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Clifton Ragsdale

Professor
cragsdal@uchicago.edu
Websites
Research Summary
The octopus is rich in evolutionary novelties, from an immense nervous system to prehensile arms to a tremendously sophisticated adaptive coloration system. It is the octopus's brain and behavior that has attracted the greatest study, but much of this research was done in the 20th century and limited by the techniques of the time. The major focus of the Ragsdale laboratory is to bring the modern advances in neuroscience, molecular cell biology and genetic manipulation to the study of cephalopod biology. Our first major step was into genomics and transcriptomics. In 2015, the Ragsdale laboratory, in collaboration with the Rokhsar group at UC-Berkeley, reported the genome of the Ragsdale lab's chosen model organism, Octopus bimaculoides. Current research includes comparative cephalopod genomics, octopus arm regeneration, the organization of the cephalopod nervous system, and the neuroendocrinology of octopus sex and death. The other focus of the Ragsdale laboratory is the evolutionary developmental neurobiology of the neocortex.
Keywords
Octopuses, Neocortex, Systems Neuroscience, Developmental Biology, Evolutionary biology, Regeneration
Biosciences Graduate Program Association
Publications

  1. de Mendoza A, Poppe D, Buckberry S, Pflueger J, Albertin CB, Daish T, Bertrand S, de la Calle-Mustienes E, Gómez-Skarmeta JL, Nery JR, Ecker JR, Baer B, Ragsdale CW, Grützner F, Escriva H, Venkatesh B, Bogdanovic O, Lister R. The emergence of the brain non-CpG methylation system in vertebrates. Nat Ecol Evol. 2021 03; 5(3):369-378. View in: PubMed

  2. Briscoe SD, Ragsdale CW. Evolution of the Chordate Telencephalon. Curr Biol. 2019 07 08; 29(13):R647-R662. View in: PubMed

  3. Briscoe SD, Ragsdale CW. Homology, neocortex, and the evolution of developmental mechanisms. Science. 2018 10 12; 362(6411):190-193. View in: PubMed

  4. Wang ZY, Ragsdale CW. Multiple optic gland signaling pathways implicated in octopus maternal behaviors and death. J Exp Biol. 2018 10 08; 221(Pt 19). View in: PubMed

  5. Briscoe SD, Ragsdale CW. Molecular anatomy of the alligator dorsal telencephalon. J Comp Neurol. 2018 07 01; 526(10):1613-1646. View in: PubMed

  6. Briscoe SD, Albertin CB, Rowell JJ, Ragsdale CW. Neocortical Association Cell Types in the Forebrain of Birds and Alligators. Curr Biol. 2018 03 05; 28(5):686-696.e6. View in: PubMed

  7. Albertin CB, Ragsdale CW. More than one way to a central nervous system. Nature. 2018 01 04; 553(7686):34-36. View in: PubMed

  8. Wang ZY, Ragsdale CW. Cadherin genes and evolutionary novelties in the octopus. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2017 09; 69:151-157. View in: PubMed

  9. Albertin CB, Simakov O, Mitros T, Wang ZY, Pungor JR, Edsinger-Gonzales E, Brenner S, Ragsdale CW, Rokhsar DS. The octopus genome and the evolution of cephalopod neural and morphological novelties. Nature. 2015 Aug 13; 524(7564):220-4. View in: PubMed

  10. Dugas-Ford J, Rowell JJ, Ragsdale CW. Cell-type homologies and the origins of the neocortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Oct 16; 109(42):16974-9. View in: PubMed

  11. Hasan KB, Agarwala S, Ragsdale CW. PHOX2A regulation of oculomotor complex nucleogenesis. Development. 2010 Apr; 137(7):1205-13. View in: PubMed
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