In order for the fertilized egg to develop into a live-borne animal, genes that control the regenerative capacity, identity and fate of cells must be switched on and off at the right time and place. Changes in the way that the DNA sequence is packaged up with proteins, to form a structure called chromatin, are important in this regulation of gene expression. However, to date this has mainly been studied in artificial cell culture systems and little is known about the changes in chromatin structure that happen at specific genes in a situation that is more relevant to the development of the embryo. We propose to use a newly developed cell culture system that enables mouse embryonic stem cells to be directed to undergo development towards cell types that usually go on to form muscle and bone (mesoderm) or gut, lung, liver and pancreas (endoderm). With this system we can produce large quantities of cells that closely resemble their equivalents in an embryo and challenge these cells with specific chemical signals that are known to be important for embryonic development. This system will be used to study how chromatin structure is changed both globally and at a particular set of genes, the Hox genes, which are key regulators of development. Our global analysis will help us to understand the way in which cells are progressively restricted to the mesoderm and endoderm lineages, while at the Hox cluster in particular we will be able to ask specific questions about how this happens. This work will help to better understand how stem cells can be used to target organs derived from these cell types in regenerative medicine.

When people think of an atlas, they think of a world map, showing oceans, country borders, timelines, labelled with names of cities, rivers, etc. The atlas proposed here will show patterns of gene expression layered onto anatomical structures of the developing chick embryo, labelled with the names of structures, genes, etc. Just as a world atlas helps us to understand where we live, an atlas of the developing embryo will help us to comprehend how we form. We all develop from a single fertilized cell which multiplies into a mass of cells, this undergoes complex changes in shape, while growing to form the different organs and tissues that make up our bodies. By imaging chick embryos at different times during development, we will make a detailed map of anatomical structures as they form. The earliest stages are relatively simple as they are flat, but older embryos become increasingly more complicated and we will use a 3D imaging technique called 'Optical Projection Tomography' to image them. An atlas is not very useful without a systematic way to name its features so we will create a standard set of words, which will make it possible to query the atlas using tools based on computer science. But the overt structure of developing embryos hides a further level of anatomy, special groups of cells called 'organizers'. These organizers instruct cells around them so that the correct structures are made in the right place at the right time. Organizers are not always easy to identify; the 'polarizing region' responsible for patterning the digits of the limb for example looks just like the tissue all around it. About half a dozen organizers have been discovered, many through transplantation experiments in chick embryos, and we now know that they are best distinguished by specific genes that are active ('expressed) in their cells. In our project we plan to examine exactly which genes are expressed in four well defined organizers and produce a 3D map of their precise expression patterns in the whole embryo throughout development. Gene expression patterns of ~1000 genes will be mapped. This is a significant number of genes with which to begin to populate the chicken Atlas to be made publicly available to everyone over the internet. To determine what genes are expressed in these four different regions of early chick embryos (hypoblast, Hensen's node, floor plate of the neural tube and limb polarizing region) we will dissect out these tissues and use 'microarrays' to screen for all the genes they express and identify shared sets of genes. Genes expressed in the same place ('synexpression groups') are likely to be involved in the same biological process, so we hope to uncover sets of genes which work together to define an 'organizer'. But why focus on chicks rather than animals closer to humans? Amazingly, organizers and other signalling centres act in similar ways in different species as diverse as fish and man. Thus discoveries in the chick are relevant to human development and chicks are much easier to obtain and dissect than mouse embryos, so these two models are very complementary. The chick atlas however will be based on the same system developed for the mouse thus allowing comparisons. Conserved patterns of expression in chick and mouse will provide strong evidence for genes being functionally related while subtle differences can cast light on why a chick and mouse do not look the same. We will create a database to organize and manage this huge collection of data on gene expression patterns, anatomical structures, genes, etc. and develop new computer tools to query and analyse the data to discover new relationships and new functions for genes in development. This research will lead to a deeper understanding of the basic biological processes which will in turn help understanding of health issues such as congenital abnormalities, cancers and tissue repair.

