Project description:An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and large volume underwater pumps were used to collect microbial biomass from offshore waters of the Sargasso Sea, from surface waters and into the deep ocean. Seawater collection was performed along a transect in the western North Atlantic Ocean beginning near Bermuda and ending off the coast of Massachusetts, capturing metabolic signatures from oligotrophic, continental margin, and productive coastal ecosystems.
Project description:We utilized the eyeless sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, to quantify gene expression differences between different colors of light (red, green, blue) and in constant darkness through comparisons of 96 transcriptomes
Project description:Flower phenotypes in the species Diplacus aurantiacus in Southern California along an east west transect range from large, yellow, insect-pollinated flowers through orange flowers to small, red, bird-pollinated flowers. Until now, intermediate forms were attributed to recurrent hybridization at the (sub)-species level. However, by monitoring the flower phenotypes of these populations in field studies over the past 20 years, Rolf Baumberger observed that the transition in flower phenotype occurs during the lifespan of individual long-lived plants, thus ruling out a hybrid origin of intermediate forms. Further research has revealed that this transition bears the hallmark of an epigenetic transition. The small, red, bird-pollinated state is stable and heritable but reverts at frequencies of 1-2 %, much higher than that of genetic alterations. In our first approach a comparative transcriptome analysis of individuals of both stable morphotypes, we like to unravel candidate genes involved in floral colour and morphology determination.
Project description:The red sea urchin, Mesocentrotus franciscanus, is one the earth’s longest-lived animals, reported to live more than 100 years with indeterminate growth, life-long reproduction and no increase in mortality rate with age. To explore the idea that transcriptional stability is a key determinant of longevity and negligible senescence, age-related gene expression was examined in three tissues of the red sea urchin (Aristotle’s lantern muscle, esophagus and radial nerve cord). Genome-wide transcriptional profiling using RNA-Seq revealed remarkable stability in muscle and esophagus with very few age-related changes in gene expression. In contrast, expression of more than 900 genes was significantly altered with age in radial nerve cord including genes involved in nerve function, signaling, metabolism, cytoskeleton, transcriptional regulation and chromatin modification. Notably, there was an upregulation in expression of genes involved in synaptogenesis and axonogenesis suggesting enhanced nervous system activity with age. Among the signaling pathways affected by age, there was a downregulation in expression of key components of the mTOR signaling pathway and an upregulation of negative regulators of this pathway. This was accompanied by a reduction in expression of genes involved in protein synthesis and mitochondrial function and an increase in expression of genes that promote autophagy. Downregulation of the mTOR pathway together with the other observed changes reveals a unique age-related gene expression profile in the red sea urchin nervous system that may contribute to mitigation of the detrimental effects of aging in this long-lived animal.