Myelin evolution research interests
(talk titles for participants in NESCent meeting are indicated)
(note: in email addresses "$" replaces "@")
- Ray Bauer Univ. of Louisiana, Lafayette
- Manzoor Bhat Univ. of North Carolina
- Ed Buskey University of Texas, Austin, Marine Science Institute
- Ann Castelfranco University of Hawaii
- Andy Christie, Universtiy of Washington
- Dave Colman, McGill University, Canada
- Robert Gould, University of Illinois, Chicago
- Ken Halanych, Auburn University
- Dan Hartline, University of Hawaii
- Rob Jennings, University of Connecticut
- David King, Southern Illinois University
- Petra Lenz, University of Hawaii
- Mark Martindale, University of Hawaii
- David McClellan, Bigelow Marine Laboratory
- Todd Oakley, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Betty Roots, University of Totonto, Canada
- Elaine Seaver, University of Hawaii
- Monica Vianna, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- Gunter Wagner, Yale University
- Hauke Werner, Max Planck Institute, Gottingen, Germany
- Caroline Wilson, Denison University
Contact: rtbauer$louisiana.edu
Institution: Department of Biology, University of Louisiana, Lafayette LA
Talk title: Shrimp systematics, evolution, natural history, and myelin
Biographical: Reproductive biology is a major area of research in Ray's laboratory. Included are the environmental factors and selective pressures that explain latitudinal variation in spawning patterns in shrimps and other crustaceans; the sexual systems of shrimps, including hermaphroditic species and protandry (sex change); mating systems and strategies of shrimps, stomatopods, and other crustaceans; and more recently, reproductive migrations of freshwater river shrimps. Other areas of interest are the adaptive value of structures of unknown or undocumented function; how crustaceans maintain their bodies free of aquatic "dirt" and fouling organisms; and the mechanics of insemination in caridean and penaeoidean shrimps from an evolutionary perspective. [extract from web posting]
Publications:
- Baldwin, A.P. and R.T. Bauer. 2003. Growth, survivorship, life-span, and sex change in the hermaphroditic shrimp Lysmata wurdemanni (Decapoda: Caridean: Hippolytidae). Mar. Biol. 143: 157-166
Contact: manzoor_bhat$med.unc.edu
Institution: Dept. of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Univ. of North Carolina Med. School, Chapel Hill, NC
Talk title: Genetic dissection of axo-glial junctions: Insights from flies and mice
Biographical: Manzoor's laboratory is investigating the genetic and molecular basis of complex, and reciprocal interactions between various types of glial cells, which play a key role in axonal insulation and blood-brain barrier (BBB) formation during Drosophila development. They have demonstrated that septate junctions between perineurial and inner glial cells play an essential role in axonal insulation and BBB formation. They identified the first molecular component of the glial-glial septate junctions, which was named Neurexin IV [from web page].
Publications:
- Banerjee, S. and M.A. Bhat. 2007. Neuron-glial interactions in blood-brain barrier formation Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 30: 235-258
- Banerjee, S., A.M. Pillai, R. Paik, J. Li and M.A. Bhat. 2006. Axonal ensheathment and septate junction formation in the peripheral nervous system of Drosophila.
J. Neurosci. 26(12): 3319-3329
Contact: buskey$utmsi.utexas.edu
Institution: Univ. of Texas, Austin, Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, TX
Talk title: Copepod adaptations for avoiding predation: experimental studies of predator-prey interactions.
Biographical: Ed is a zooplankton ecologist investigating behavior, metabolism, nutrition and growth. His lab has investigated predator-prey interactions between copepods and natural predators such as fish, ctenophores and cubozoan medusae. They have pioneered studies of zooplankton sensory perception using video-computer motion analysis techniques. They were the first to simultaneously measure activity and respiration rates in several species of zooplankton, providing some of the only empirically measured estimates of the cost of swimming in small crustacean zooplankton species. Ed is also interested in the role of nutrition in mediating planktonic food web interactions.
Publications:
- Clarke, R.D., E.J. Buskey and K.C. Marsden 2005. Effects of water motion and prey behavior on zooplankton capture by two coral reef fishes Mar. Biol. 146: 1145-1155
- Waggett, R.J. and Buskey 2006. Copepod sensitivity to flow fields: detection by copepods of predatory ctenophores. Mar. Ecol. Progr. Ser. 323: 205-211.
