Early Fly Development

Normal development and maintenance of adult organism homeostasis relies on a regulatory cross talk between tissue morphogenesis, differentiation and cell division, which is crucial for organogenesis and for tissue integrity, growth and renewal. Our main research interest is to take advantage of Drosophila melanogaster as a model system to study tissue morphogenesis and cell division during development. Since tumorigenesis is frequently associated with loss of tissue integrity and misregulation of cell proliferation, we expect this work will give a contribution into a better understanding of molecular and cellular processes associated with the onset and development of cancer.

* We are looking for highly enthusiastic postdoctoral researchers

Current Affiliation: Universidade do Algarve, CBME, Portugal

Lab site: www.drosophila.pt

Publications

Alves, E., Henriques, B.J., Rodrigues, J.V., Prudêncio, P., Rocha, H., Vilarinho, L., Martinho, R.G. (*) and Gomes, C.M.(*) (2012)  Mutations at the flavin binding site of ETF:QO yield a MADD-like severe phenotype in Drosophila. Biochim Biophys Acta - Molecular Basis of Disease  (in Press)

Petra Van Damme (*), Kristine Hole (*), Ana Pimenta-Marques (*), Kenny Helsens, Joël Vandekerckhove, Rui G. Martinho, Kris Gevaert, Thomas Arnesen, (*) Equal contribution (2011)  NatF contributes to an evolutionary shift in protein N-terminal acetylation and is important for normal chromosome segregation PLoS Genetics  7(7) : e1002169

Guilgur L., Prudêncio P., Ferreira T., Pimenta-Marques A., Martinho R.G.(*) (2011)  Drosophila aPKC is required for mitotic spindle orientation during symmetric division of epithelial cells. (*) Corresponding author DEVELOPMENT  139(3) : 503-13

Rangan P., DeGennaro M., Jaime-Bustamante K. , Coux R., Martinho R.G., and Lehmann R. (2009)  Temporal and spatial control of germ plasm RNAs. Current Biology  19 (1) : 72-7

de las Heras, J.M. (*), Martinho, R.(*), Ruth Lehmann and Jordi Casanova (2009)  A functional antagonism between the pgc germ-line repressor and torso in the development of somatic cells (*) equal contribution. EMBO reports  10 (9) : 1059-65.

Pimenta-Marques, A., Tostões, R., Marty, T., Barbosa, V., Lehmann, R., Martinho, R.G. (*) (2008)  Differential requirements of a mitotic acetyltransferase in somatic and germ line cells. Developmental Biology  323 (2) : 197-206

Martinho, R.,G., Kunwar, P.S., Casanova, J., and Lehmann, R. (2004)  A non-coding RNA is required for the repression of RNApolII-dependent transcription in primordial germ cells. (This publication was featured in "Science Editor’s Choice" for highlights in recent literature; Science, vol. 303, Feb 6, 2004, and “Research Notes”; Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, vol. 11, Mar 2004). Current Biology,  14 (2) : 159-165

Read, R.L., Martinho, R. G., Wang, S.W., Carr, A.M., and Norbury, C.J. (2002)  Cytoplasmic poly(A) polymerases mediate cellular responses to S phase arrest Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,  99 (19) : 12079-12084

Christensen, P.U., Bentley, N.J., Martinho, R. G., Nielsen, O, and Carr, A.M. (2000)  Mik1 levels accumulate in S phase and may mediate an intrinsic link between S phase and mitosis Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,  14; 97  : 2579-2584

Martinho, R. G. and Carr, A.M. (1999)  Isolation of DNA structure-dependent Checkpoint Mutants in S. pombe DNA repair protocols"-Methods in Molecular Biology. Humana Press Inc. 

Martinho, R. G., Lindsay, H.D., Flaggs, G., DeMaggio, A.J., Hoekstra, M.F., Carr, A.M., and Bentley, N.J. (1998)  Analysis of Rad3 and Chk1 protein kinases defines different checkpoint responses EMBO J.  17 (24) : 7239-7249

 

Principal Investigator
Rui Martinho
PhD in Biology
University of Sussex, United Kingdom (UK)
Rui Martinho