Katie Billmyre

Our lab is broadly interested in understanding aspects of meiotic chromosome biology. Meiosis is the process by which a diploid genome (2 sets of chromosomes) is reduced to a haploid genome (1 set of chromosomes) and packaged into either eggs or sperm. Inheritance of a complete set of chromosomes is important for production of viable offspring, meaning that meiosis is critical for fertility. In humans, meiotic errors that cause missegregation of chromosomes are a leading cause of infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects. Accurate chromosome segregation is challenging in part because organisms typically contain sets of chromosomes with vast differences in size and structure. For example, the largest human chromosome is 5 times longer than the smallest and in the model fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster the largest is 46 times longer than the smallest. Meiosis must accurately segregate distinctly different chromosomes and my lab’s past work has revealed meiotic mechanisms specific to individual chromosomes in Drosophila. We are using a combination of imaging, genetic, and genomic techniques to answer questions about how different chromosomes accurately undergo meiosis using Drosophila as a model system.