Maeso, I., Tena, J., Bogdanovic, O., Perry, M., Wyatt, C., de la Calle-Mustienes, E., Bertrand, S., Burguera, D., Acemel, R., van Heeringen, S., Naranjo, S., Herrera-Ubeda, C., Skvortsova, K., Jimenez-Gancedo, S., Aldea, D., Marquez, Y., Buono, L., Kozmikova, I., Permanyer, J., Louis, A., Albuixech-Crespo, B., Le Petillon, Y., Leon Florian, A., Subirana, L., Balwierz, P. J., Duckett, P., Farahani, E., Aury, J. M., Mangenot, S., Wincker, P., Albalat, R., Benito-Gutierrez, E., Canestro, C., Castro, F., D'Aniello, S., Ferrier, D. E. K., Huang, S., Laudet, V., Marais, G., Pontarotti, P., Schubert, M., Seitz, H., Somorjai, I. M. L., Takahashi, T., Mirabeau, O., Xu, A., Yu, J-K., Carninci, P., Martinez-Morales, J., Crollius, H., Kozmik, Z., Weirauch, M., Garcia-Fernandez, J., Lister, R., Lenhard, B., Holland, P., Escriva, H., Gomez-Skarmeta, J. L. & Irimia, M., 21 Nov 2018, In : Nature. 564, 7734, p. 64-70 29 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Genes for de novo biosynthesis of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are widespread in animals

  Kabeya, N., Fonseca, M., Ferrier, D. E. K., Navarro, J., Bay, L., Francis, D., Tocher, D., Castro, L. F. C. & Monroig, Ó., 2 May 2018, In : Science Advances. 4, 5, 9 p., eaar6849.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

See more publications