Gene interactions are thought to be important in shaping complex trait variation in agricultural, model organism and human disease genetics. They have been poorly explored, however, because of the lack of high throughput tools to analyse many different traits. With the support from the GridQTL project funded by BBSRC, we have developed a tool that can perform high throughput analyses of gene interactions in experimental populations genotyped with low density genetic markers. The tool however is not applicable to large datasets provided by genome-wide association studies in natural/commercial populations. Such datasets typically include hundreds of thousands of genetic markers and thousands of individuals with a large number of phenotypic traits. Genome-wide association studies have become increasingly popular for the investigation of the genetics of complex traits in livestock, plant, and human sectors. Despite much effort, a comprehensive analysis of gene interactions in those large datasets is still intractable for even a single trait (at levels of CPU months) due to their excessive computing demand and the lack of algorithms to handle billions of tests of marker combinations. A new high throughput analysis tool has become a necessity to study gene interactions in these large datasets. We propose the development of Epicluster, a novel tool to support routine high throughput analysis of gene interactions in large association study datasets. Instead of directly testing billions of marker combinations exhaustively, Epicluster will effectively select candidate markers with consistent genotype distribution patterns that differentiate the group of individuals with high trait values from the group with low trait values. It then performs comprehensive statistical tests only among the selected candidate markers and thus can improve the speed of analysing gene interactions for one trait to CPU hours. Epicluster development will adapt a bi-clustering algorithm that has been successfully applied in gene expression studies. A proof of principal test showed that the bi-clustering algorithm could cluster a large dataset with 500,000 markers in minutes. On completion Epicluster will be implemented as distributed software (i.e. automated analysis) to be used in high performance computer environments. In summary we expect Epicluster to herald a breakthrough in gene interaction analyses in large datasets across species. Hence Epicluster will facilitate a fuller understanding of the importance of gene interactions in complex traits.

Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungus (a form of yeast) that normally lives on the human body without causing any harm. However, C. albicans can cause devastating diseases especially in immunocompromised patients who have undergone organ transplants, chemotherapy, or HIV treatment. Pathogenic C. albicans adapts efficiently to different environments and it can acquire resistance to anti-fungal drugs. This is because, in contrast to most organisms, C. albicans can live without the right proportion of its genes or even miss a part of a chromosome (a phenomenon called genome plasticity). It was discovered that rearrangements often occur at particular sites of repetitive DNA sequences. We want to understand why DNA repeats are sites of chromosome rearrangement. In most organisms, DNA repeats spell trouble for the cell. This is because repetitive sequences tend to be 'unstable' and can interact and fuse with other repeat sequences in other places in the genome. This means the genome can rearrange itself, causing loss of some sequences and duplication of others. It can also bring two separate sections of the genome together, which can mess up the instructions for making the right amount of proteins. Genome rearrangements are a hallmark of cancer cells and birth defects. To counteract the potential threat to the genome by DNA repeats, organisms have developed strategies to fight against the instability of DNA repeats. One strategy is to coat the repetitive sequences in protective proteins that prevent them from interacting with other repetitive sequences. This protective protein structure is called 'heterochromatin'. For certain organisms, such as microbial pathogens, it can be convenient in certain environmental conditions to rearrange their genomes and therefore to temporarily erase heterochromatin from DNA repeats. C. albicans could be one of these organisms and we will test this hypothesis. We will ask whether C. albicans DNA repeats are usually kept in a 'safe' state by being coated in heterochromatin and if C. albicans can strip these proteins off to allow the genome rearrangements in favourable conditions to cause C. albicans to become a pathogen.

For decades, scientists have believed that women were born with all the eggs they would ever have and that no new ones could ever be made. Recently a group of researchers in the USA isolated a primitive "stem" like cell from the ovaries of adult women. These cells were shown to be capable of forming what appeared to be new eggs (oocytes) when they were injected back into ovarian tissue. The implications of this are potentially enormous, but at the moment we know very little about what these cells may or may not be capable of. If we could make new eggs we could eventually help restore fertility in women who have become infertile for a variety of reasons, including chemotherapy, early menopause or just normal ageing. However, these findings have led to controversy and many questions remain as to whether these new eggs can develop normally. This project will determine whether these cells can be isolated from the ovaries of healthy women from a range of ages. Then using a system which we have developed where we can grow eggs outside the body (culture system), we will determine whether these cells can form new eggs and whether they are normal. The ultimate end point of this work would be to determine whether these cells were capable of forming eggs that could be fertilised and form embryos.