Wakimoto, Barbara

The Wakimoto Lab is undertaking a large-scale analysis of fertilization-defective and paternal effect mutations of Drosophila. The investment in recovery and analysis of these male sterile mutations has been extensive, but we now have the best handle on the genetics of fertilization and sperm function in any organism. Using a combination of forward genetics, reverse genetics, and cell biology, we are discovering highly conserved molecules important for sperm activation, sperm-egg interactions, and maintenance of paternal chromosomes during early embryogenesis.