Mariana Wolfner | |
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Born | Mariana Federica Wolfner |
Alma mater | Cornell University (BS) Stanford University (PhD) |
Awards | Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2019) Genetics Society of America Medal (2018) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Reproductive biology Drosophila genetics Early embryogenesis Seminal proteins [1] |
Institutions | Cornell University University of California, San Diego |
Thesis | Ecdysone-responsive genes of the salivary gland of Drosophila melanogaster (1980) |
Doctoral advisor | David Hogness |
Website | mbg |
Mariana Federica Wolfner is the Goldwin Smith Professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University. Her research investigates sexual conflict in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster . [1] She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2019 in recognition of her distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. [2] [3]
Wolfner became interested in biology as a child. She decided to study at Cornell University because it was well known for genetics. [4] During her undergraduate degree she worked in Gerald Fink's laboratory, studying the control of amino acids in yeast, and graduated in 1974. [4] [5] She moved to Stanford University for her graduate degree, where she was a doctoral student in the lab of David Hogness. [6] She was one of the first to use recombinant DNA to isolate the genes in Drosophila . Wolfner pioneered the use of cDNA hybridisation to isolate the genes which respond to ecdysone during metamorphosis. [4]
Wolfner joined University of California, San Diego for a postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision of Bruce Baker. [4] Here she started to study the genes that are involved in sex determination of Drosophila. With Baker, Wolfner cloned the doublesex gene. [4]
Wolfner joined the faculty at Cornell University in 1983. [7] She has explored the mechanisms that are responsible for sex determination and development in Drosophila. [4] Wolfner has identified over two hundred of the drosophila seminal fluid proteins and their influence on physiology and behaviour. [8] She performed genetic ablation to identify the genes that encoded seminal fluid proteins. [4] She found that female drosophila store semen for a while before fertilisation, and become less interested in males after mating. [9] Wolfner found that during mating the seminal fluid proteins that were created in male accessory glands were transferred to females, and caused postmating changes. [10] [11] She spent two years at the University of California, San Diego working on mutant phenotypes in seminal fluid proteins. [12]
In her extensive studies of the seminal fluid proteins of Drosophila, [1] Wolfner has uncovered new information about sexual conflict. [4] She showed that seminal fluid proteins that increase the egg-laying rate of females are beneficial for males, but can reduce the lifespan of the female drosophila. [4] [13] Apc26Aa is one of the seminal fluid proteins that can cause these postmating changes in female drosophila. [9] She found that seminal fluid proteins can act as switches that activate physiology in the mated females. [14] [15] [16] Wolfner works with Laura Harrington on the identification of seminal fluid proteins in mosquitoes that are responsible for the transmission of the Zika and dengue viruses. [4] [17]
She also works on the egg-to-embryo transition, after the oocyte is released and before it is activated to begin embryogenesis. [17] Wolfner demonstrated that the egg-to-embryo transition is not the same in drosophila and mammals. [4] In drosophila, the oocyte is squeezed into the oviduct, whereas in mammals the sperm triggers the transition. She showed that the activation process in drosophila involves a spike of calcium, which triggers downstream pathways. [4]
She was appointed the Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology & Genetics in Cornell University in 2013.[ citation needed ]