Catherine (Katie) Peichel, Ph.D.

Catherine L. Peichel
Katie Peichel

Associate Member, FHCRC Division of Human Biology

cpeichel@fhcrc.org

  • B.A. Molecular & Cell Biology (1991)
    University of California, Berkeley
  • Ph.D. Molecular Biology (1998)
    Princeton University

Research Interests | Publications

   Research Interests

What is the genetic basis of variation between species? I first began to study this problem as a graduate student at Princeton, focusing on the vertebrate skeleton as a model system because of the incredible diversity in size, shape and number of skeletal elements in different species. These changes underlie many functional adaptations, such as swimming, flying, or walking upright on two legs. My graduate studies in Tom Vogt's lab focused on a mutation called Ulnaless that alters skeletal patterning in the limb, reminiscent of changes seen in the flippers of seals, where modifications in the size and shape of the ulna and radius in the forelimb are one of the adaptations for swimming. In order to identify the molecular basis of the Ulnaless mutation, I undertook a positional cloning approach and ultimately found that the Ulnaless mutation affected a cis-regulatory element necessary for limb specific expression of the HoxD genes.

When I started a postdoc in David Kingsley's lab at Stanford, I wanted to know if the same types of genetic mechanisms identified in laboratory mutants were responsible for the evolution of skeletal morphologies in natural populations. Together, David and I developed a system to determine the number of genetic changes that control morphological and behavioral differences between species, to map the location of these changes, and to ultimately find the DNA sequence changes responsible for evolutionary modifications in vertebrates. We chose a small fish, the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), as a model system, due to the incredible diversity of morphologies and behaviors in different freshwater populations, and the ability to cross different species of these recently evolved fish using artificial fertilization in the lab. I developed the first genetic linkage map for the threespine stickleback, and we have since used this map to identify genes that contribute to morphological evolution in natural populations.
When I first began reading about sticklebacks, I was particularly excited about the possibility of using genetic approaches in these fish to study the evolution of behavior. Sticklebacks have some of the best-studied behaviors of any organism. There is incredible natural variation in many different behaviors (courtship, parental care, social aggregation, aggression, predator avoidance, spatial learning) in natural populations of sticklebacks. Current work in my own lab is focused on identifying the genetic and neural mechanisms that underlie the evolution of behaviors, particularly for those behavioral differences that contribute to reproductive isolation between overlapping populations of sticklebacks. Therefore, these studies will also lead to insights about the genetic mechanisms that contribute to the formation of new species.

I am also interested in the evolution of sex determination, as life as a male or a female has profound impacts on the morphology, physiology and behavior of an organism. We have genetically defined a single major locus that determines male sex in threespine sticklebacks and found that this locus is on an evolving Y chromosome. We are currently working to identify the gene that controls sex determination in threespine sticklebacks. In addition, we are investigating the diverse mechanisms of sex determination found within the stickleback family to gain insight into the evolution of sex determining mechanisms and sex chromosomes.

   Publications

Download local PDFs of Peichel lab papers
(containing C. Peichel as author since 2001)

