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Klaus Kalthoff
Kalthoff

Professor

Ph.D. UniversitSØt Freiburg, Germany

kkalthoff@mail.utexas.edu

Office Bio 313
(512) 471-1412 or 471-7156

Teaching web sites:

BIO 346 Developmental Biology
BIO 349 Human Biology
BIO 170C Seminar Course

Video PC Mac  
Eggs of midges contain ribonucleoprotein particles acting as anterior determinants: they are localized near the anterior pole of the egg and direct the formation of anterior body parts. Inactivation of these determinants by ultraviolet light (UV) or RNase causes the formation of "double abdomen" embryos, in which head and thorax are replaced with a mirror image duplication of the abdomen. Using a rescue bioassay, we have characterized the RNA moiety of the anterior determinants as maternal, small (<600 nt), and polyadenylated. UV damage to anterior determinants and other egg RNAs is reversible in a catalyzed reaction that depends on light of longer wavelength. This photoreversal is correlated with the disappearance of UV-induced pyrimidine dimers from egg RNA.


Selected Publications


Kalthoff K. (2000) Analysis of Biological Development. New York: McGraw-Hill (textbook, 2nd edition).

Elbetieha, A. and K. Kalthoff (1988) Anterior determinants in embryos of Chironomus samoensis: Characterization by rescue bioassay. Development 104, 61-75.

Rau K.-G. and K. Kalthoff (1980) Complete reversal of antero-posterior polarity in a centrifuged insect embryo. Nature 287, 635-637.

Kandler-Singer, I. and K. Kalthoff (1976) RNase sensitivity of an anterior morphogenetic determinant in an insect egg (Smittia sp., Chironomidae, Diptera). Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 73, 3739-3743.

Kalthoff, K. (1975) Compensation for solar UV damage by solar radiation of longer wavelengths (Smittia sp., Chironomidae, Diptera). Oecologia 18, 101 - 110.

Kalthoff, K. (1973) Action spectra for UV-induction and photoreversal of a switch in the developmental program of the egg of an insect (Smittia). Photochem. Photobiol. 18, 355-364.
 
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