Austen Ganley
Senior Lecturer, Genetics and Evolution

Institute of Molecular Biosciences
Massey University
Private Bag 102-904
North Shore Mail Centre
Auckland, New Zealand
+64 (9) 414-0800 ext. 41512
a.r.ganley@massey.ac.nz

Background

Bsc (Massey University 1992), BSc(Hons) (Massey University 1993), PhD (Massey University 2000), Post-doctoral fellow, Duke University (2000-2002), Post-doctoral fellow, National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan (2002-2006), Assistant Professor, National Institute of Genetics (2007)

Teaching

203.300                       Advanced Molecular Biology

247.300                       Research in BioSciences

203.341                       Genetics and Evolution (paper coordinator)

196.318                       Molecular Ecology

Research Interests

• Ribosomal DNA repeat dynamics
• Regulation of recombination
• Role of ribosomal DNA repeats in cancer and ageing
• Evolution of repeat DNA
• Fungal Genetics

Selected Publications

Ganley, A.R.D., and T. Kobayashi. 2011. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 28:2883-2891. Monitoring the rate and dynamics of concerted evolution in the ribosomal DNA repeats of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using experimental evolution.

Ganley, A.R.D., S. Ide, K. Saka, and T. Kobayashi. 2009. Molecular Cell. 35:683-693. The effect of replication initiation on gene amplification in the rDNA and its relationship to aging.

Regier, J.C., J.W. Shultz, A.R.D. Ganley, A. Hussey, D. Shi, B. Ball, A. Zwick, J.E. Stajich, M.P. Cummings, J.W. Martin, and C.W. Cunningham. 2008. Systematic Biology. 57:920-938. Resolving arthropod phylogeny: exploring phylogenetic signal within 41 kb of protein-coding nuclear gene sequence. 

Ganley, A.R.D. and T. Kobayashi. 2007. Genome Research. 17:184-191. Highly efficient concerted evolution in the ribosomal DNA repeats: total rDNA repeat variation revealed by whole genome shotgun sequence data.

Kobayashi, T. and A.R.D. Ganley. 2005. Science. 309:1581-1584. Recombination regulation by transcription-induced cohesin dissociation in rDNA repeats.

Ganley, A.R.D., K. Hayashi, T. Horiuchi, and T. Kobayashi. 2005. PNAS. 102:11787-11792. Identifying gene-independent noncoding functional elements in the yeast ribosomal DNA by phylogenetic footprinting.

Morehouse, E., T.Y. James, A.R.D. Ganley, R. Vilgalys, L. Berger, P.J. Murphy, and J.E. Longcore.  2003. Molecular Ecology. 12:395-403. Multilocus sequence typing suggests the chytrid pathogen of amphibians is a recently emerged clone.

Ganley, A.R.D. and B. Scott. 2002. Fungal Genetics and Biology. 35:39-51. Concerted evolution in the ribosomal RNA genes of an Epichloë endophyte hybrid: Comparison between tandemly-arranged rDNA and dispersed 5S rrn genes.

Ganley, A.R.D. and B. Scott. 1998. Genetics. 150:1625-1637. Extraordinary ribosomal spacer length heterogeneity in a Neotyphodium endophyte hybrid: Implications for concerted evolution.