Thanks for stopping by! I have been meaning to get something cool up here for longer than I care to say. I got tired of the 'This Page Under Construction' scrolling marquee and I don't know when I can make it look cool so... I thought I'd at least mention a project or two. If you have any interest or questions - feel free to write! mailto:prock@vwc.edu
1) The main project I've been working on (on and off) with the help of many students, is the deletion of the anx 14 gene from the well-studied filamentous mold, Neurospora crassa. This work is ongoing with the collaboration of Dr. Carl E. Creutz in the Pharmacology Department at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The anx 14 gene encodes a protein called annexin. Annexins are a large family of proteins with many functions. Virtually all eukaryotic organisms have at least one type of annexin protein - humans have six or more. In order to help find out what annexin is doing in the fungus, we deleted the gene - that is, we intentionally made a knock-out mutant that cannot make the protein. That took three years and five or so students worth of help. The mutant appears frustratingly normal - it does not obviously look different from the normal strain of the fungus. We are in the process of looking more closely at our knockout mutant ... so the story is to be continued.
2) While working in St. Thomas I accidentally discovered a strange worm-like parasite in the local termites. This turned out to be rather interesting, as it had only been reported one other time - in an ocelot in Venezuela. The parasite belongs to a bizarre group of worms called acanthocephalans (spiny-headed worms). They typically have complex life cycles, which often include both invertebrates and vertebrates. We do not yet know the complete life-cycle of the St. Thomas species which is known as Oncicola venezuelensis. It apparently is eaten in the egg stage by termites. We have seen more mature forms encysted in lizards, birds and mongoose - but none of these seem to be the final host, as the mature worms are always found in the gut of the final host, where the eggs pass out with the feces to start the cycle over again. The lizards, birds and mongoose are considered accidental (or paratenic) hosts and are a dead-end for the parasite (we think). 'We' refers to my colleagues Dr. Claire Fuller at Murray St. University - Kentucky and Dr. Brent Nickol at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. The final host for the parasite remains a mystery... another story to continue.
3) I currently am collaborating with Dr. Victor Townsend of Virginia Wesleyan College on a completely different project; looking at different populations of harvestmen (also know as daddy long-leg spiders). I am assisting with population identification through molecular genetic means. This work was mostly done by former VWC biology student Dan Proud - now working towards his Ph.D studying these arachnids in Louisiana.
4) Chemotaxis in Neurospora crassa - well, I have yet to find any real difference between wild-type and my annexin mutant. This has lead me into an unexpected area. Chemotaxis in this sense refers to the ability of a mold colony to preferentially grow towards a nutrient source. Here is a Powerpoint presentation I gave at the Virginia Academy of Sciences 2008 meeting, held at Hampton University on May 22. If you actually want to easily see this presentation, right click on the link and save it to you computer somewhere as a .ppt file - that way you'll have the notes I used. If you're really interested - please contact me - I'd be happy to fill in a few details.
This page last updated May 23, 2008.