J. S. Dasen

Little skate genome exposes the gene regulatory mechanisms underlying the evolution of vertebrate locomotion

The paper generates a high-quality little skate genome and analyzes motor neuron gene regulation across species to identify conserved and divergent mechanisms in vertebrate locomotion evolution.

The genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes

This paper identifies an Alu element insertion in the TBXT gene as the genetic mechanism driving tail-loss evolution in hominoids, showing it causes alternative splicing and tail absence in mice.