{"id":6,"date":"2013-12-20T17:51:22","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T17:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/?page_id=6"},"modified":"2014-04-22T04:48:36","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T04:48:36","slug":"research-in-the-staub-lab","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/research-in-the-staub-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/files\/2013\/12\/aflavi-glands1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/files\/2013\/12\/aflavi-glands1-300x209.jpg\" alt=\"aflavi glands1\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-95\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/files\/2013\/12\/aflavi-glands1-300x209.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/files\/2013\/12\/aflavi-glands1.jpg 412w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><strong><br \/>\nResearch in the Staub Lab\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Salamanders communicate via pheromones. My research focuses on understanding the structure, function, and evolution of pheromone-producing glands.\u00a0 Salamanders are known for their moist glandular skin, yet little is known about which glands actually produce pheromones other than the well-studied courtship glands on the male chin (known as the mental gland). While pheromones from the mental gland have been well studied, little is know about the pheromones that females produce or about the pheromones that males produce from non-mental glands sources. Interestingly, males of some species lack the pheromone-producing mental gland that is supposedly so important for courtship.\u00a0 Do they produce pheromones from other glands?\u00a0 Do they have pheromone genes?<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Current projects<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0 To identify pheromone producing glands in plethodontid salamanders we are starting a new project to first check the species\u2019 genome for pheromone genes.\u00a0 Ideally we would like to be able to do this with formalin-fixed specimens, so we don\u2019t have to use fresh tissue from living animals.\u00a0 Using primers for pheromone genes in <em>Plethodon shermani<\/em>, we will use the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gel electrophoresis to identify pheromone genes in other species.\u00a0 PCR products will be sequenced and compared to known pheromone genes. \u00a0\u00a0Sequence results from this study will be used to build specific probes for in-situ hybridization projects to identity specific pheromone-producing glands.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>2) <em>in situ<\/em> hybridization studies: We design pheromone (PRF, PMF, SPF) specific mRNA probes to use with <em>in situ<\/em> hybridization to detect which glands, of the many in salamander skin, are actually producing pheromone mRNA in both males and females. Several questions can be addressed using this approach:\u00a0 1) Where are courtship pheromones produced in males that lack specialized courtship glands?\u20282) Which glands in the post-cloacal region produce pheromones?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research in the Staub Lab\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Salamanders communicate via pheromones. My research focuses on understanding the structure, function, and evolution of pheromone-producing glands.\u00a0 Salamanders are known for their moist glandular skin, yet little is known about which glands actually produce pheromones &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/research-in-the-staub-lab\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":369,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.gonzaga.edu\/staub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}