Dr Nathan Watson-Haigh is a Postdoctoral Fellow with CSIRO Livestock Industries, working to understand genetic relationships underlying complex traits in livestock using 'genetical genomics' and systems biology approaches.
Current activities
Dr Nathan Watson-Haigh is based at the Queensland Bioscience Precinct (QBP) in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
He is part of the CSIRO Livestock Industries’ systems biology research team which aims to develop new and improved genetic and computational tools for the livestock industry.
His current research activities include:
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analysing high-throughput 'omics data sets
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combining genomic and transcriptomic analysis (termed 'genetical genomics') to study the genetics of gene expression
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developing integrated systems biology strategies using high-throughput 'omics data sets.
Background
Dr Watson-Haigh was born and educated in England. He joined CSIRO in 2008.
He completed a Master of Pharmacology at the University of Bath and his Doctor of Philosophy (Biology) at the University of York, England.
Dr Nathan Watson-Haigh's work with 'omics data sets at the University of Sheffield contributed to the development of standard reporting requirements for describing biological samples, taken from an environmental context.
Dr Watson-Haigh's doctoral studies in bioinformatics focused on molecular evolution and determining the root of the eukaryote genetic tree - that is the likely precursor organism or organisms that gave rise to the eukaryotes we know today.
Eukaryotes include us, other animals, plants and fungi and a rich variety of microorganisms (protists) - all organisms with nucleated cells. The nucleus - and the genetic material within - contains information on the history of life, though despite a wealth of information, the first steps in eukaryotic evolution appear difficult to resolve.
Prior to joining CSIRO, Dr Watson-Haigh was employed as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England. There he worked as a bioinformatician on a project investigating responses to abiotic stress at the range margins of the plant Arabidopsis lyrata petraea - a classical arctic and alpine species.
The margins of species distributions are of great interest to biologists. One of the key goals of ecology has been to understand the distribution of species, and the margins of a species' range delimit such distributions.
Two central biological problems of the 21st century, the spread of invasive species and the impact of climate change on natural populations, relate to the movement of species range margins.
Using the model species - Arabidopsis thaliana - the best-developed genomic resources of any plant and other species in the Brassicaceae (mustard family) clade - the University of Sheffield team:
- searched for candidate stress-related loci and gene products
- undertook detailed analyses of the properties of populations approaching latitudinal and altitudinal limits
- undertook interspecific comparisons between members of the Arabidopis clade with contrasting distributions to test for the presence of 'distribution genes'.
Dr Watson-Haigh's role in the project included:
- comparing Arabidopsis lyrata petraea sequences to A. thaliana
- project website design
- developing strategies for data storage
- visualisation and dissemination of proteomic, transcriptomic and metabolomic data generated.
Academic qualifications
Dr Watson-Haigh has been awarded a:
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Master of Pharmacology (Honours) from the University of Bath, England.
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Doctor of Philosophy (Biology) from the University of York, England.
His doctoral thesis was entitled Resolving the deep phylogeny of the Eukaryotic tree and locating its root.
Achievements
Results obtained from Dr Watson-Haigh's doctoral research supported the hypothesis of a jakobid rooting of the Eukaryotic tree, conflicting with the suggestion of an opisthokont rooting.
Jakobids are free-living, heterotrophic flagellates and possess the most eubacterial-like mitochondria of any eukaryote known to date. As such they have been thought of as some of the earliest diverging mitochondrial protists. Where as opisthokonts include the complex multicellular organisms, animals and fungi, as well as some others and are traditionally believed to have arisen out of the protists not alongside them.
Software to identify genetic relationships, developed during Dr Watson-Haigh's work, is now a key tool used within the Biology Department at the University of York.
His work with 'omics data sets at the University of Sheffield has contributed to the development of standard reporting requirements for describing biological samples, taken from an environmental context and involved in metabolomic experiments.
Dr Watson-Haigh has been an active developer within the BioPerl community. The BioPerl project is an international association of developers of open source Perl coding tools for bioinformatics, genomics and life science research.
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