Project Summary:

I am interested in identifying and characterizing genes that are required for establishing and maintaining a synapse. I work at the fly neuromuscular junction, and have based my career so far on several genes that were identified in a mutant screen for animals which are defective in movement, in spite of having generally normal morphology and neuro-muscular patterning. The genes I helped to identify and characterize include titin, glutamic acid decarboxylase, slugabed (a ceramidase), bad reception (a glutamate receptor subunit) and mind the gap, a lectin-like protein required for postsynaptic organization of glutamate receptors, Pak, Pix, Dock and Dlg. I am currently continuing to characterize mind the gap. The hyothesis is that mind the gap binds sugar moieties on extracellular proteins or possibly lipids at the NMJ. This interaction could directly signal to the postsynaptic cell, causing localisation of synaptic proteins, or alternatively, mind the gap could bind extracellular matrix components, which in turn signal to the postsynaptic cell. I am testing these hypotheses to find out how mind the gap plays its crucial role in synaptic development.

 

Education:

Cambridge University, England UK	B.A.	1984	Natural Sciences/Biology
Cambridge University, England UK	M.Phil.	1988	Pathology

 

Research and Professional Experience:

1985-1987	Research Technician in the Dept. of Pathology, Cambridge University, England (UK)
1987-1988	Research Student (M.Phil) in the Dept. of Pathology, Cambridge University
1988-1996	Research Assistant with Dr. Michael Bate, Dept. of Zoology, Cambridge University
1996-2001	Senior Research Specialist, Dr. Kendal Broadie Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City UT USA
2002-present	Senior Research Specialist for Dr. Broadie, Department of Biological Sciences, Pharmacology and Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

 

Publications:

1. Bate, M., Rushton, E. and Currie, D. A. (1991). Cells with persistent twist expression are the embryonic precursors of adult muscles in Drosophila. Development 113(1) 79-89.

2. Bate, M., Rushton, E. and Frasch, M. (1993). A dual requirement for neurogenic genes in Drosophila myogenesis. Development Suppl 149-161

3. Lai, Z. C., Rushton, E., Bate, M. and Rubin, G. M. (1993). Loss of function of the Drosophila zfh-1 gene results in abnormal development of mesodermally derived tissues. PNAS 90(9) 4122-4126.

4. Bate, M. and Rushton, E. (1993). Myogenesis and muscle patterning in Drosophila. C R Acad Sci III 316(9) 1047-1061.

5. Staehling-Hampton, K., Hoffmann, F. M., Baylies, M. K., Rushton, E. and Bate, M. (1994). dpp induces mesodermal gene expression in Drosophila. Nature 372 783-786.

6. Rushton, E., Drysdale, R., Abmayr, S. M., Michelson, A. M. and Bate, M. (1995). Mutations in a novel gene, myoblast city, provide evidence in support of the founder cell hypothesis for Drosophila muscle development. Development 121(7) 1979-1988.

7. Prokop, A., Landgraf, M., Rushton, E., Broadie, K. and Bate, M. (1996). Presynaptic development at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction: assembly and localization of presynaptic active zones. Neuron 17(4) 617-626.

8. Broadie, K., Rushton, E., Skoulakis, E. M. and Davis, R. L. (1997). Leonardo, a Drosophila 14-3-3 protein involved in learning, regulates presynaptic function. Neuron 19(2) 391-402.

9. Zhang, Y., Featherstone, D., Davis, W., Rushton, E. and Broadie, K. (2000). Drosophila D-titin is required for myoblast fusion and skeletal muscle striation. J. Cell Sci. 13(17) 3103-3115.

10. Featherstone, D. E., Rushton, E. M., Hilderbrand-Chae, M., Phillips, A. M., Jackson, F. R. and Broadie, K. (2000). Presynaptic glutamic acid decarboxylase is required for induction of the postsynaptic receptor field at a glutamatergic synapse. Neuron 27(1) 71-84.

11. Featherstone, D. E., Rushton, E. and Broadie, K. (2002). Developmental regulation of glutamate receptor field size by nonvesicular glutamate release. Nature Neurosci 5(2) 141-146.

12. Rohrbough, J., Rushton, E., Palanker, L., Woodruff, E., Matthies, H. J., Acharya, U., Acharya, J. K.and Broadie, K. (2004). Ceramidase regulates synaptic vesicle exocytosis and trafficking. J. Neurosci 24(36) 7789-7803.

13. Featherstone, D. E., Rushton, E., Rohrbough, J., Liebl, F., Karr, J., Sheng, Q., Rodesch, C. K. and Broadie, K. (2005). An essential Drosophila glutamate receptor subunit that functions in both central neuropil and neuromuscular junction. J. Neurosci 25(12) 3199-3208.

14. Rohrbough J., Rushton E., Woodruff E 3rd, Fergestad T., Vigneswaran K. and Broadie K. (2007). Presynaptic establishment of the synaptic cleft extracellular matrix is required for post-synaptic differentiation. Genes Dev. 21(20) 2607-2628.