Current Lab Members
- Elizabeth Parker (graduate student) - Comparative Sperm Proteomics
- Elaine Wilkins (graduate student) - Genome Organization and the Creation of Novel Sperm Components
- Alexander Ball (graduate student) - Sexual selection and avian mating system evolution
- Nina Ockendon (co-supervised graduate student in Urrutia lab)
Collaborators
- Dr. Timothy Karr (Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, U.S.A.)
- Dr. Maria Vibranovski (Laboratory of Professor Long; University of Chicago)
- Prof. Bernard Crespi (Simon Frasier University, Canada)
- Dr. Kyle Summers (East Carolina University, U.S.A.)
- Prof. Tamas Szekely (University of Bath)
- Dr. Nick Waterfield (Univeristy of Bath)
- Dr. Nick Priest (University of Bath)
INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POST-DOCS
I am very interested in talking with prospective graduate students. Please send me an email with your CV and a cover letter detailing your interests and career aspirations. Please note that the list of projects above is not exhaustive and I am happy to discuss alternative research projects.
I am also very happy to talk to prospective postdoctoral fellows. It is helpful if you have fellowship funding (e.g. NIH, BBSRC, Royal Society, others) lined up, or are working on a fellowship proposal.Dr Steve Dorus
Profile
Key Research Interests
I am an evolutionary geneticist interested in functional evolutionary genomics and the role sexual selection plays in genome evolution. Much of our current research in the lab focuses on unifying proteomic and transcriptomic approaches to obtain a systems biology level understanding of sperm composition, function and evolution. Our recent experimental work has focused primarily on comparative sperm proteomics in Drosophila and how the molecular evolution of sperm is linked to gene expression during spermatogenesis. Although much of our work is in Drosophila, we are also interested in sexual selection and the evolution of male reproductive genetics in mammalian and avian systems. We have recently generated novel proteomic data to analyze the subcellular signature of positive selection upon mouse sperm proteins as well as 454 transcriptome databases to characterize trends in genome evolution associated with mating system changes in closely related bird species. A list of ongoing research projects can be found below.
Current Research Projects
- The Evolution of Sperm: Interspecific Comparative Sperm Proteomics in Drosophila
- Adaptive Evolution of Mammalian Sperm Cell Membrane Proteins
- Spermatogenesis, the Testis Transcriptome and the Evolution of Genome Organization
- The Proteomic “Footprint” of the Testis Transcriptome
- The Creation and Functional Evolution of Novel Sperm Components
- Sexual Selection and Avian Genome Evolution: 454 Characterization of Brain and Testis Expressed Genes in the Penduline Tit
- Adaptive Evolution of Genes Associated with Mental Disorders
Publications
Freeman, Z. N., Dorus, S. and Waterfield, N. R., 2013. The KdpD/KdpE two-component system : integrating K+ homeostasis and virulence. PLoS Pathogens, 9 (3), e1003201.
Posner, M. G., Upadhyay, A., Crennell, S., Watson, A. J. A., Dorus, S., Danson, M. J. and Bagby, S., 2013. Post-translational modification in the archaea: structural characterization of multi-enzyme complex lipoylation. Biochemical Journal, 449 (2), pp. 415-425.
Fischer, B. E., Wasbrough, E., Meadows, L. A., Randlet, O., Dorus, S., Karr, T. L. and Russell, S., 2012. Conserved properties of Drosophila and human spermatozoal mRNA repertoires. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279 (1738), pp. 2636-2644.
Dorus, S., Skerget, S. and Karr, T.L., 2012. Proteomic discovery of diverse immunity molecules in mammalian spermatozoa. Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine, 58 (4), pp. 218-228.
Jackson, R. W., Vinatzer, B., Arnold, D. L., Dorus, S. and Murillo, J., 2011. The influence of the accessory genome on bacterial pathogen evolution. Mobile Genetic Elements, 1 (1), pp. 55-65.
Dorus, S., Wilkin, E. C. and Karr, T. L., 2011. Expansion and functional diversification of a leucyl aminopeptidase family that encodes the major protein constituents of Drosophila sperm. BMC Genomics, 12, 177.
Vlisidou, I., Eleftherianos, I., Dorus, S., Yang, G., Ffrench-Constant, R. H., Reynolds, S. E. and Waterfield, N. R., 2010. The KdpD/KdpE two-component system of Photorhabdus asymbiotica promotes bacterial survival within M. sexta hemocytes. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 105 (3), pp. 352-362.
Wasbrough, E. R., Dorus, S., Hester, S., Howard-Murkin, J., Lilley, K., Wilkin, E., Polpitiya, A., Petritis, K. and Karr, T. L., 2010. The Drosophila melanogaster sperm proteome-II (DmSP-II). Journal of Proteomics, 73 (11), pp. 2171-2185.
Dorus, S., Wasbrough, E. R., Busby, J., Wilkin, E. and Karr, T. L., 2010. Sperm proteomics reveals intensified selection on mouse sperm membrane and acrosome genes. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 27 (6), pp. 1235-1246.
Crespi, B., Summers, K. and Dorus, S., 2010. Evolutionary genomics of human intellectual disability. Evolutionary Applications, 3 (1), pp. 52-63.
Crespi, B., Summers, K. and Dorus, S., 2009. Genomic sister-disorders of neurodevelopment: an evolutionary approach. Evolutionary Applications, 2 (1), pp. 81-100.
Karr, T. L. and Dorus, S., 2009. Sperm Proteomics and Genomics. In: Birkhead, T. R., Hosken, D. and Pitnick, S., eds. Sperm Biology: an Evolutionary Approach. New York: Elsevier Ltd.
Waterfield, N. R., Sanchez-Contreras, M., Eleftherianos, I., Dowling, A., Yang, G., Wilkinson, P., Parkhill, J., Thomson, N., Reynolds, S. E., Bode, H., Dorus, S. and ffrench-Constant, R., 2008. Rapid Virulence Annotation (RVA): identification of virulence factors using a bacterial genome library and multiple invertebrate hosts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105 (41), pp. 15967-15972.
Dorus, S., Freeman, Z. N., Parker, E. R., Heath, B. D. and Karr, T. L., 2008. Recent origins of sperm genes in Drosophila. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 25 (10), pp. 2157-2166.
