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| Ginger E. Carney received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Genetics from the University of Georgia. From Georgia she traveled to beautiful Corvallis, Oregon for postdoctoral work with Dr. Barbara Taylor at Oregon State University. As a postdoc she used behavioral genetic screens to identify mutations that affect Drosophila reproductive behaviors. Dr. Carney returned to Georgia for two years as a Faculty Research Scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta before coming to Texas A&M in August 2004 as an Assistant Professor of Biology. |
Ginger E. Carney 3258 TAMU Office: Lab: Fax: 979-845-2891 |
| Genetic Control of Behavior and Nervous System Development
The Carney lab uses a tractable genetic and developmental model, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, to identify and characterize genes that regulate reproductive behaviors in the fly. There are sex-specific behaviors associated with reproductive success, and we are characterizing mutations that affect these behaviors in male or female flies. Our goals are to (1) identify mutations in genes that regulate reproductive behaviors, (2) determine if they function in known gene cascades that control reproduction, and (3) understand the molecular function of these genes in behavior. |
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Carney, G.E. A rapid genome-wide response to Drosophila courtship interactions (2007), BMC Genomics 2007, 8:288. Featured in Faculty of 1000 Biology, 28 Aug 2007. Boltz, K.A., L.L. Ellis and G.E. Carney. Drosophila melanogaster p24 genes have developmental, tissue-specific and sex-specific expression patterns and functions (2007). Dev. Dyn. 236: 544-555. doi 10.1002/dvdy.21032. Cole, S.H., G.E. Carney, C.A. McClung, S.S. Willard, B.J. Taylor, and J. Hirsh. Two functional but noncomplementing Drosophila tyrosine decarboxylase genes (2005). J. Biol. Chem., 280: 14948-14955. Davis, M.B., G.E. Carney, A.E. Robertson, M. Bender. Phenotypic analysis of EcR-A mutants suggests that EcR isoforms have unique functions during Drosophila development (2005). Developmental Biology, 282: 385-396. Carney, G.E. and N.J. Bowen. p24 proteins, intracellular trafficking, and behavior: Drosophila melanogaster provides insights and opportunities (2004). Biol. Cell, 96: 271-278. Carney, G.E., A.E. Robertson, M.B. Davis, and M. Bender. Creation of EcR isoform-specific mutations in Drosophila melanogaster via local P element transposition, imprecise P excision, and male recombination. ( Molecular Genetics and Genomics, online publication January 28, 2004, DOI: 10.1007/s00438-004-0976-x ). Carney, G.E. and B.J. Taylor. logjam encodes a putative EMP24/GP25 protein that is required for Drosophila oviposition behavior (2003). Genetics , 164: 173-186. Peterson, C., G.E. Carney, B.J. Taylor and K. White. reaper is required for normal neuroblast apoptosis in Drosophila (2002). Development , 129: 1467-1476. Carney, G.E. and M. Bender. The Drosophila ecdysone receptor ( EcR ) gene is required maternally for normal oogenesis (2000). Genetics , 154:1203-1211. Nguyen, T.T., J.P. Nery, S. Joseph, C.E. Rocha, G.E. Carney, K.R. Spindler and L.P. Villarreal. Mouse adenovirus (MAV-1) expression in primary human endothelial cells and generation of a full-length infectious plasmid (1999). Gene Therapy , 6: 1291-1297. Schubiger, M., A.A. Wade, G.E. Carney, J. Truman and M. Bender. Drosophila EcR B ecdysone receptor isoforms are required maternally for larval molting and for neuron remodeling during metamorphosis (1998). Development , 125: 2053-2062. Carney, G.E., A.A. Wade, R. Sapra, E.S. Goldstein and M. Bender. DHR3 , an ecdysone-inducible early-late gene encoding a Drosophila nuclear receptor, is required for embryogenesis (1997). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 94: 12024-12029. |
Proper central nervous system (CNS) development and function is crucial for an animal's ability to sense its environment and respond with an appropriate behavior. Currently, little is known about how individual genes regulate CNS function and behavior. In many cases, numerous genetic loci likely interact to contribute to the manifestation the behavior, but few "behavioral genes" have been isolated and characterized to date.