Keller Lab
The Keller lab detects and analyzes environmental DNA (or eDNA), specifically identifying species of concern, invasive species, and water-borne pathogens. ​
We have worked with community agencies such as Butte County Resource Conservation District and the California Department of Water Resources to identify trace amounts of DNA deposited by organisms in water.
​The goal of this work is to inform management decisions that will benefit the ecosystem as well as the community. ​
Examples of species that we have studied include Sierra yellow-legged frog, the freshwater mussel western pearlshell, and fish pathogens including Myxobolus cerebralis, the causative agent of whirling disease, and Flavobacterium columnare, the causative agent of colunaris disease.
​The Keller lab is interested in the molecular and genetic mechanisms of organ and tissue identity. In multicellular organisms, each cell in the body has the exact same copy of the genome, and yet it is readily apparent that the organs of the body are structurally diverse and functionally specialized. What is the genetic basis for this specialization?
The answer is that each cell expresses only a subset of all the genes in the genome. Only those genes necessary for that particular cell are expressed, and no others. The process of expressing genes is called transcription and involves the generation of messenger RNA from a DNA template.
​
Transcription is controlled by protein transcription factors and by small regulatory RNA molecules called microRNAs.
Whereas some transcription factors and microRNAs are broadly distributed throughout the body, others are restricted to only one organ or tissue. These regulatory molecules are called cellular identify factors, because they impart identity to the cell based upon the genes they turn on (or off).
​
​
