Seth Blair
Position title: Professor
Email: ssblair@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-262-1345
Address:
Integrative Biology
Developmental genetics of patterning and cell signaling in Drosophila
- Address
- 315 Zoology Research
- Education
- Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley (1982), Postdoctoral Research: University of Washington; Harvard Medical School
- Department
- Integrative Biology
- Research Interests
- Developmental genetics of patterning and cell signaling in Drosophila
- Research Fields
- Developmental Genetics, Drosophila
Research Description:
Our work utilizes the developmental genetics of the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, to uncover and elucidate molecular patterning mechanisms that are widely shared by all developing animals. We have discovered and analyzed mutants that disrupt pattern formation and the intercellular signaling that regulates developing imaginal and gondal precursors, especially the structures that give rise to wing, the male reproductive tract, and the testes. Our recent work has identified novel regulators of the intercellular signals that control cell fate choices, such as extracellular and intracellular modulators or the Hedgehog and BMP pathways, and established new contexts within which these pathways operate. We have also examined the mechanisms by which a novel signaling pathway, mediated by binding between the protocadherins Dachsous and Fat, is transduced to regulate organ growth via the Hippo pathway and affect the proximodistal patterning and planar cell polarity of Drosophila epithelia. While many of our molecular genetic studies are performed on developing tissues in vivo, we complement in vivo work with biochemical analyses of protein binding and modifications using Drosophila cell culture.
Representative Publications:
Search PubMed for more publications by Seth Blair
Schleede, J. and Blair, S.S. (2015). The Gyc76C receptor guanylyl cyclase and the Foraging cGMP-dependent kinase regulate extracellular matrix organization and BMP signaling in the developing wing of Drosophila melanogaster. PLOS Genetics Oct 6;11(10):e1005576. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005576. PMID: 26440503; PMCID: PMC4595086.
Zhang, Y., Wang, X., Matakatsu, H., Fehon, R.G. and Blair, S.S. (2016). The novel SH3 domain protein Dlish/CG10933 mediates Fat signaling in Drosophila by binding and regulating Dachs. eLife 5, e16624. PMID: 27692068; PMCID: PMC5047748. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.16624
Blair, S.S. (2017). Developmental compartments. eLS 1-11 (formerly Encyclopedia of Life Science, invited review).
Blair, S. and McNeill, H. (2018). Big roles for Fat cadherins. Curr Opin Cell Biol. Dec 16;51:73-80. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2017.11.006. [Epub ahead of print] Review.: 29258012. PMCID: PMC5949260. DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2017.11.006.
Wang, X., Zhang, Y., and Blair, S.S. (2019). Fat-regulated adaptor protein Dlish binds the growth suppressor Expanded and controls its stability and ubiquitination. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 116(4):1319-1324. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1811891116. Epub 2019 Jan 3. PMCID: PMC6347691. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1811891116