  • Ross, J.A., Urton, J.R., Boland, J., Shapiro, M.D., and Peichel, C.L. (2009) Turnover of sex chromosomes in the stickleback fishes (Gasterosteidae). PLoS Genetics 5: e1000391
  • Ross, J.A., and Peichel, C.L. (2008) Molecular cytogenetic evidence of rearrangements on the Y chromosome of threespine stickleback fish. Genetics 179: 2173-2182.
  • Kitano, J., Bolnick, D.I., Beauchamp, D.A., Mazur, M.M., Mori, S., Nakano, T., and Peichel, C.L. (2008) Reverse evolution of armor plates in the threespine stickleback. Current Biology 18: 769-774.
  • Kitano, J., Mori, S., and Peichel, C.L. (2008) Divergence of male courtship displays between sympatric forms of anadromous threespine stickleback. Behaviour 145: 443-461.
  • Gow, J.L., Peichel, C.L., and Taylor, E.B. (2007) Ecological selection against hybrids in natural populations of sympatric threespine sticklebacks. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20: 2173-2180.
  • Coyle, S.M., Huntingford, F.A., and Peichel, C.L. (2007) Parallel evolution of Pitx1 underlies pelvic reduction in Scottish threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Journal of Heredity 98: 581-586.
  • Kitano, J., Mori, S., and Peichel, C.L. (2007) Phenotypic divergence and reproductive isolation between sympatric forms of Japanese threespine sticklebacks. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 91: 671-685.
  • Kitano, J., Mori, S., and Peichel, C.L. (2007) Sexual dimorphism in the external morphology of the threespine stickleback. Copeia 2007(2): 336-349.
  • Streelman, J.T., Peichel, C.L., and Parichy, D.M. (2007) Developmental genetics of adaptation in fishes: the case for novelty. Annual Reviews of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 38: 655-681.
  • Kingsley, D.M. and Peichel, C.L. (2007) The molecular genetics of evolutionary change in sticklebacks. In Biology of the Three-Spined Stickleback (S. Ostlund-Nilsson, I. Mayer, and F. Huntingford, eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 41-81.
  • Gow, J.L., Peichel, C.L., and Taylor, E.B. (2006) Contrasting hybridization rates between sympatric threespine sticklebacks highlight the fragility of reproductive barriers between evolutionarily young species. Molecular Ecology 15: 739-752
  • Peichel, C.L. (2005) Fishing for the secrets of vertebrate evolution in threespine sticklebacks. Developmental Dynamics 234: 815-823.
  • Kingsley, D., Zhu, B., Osoegawa, K., deJong, P. J., Schein, J., Marra, M., Peichel, C., Amemiya, C., Schluter, D., Balabhadra, S., Friedlander, B., Cha, Y. M., Dickson, M., Grimwood, J., Schmutz, J., Talbot, W. S., and Myers, R. (2004) New genomic tools for molecular studies of evolutionary change in sticklebacks. Behaviour 141: 1331-1344.
  • Peichel, C.L. (2004) Notes from the Field: How a Molecular Geneticist Got Wet. Genesis 40: 146-150.
  • Peichel, C.L. (2004) The Origin of Species Revisited. Developmental Cell 7: 327-328.
  • Peichel, C. L., Ross, J. A., Matson, C. K., Dickson, M., Grimwood, J., Schmutz, J., Myers, R., Mori, S., Schluter, D., and Kingsley, D. M. (2004) The master sex-determination locus in threespine sticklebacks is on a nascent Y chromosome. Current Biology 14: 1416-1424.
  • Peichel, C. L. (2004) Social Behavior: How Do Fish Find Their Shoal Mate? Current Biology 14: R503-504.
  • Colosimo, P. F.*, Peichel, C. L.*, Nereng, K., Blackman, B. K., Shapiro, M. D., Schluter, D., and Kingsley, D. M. (2004) The genetic architecture of parallel armor plate reduction in threespine sticklebacks. PLoS Biology 2: 0635-0641.
  • Shapiro, M. D.*, Marks, M. E.*, Peichel, C. L.*, Blackman, B. K., Nereng, K., Jonsson, B., Schluter, D., and Kingsley, D. M. (2004) Genetic and developmental basis of evolutionary pelvic reduction in threespine sticklebacks. Nature 428: 717-723.
  • Peichel, C. L. and Boughman, J. W. (2003) Quick Guide to Sticklebacks. Current Biology 13: R942-R943.
  • Peichel, C. L., Nereng, K. S., Ohgi, K. A., Cole, B. L. E., Colosimo, P. F., Buerkle, C. A., Schluter, D., and Kingsley, D. M. (2001) The genetic architecture of divergence between threespine stickleback species. Nature 414: 901-905.
  • Spitz, F., Gonzalez, F., Peichel, C. L., Vogt, T. F., Duboule, D., and Zakany, J. (2001) Large scale transgenic and cluster deletion analysis of the HoxD complex separate an ancestral regulatory module from evolutionary innovations. Genes and Development 15: 2209-2214.
  • Peichel, C. L., Kozak, C. A., Luyten, F. P., and Vogt, T. F. (1998) Evaluation of mouse Sfrp3/Frzb1 as a candidate for the lst, Ul, and Far mutants on Chromosome 2. Mammalian Genome 9: 385-387.
  • Peichel, C. L., Prabhakaran, B., and Vogt, T. F. (1997) The mouse Ulnaless mutation deregulates posterior HoxD gene expression and alters appendicular patterning. Development 124: 3481-3492.
  • Peichel, C. L., Abbott, C. M., and Vogt, T. F. (1996) Genetic and physical mapping of the mouse Ulnaless locus. Genetics 144: 1757-1767.
  • Peichel, C. L. and Vogt, T. F. (1996) Genetic and molecular analysis of the mouse Ulnaless locus. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 785: 314-317.
  • Dreger, R. T., Harris, M. J., Peichel, C. L., Vogt, T. F., and Juriloff, D. M. (1995) The First arch (Far) mutation in mice recombines with Hoxd and Mdk. Mammalian Genome 6: 662-663.
  • Peichel, C. L., Scherer, S. W., Tsui, L-C., Beier, D. R., and Vogt, T. F. (1993) Mapping the midkine family of developmentally regulated signaling molecules. Mammalian Genome 4: 632-638.
  • Skoda, R. C., Seldin, D. C., Chiang, M-K., Peichel, C. L., Vogt, T. F., and Leder, P. (1993) Murine c-mpl: a member of the hematopoietic growth factor receptor superfamily that transduces a proliferative signal. EMBO J. 12(7): 2645-2653.

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