Richard Southgate

Visiting Assistant Professor

Address: RITA 224
Phone: 843.953.6544


Ph.D. - University of Geneva, Switzerland

M.A., B.S. - University of Freiburg, Switzerland

Research Interests

Together with Dr. Agnes Southgate, I work on different aspects of insect flight, using comparative bioformatics based on the “projectin” gene and protein sequences in different species. Some of the insects types examined so far include: dragonflies, honey bees, beetles, mosquitoes, aphids, lice, fruit flies, ants etc. with the goal of determining what types of molecular, cell and protein changes and adaptations were used in various evolutionary attempts to master successful insect flight.

Courses Taught

BIO 312L: Molecular Biology Lab
BIO 313: Cell Biology
BIO 332: Developmental Biology


Ayme-Southgate A, Philipp RA, Southgate RJ. Projectin PEVK domain, splicing variants and domain structure in basal and derived insects. Insect Mol Biol. 2011 Jun;20(3):347-56. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2583.2011.01069.x. Epub 2011 Feb 23. PubMed PMID: 21349121.

Ayme-Southgate AJ, Southgate RJ, Philipp RA, Sotka EE, Kramp C. The myofibrillar protein, projectin, is highly conserved across insect evolution except for its PEVK domain. J Mol Evol. 2008 Dec;67(6):653-69. PubMed PMID:18982379; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2775928.

Ayme-Southgate A, Saide J, Southgate R, Bounaix C, Cammarato A, Patel S, Wussler C. In indirect flight muscles Drosophila projectin has a short PEVK domain, and its NH2-terminus is embedded at the Z-band. J Muscle Res Cell Motil. 2005;26(6-8):467-77. PubMed PMID: 16465474.

Ayme-Southgate A, Bounaix C, Riebe TE, Southgate R. Assembly of the giant protein projectin during myofibrillogenesis in Drosophila indirect flight muscles. BMC Cell Biol. 2004 Apr 30;5:17. PubMed PMID: 15119962; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC419972.

Southgate R, Ayme-Southgate A. Alternative splicing of an amino-terminal PEVK-like region generates multiple isoforms of Drosophila projectin. J Mol Biol. 2001 Nov 9;313(5):1035-43. PubMed PMID: 11700060.