Genetics of body size variation and PAPPA2

Christians, J.K., and Gruslin, A. Altered levels of insulin-like growth factor binding protein proteases in preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction. Accepted in Prenatal Diagnosis, June 6, 2010.

Wagner, P.K., and Christians, J.K. (2010) Altered placental expression of PAPPA2 does not affect birth weight in mice.  Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology 2010, 8: 90. [PDF]

Wang, J., Qiu, Q., Haider, M., Bell, M., Gruslin, A., and Christians, J.K. (2009) Expression of pregnancy associated plasma protein A2 (PAPPA2) during pregnancy in human and mouse. Journal of Endocrinology 202: 337-345. [accepted preprint]

Christians, J.K. and Senger, L.K. (2007) Fine mapping dissects pleiotropic growth quantitative trait locus into linked loci. Mammalian Genome 18:240–245.

Christians, J.K., Hoeflich, A. and Keightley, P.D. (2006) PAPPA2, an enzyme that cleaves an insulin-like growth factor binding protein, is a candidate gene for a QTL affecting body size in mice.  Genetics 173: 1547–1553. [PDF]

Oliver, F. *, Christians, J.K. *, Liu, X, Rhind, S., Verma, V., Davison, C., Brown, S.D.M, Denny, P., and Keightley, P.D. (2005) Regulatory variation at glypican-3 underlies a major growth QTL in mice.  PLoS Biology 3: e135. * equal contribution.  [PDF]  

Christians, J.K., Rance, K.A., Knott, S.A., Pignatelli, P.M., Oliver, F. and Bünger, L. (2004)  Identification and reciprocal introgression of a QTL affecting body mass in mice.  Genetics Selection Evolution 36: 577-591. [PDF] The original publication is also available at www.edpsciences.org/gse.

Christians, J.K. and Keightley, P.D. (2004) Fine mapping of a murine growth locus to a 1.4 cM region and resolution of linked QTL.  Mammalian Genome 15: 482-491.

Stylianou, I.M., Christians, J.K., Keightley, P.D., Bünger, L., Clinton, M., Bulfield, G., Horvat, S. (2004) Genetic complexity of an obesity QTL (Fob3) revealed by detailed genetic mapping.  Mammalian Genome 15: 472-481.

Christians, J.K., Bingham, V., Oliver, F., Heath, T.T. and Keightley, P.D. (2003) Characterisation of a QTL affecting skeletal size in mice.  Mammalian Genome 14: 175-183.

Reproductive physiology

Williams, T.D., Challenger, W.O., Christians, J.K., Evanson, M., Love, O. and Vézina, F. (2004) What causes the decrease in hematocrit during egg production?  Functional Ecology 18: 330-336. [PDF]

Christians, J.K., and Williams, T.D. (2002) Effects of porcine follicle-stimulating hormone on the reproductive performance of female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).  General and Comparative Endocrinology 125: 121-131.

Christians, J.K., and Williams, T.D. (2001) Interindividual variation in yolk mass and the rate of growth of ovarian follicles in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata).  Journal of Comparative Physiology - Part B 171: 255-261.  [PDF]

Christians, J.K., and Williams, T.D. (2001) Intraspecific variation in reproductive physiology and egg quality in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris).  Journal of Avian Biology 32: 31-37. [PDF]

Challenger, W.O., Williams, T.D., Christians, J.K., and Vézina, F. (2001) Follicular development and plasma yolk precursor dynamics through the laying cycle in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris).  Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 74: 356-365.

Christians, J.K. (2000) Producing extra eggs does not deplete macronutrient reserves in European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).  Journal of Avian Biology 31: 312-318. [PDF]

Christians, J.K., and Williams, T.D. (1999) Effects of exogenous 17b-estradiol on the reproductive physiology and reproductive performance of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).  Journal of Experimental Biology 202: 2679-2685. [PDF]

Christians, J.K., and Williams, T.D. (1999) Organ mass dynamics in relation to yolk precursor production and egg formation in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).  Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 72: 455-461.

Williams, T.D., Christians, J.K., Aiken, J.J., and Evanson, M. (1999) Enhanced immune function does not depress reproductive output.  Proceedings of the Royal Society (London) B. 266: 753-757. [PDF]

Christians, J.K. (1999) Controlling for body mass effects:  is part-whole correlation important? Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 72: 250-253.

Reproductive ecology

Hansson, B., Jack, L., Christians, J.K., Pemberton, J.M., Åkesson, M., Westerdahl, H., Bensch, S., and Hasselquist, D. (2007) No evidence for inbreeding avoidance in a great reed warbler population. Behavioral Ecology 18: 157 - 164.

Williams, T.D., and Christians, J.K. (2003) Experimental dissociation of the effects of diet, age and breeding experience on primary reproductive effort in zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata.  Journal of Avian Biology 34: 379-386.  [PDF]

Christians, J.K. (2002) Avian egg size: variation within species and inflexibility within individuals.  Biological Reviews 77: 1-26. [PDF]

Christians, J.K., Evanson, M., and Aiken, J.J. (2001) Seasonal decline in clutch size in European Starlings:  a novel randomization test to distinguish between the timing and quality hypotheses.  Journal of Animal Ecology 70: 1080-1087. [PDF]

Christians, J.K. (2000) Trade-offs between egg size and number in waterfowl:  An interspecific test of the van Noordwijk and de Jong model.  Functional Ecology 14: 497-501. [PDF]

Other

Christians, J.K., and Watt, C.A. (2009) Mononucleotide repeats represent an important source of polymorphic microsatellite markers in Aspergillus nidulans. Molecular Ecology Resources 9: 572–578.

Hodgson, Z.G., Meddle, S.L., Christians, J.K., Sperry, T.S., and Healy, S.D. (2008) Influence of sex steroid hormones on spatial memory in a songbird. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 194: 963-969.

Invited commentaries

Christians, J.K. (2005) Meeting report: Behavioural genetics.  BioEssays 27: 664-666.

Christians, J.K. and Keightley, P.D. (2005) Behavioural genetics: Finding genes that cause complex trait variation.  Current Biology 15: R19-R21.

Christians, J.K. and Keightley, P.D. (2002) Genetic Architecture: Dissecting the Genetic Basis of Phenotypic Variation.  Current Biology 12: R415-R416.