Jerry B Dodgson

###Education
B.S., 1969, Michigan State University
Ph.D., 1976, University of Wisconsin
Postdoctoral Fellow, 1976-1979, California Institute of Technology

###Research
My research interests center on the development and use of genomics in agriculturally important species, principally chickens. Modern DNA-based techniques allow for the identification and use of a variety of polymorphic markers and thereby the development of high density genetic maps, along with clone-based physical maps and full genome sequences. Next generation sequencing and genome-wide association studies can then be used for tracing complex genetic traits important to agriculture (quantitative trait loci or QTL), isolation of genes via positional cloning, and characterization of genetic relationships. Our work has focused on the development of an international reference population for genetic mapping in chickens, comparative genome mapping between the chicken and human genome, and physical mapping of BAC contigs and map integration. Efforts by my lab along with several other labs world-wide led to the determination of the complete genome sequence of the chicken (the bird whose genome was sequenced is shown above.) and, more recently, the turkey. We continue to try to fill gaps and otherwise improve the draft reference sequences of these birds. We have recently sequenced a number of developmental mutants in chickens, and we also work on improving the annotation of the reference chicken genome.