COMPUTER AIDS CHROMOSOME STUDY: UC Davis graduate student Roy Woolman wrote special software that "taught" a computer how to search for abnormal spindles in a project that identified the full set of about 200 genes that control the separation of chromosomes during cell division in the Drosophila fly.

The project led by UCSF postdoctoral researcher Gohta Goshima resulted in the first whole-genome analysis of such a complex cellular machine in a relatively advanced animal. The study appeared in a recent issue of the journal Science.

Woolman works in Jonathan Scholey's lab at UC Davis. Woolman's mentors are Scholey, a professor of cell biology and biochemistry; UC Davis math professor Alex Mogilner; and UCSF Professor Ronald Vale.

Goshima, who works with Vale, used RNA interference to individually block every known gene in Drosophila. Setting up dividing Drosophila cells in culture, Goshima looked for those that failed to make proper spindles.

That search was done using an automated microscope that acquires one image per second to generate millions of images overall. Wollman's software dealt with the large set of data — identifying spindles could then be examined in more detail by human eyes.

-- Andy Fell

RED FOXES: VALLEY BOYS AND GIRLS: Contrary to onetime scientific opinion, red foxes living in the Sacramento Valley are not an artificially introduced species that threaten local ecosystems, according to a UC Davis researcher.

Ben Sacks, an expert in canine genetics and a researcher in the School of Veterinary Medicine, has new findings suggesting that these animals are natives, and close cousins to the native Sierra Nevada red fox. In other low-elevation parts of the state, red foxes are indeed nonnative, invasive and a threat to several endangered bird species.

Sacks, who has been studying the foxes for the past 10 years, is reaching out to the public for help in reporting all sightings of red foxes in the Sacramento Valley and in the high elevations of the Sierra Nevada and Cascades mountains. He is requesting that anyone who sees any evidence of red foxes in the area, either alive or dead (such as roadkill), tell him about it online: foxsurvey.ucdavis.edu. The Web site includes tips and photos to help distinguish red foxes from gray foxes and coyotes.

"Getting this well-rounded stream of information will help us learn more about how the Sacramento Valley red fox interacts with its local environment."

Specifically, Sacks and his team are interested in understanding how the Sacramento Valley foxes, whose ancestors evolved in cold mountainous climates, adapted to the warm flatlands of the valley.

-- Sylvia Wright