Blog
IAE students awarded CSIRO Scholarships
Posted in Pogona Research on Jan 24, 2018
Congratulations to Sarah Whiteley and Duminda Dissanayake on the receipt of CSIRO Scholarships in support of their PhD work. These scholarships carry both a top-up to living allowance and project funds. Both students are working within Team Pogona.
Pogona development under sex reversal
Posted in Pogona Research on Nov 21, 2017
Congratulations to Sarah Whiteley on acceptance by the journal EvoDevo of her honours work. In it she not only characterizes in great detail the embryonic development of the dragon but shows that sex reversal does not interfere with body or genital development in a way that might compromise viability.
Jenny Graves honoured with PM Prize for Science
Posted in Pogona Research on Oct 21, 2017
Professor Jenny Graves from La Trobe University was honoured last week as recipient of the Prime Minister's Prize for Science. This is Australia's top science prize. The prize is in recognition of an outstanding career in science during which Professor Graves made a number of discoveries and generated many new insights to vertebrate chromosome evolution. Professor Graves is a Thinker in Residence at the IAE.
New Blood for Team Pogona
Posted in Pogona Research on Sep 03, 2017
Welcome to Sarah Whiteley who joins Team Pogona from Queensland University where she recently completed her honours on sex reversal and temporary pseudohermaphroditism in the Central Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps). Sarah was awarded first class honours for her work, which has since been submitted in part for publication.
Key piece discovered in the jigsaw puzzle that is reptilian sex determination
Posted in Pogona Research on Jun 28, 2017
The mechanism by which temperature exerts its influence on offpring sex has baffled scientists for over 50 years, since the phenomenon was first discovered. In a paper recently published in Science Advances (June 14, 2017), we believe we have discovered an important piece of the puzzle, a temperature sensitive transcripional modification to an influential chromatin modifying gene, Jumonji.
Sex in Dragons -- Ecological drivers of transitions between GSD and TSD
Posted in Pogona Research on May 09, 2017
The Institute for Applied Ecology is seeking two PhD students with interests in population genetics and reptile ecology/physiology to investigate the field-based mechanisms of sex reversal in the dragon lizard, Pogona vitticeps.Expressions of interest before June 10.
Sex in Dragons -- Modelling evolutionary transitions
Posted in Pogona Research on May 08, 2017
Sex in Dragons – Modelling evolutionary transitions in sex determination. We are currently seeking a PhD student with interests in biological responses to climate change, evolution and theoretical biology to investigate the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of sex determination in the dragon lizard, Pogona vitticeps. Expressions of interest before June 10.
PhD Project Scholarship: Sex in Dragons
Posted in Pogona Research on May 05, 2017
Sex in Dragons – Pinning down the mechanisms of sex determination in a reptile. We are currently seeking at least one, but potentially several, PhD students with interests in genetics, evolution and developmental genomics to investigate the molecular mechanisms through which sex is determined in the Australian central bearded dragon lizard, *Pogona vitticeps*. Expressions of interest before June 10.
NCBI Pogona annotation complete
Posted in Pogona Research on Apr 24, 2017
NCBI has completed the annotation of the Pogona genome generated by the genetics and genomics team of the IAE, and made it widely available to the global research community. From the NCBI site, you can download the genome, view details of the annotation, blast any sequence against the genome, see the genes in "Gene", and in a few weeks, browse the genome using the NCBI Browser.
NCBI adopts Pogona
Posted in Pogona Research on Mar 20, 2017
The US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has made the annotated genome sequence of Fabian, the ZZ dragon lizard, available to the international research community. The IAE made the genome available in 2013 through its local server, but we expect uptake to accellerate now that it is available through NCBI. Through the NCBI servier it is possible to BLAST sequence against the Pogona genome, pull down the sequences and annotation, and search for specific genes and regions. Well done to Denis O'Meally for making this all happen.