Contact: castelf$pbrc.hawaii.edu
Institution: Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI
Talk title: Modeling nerve conduction in axons evolving myelin
Biographical: Ann is an applied mathematician studying computational properties of nerve cells. She works on synaptic integration and the spread of electrical signals through branching dendritic trees using simulations of reconstructed neurons, as well as on developing new techniques for physiologically-based parameter estimation. Ann has been applying modelling approaches to a comparison of myelinated and non-myelinated neurons using biologically realistic parameters derived from morphological and physiological measurements. She has explored modeling transitional forms in the evolution of myelin and making a cost-benefit analysis of various myelination parameters.
Contact: david.colman$mcgill.ca
Institution: Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
Talk title: Structure of vertebrate myelin
Biographical: Dave is a cell biologist whose research focuses on the interactions between cell adhesion molecules, in particular, those of the vertebrate myelin sheath. The Colman laboratory has investigated the biochemistry, molecular structure and most recently the evolutionary origins of myelin proteins. Dave is the Director of the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill.
Publications:
- Pedraza, L., J.K. Huang and D.R. Colman. 2001. Organizing principles of the axoglial apparatus. Neuron 30: 335-344.
- Yoshida, M. and D.R. Colman 1996. Parallel evolution and coexpression of the proteolipid proteins and Protein Zero in vertebrate myelin. Neuron 16: 1115-1126
Robert Gould
Institution: University of Illinois, Chicago IL
Contact: rmgould$uic.edu
Talk title: Vertebrate myelination – from a common ancestor to extant sharks and mammals
Biographical:
Publications:
- Gould, R.M., A.M. Fannon and S.J. Moorman 1995. Neural cells from dogfish embryos express the same subtype-specific antigens as mammalian neural cells in vivo and in vitro Glia 15: 401-418
- Gould, R.M., H.G. Morrison, E. Gilland and R.K. Campbell 2005. Myelin tetrasoan family proteins but no non-tetraspan proteins are present in the sacidian (Ciona intestinalis) genome Biol. Bull. 209: 49-66
- Gould, R.M., T.H. Oakley, J.V. Goldstone, J.C. Dugas, S.T. Brady and A. Gow, 2009. Myelin sheaths are formed with proteins that originated in vertebrate lineages. Neuron Glia Biol. 4(2): 137-152 (Abstract )
Contact: halanych$auburn.edu
Institution: Auburn University, Auburn, GA
Talk title: Current understanding of annelid phylogeny
Biographical: The Halanych lab is studying how the extensive morphological variation among marine invertebrates came about by exploring questions on different time scales and with different types of genomic information. They combine molecular systematic and/or genomic approaches with information from organismal evolution as a powerful approach to studying issues ranging from the origin of major animal lineages to the recent biogeographic history of commercially important species. He is P.I. on NSF's WormNet project, which is reconstructing the early evolution of segmented annelid worms and should shed light on the origin of annelid myelin. [extract from web pages]
Publications:
- Halanych, K.M. 2004. The new view of animal phylogeny. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 35: 229-256
- Struck, T.H., N. Schult, T. Kusen, E. Hickman, C. Bleidorn, D. McHugh and K.M. Halanych. 2007. Annelid phylogeny and the status of Sipuncula and Echiura. BMC Evol. Biol. 7: 57-
Contact: danh$hawaii.edu
Institution:Pacific Biosciences Research Center [PBRC], Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa
Talk title: Myelin in malacostraca: a preliminary phylogenetic assessment
Biographical: Dan is a neurophysiologist whose lab has studied the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion as a model for motor pattern-generator networks. Results of these studies include the discovery of plateau potentials (now found to be ubiquitous in pattern-generation networks) and characterization of non-spiking synaptic interactions. In copepods, he and Petra Lenz have characterized the sensitivity of antennular mechanoreceptors to hydrodynamic signals that trigger escape behavior, and have quantified the resulting motor performance. The work led to the discovery of myelination in certain families of calanoid copepods and has initiated study of the behavioral, ecological and evolutionary ramifications of this innovation. He collaborates with Ann Castelfranco on computer modeling of the spread of active and passive signals along neural processes, with Ed Buskey and Petra Lenz on quantifying behavior in copepods, and with Andy Christie on peptide hormone localization in copepods. Dan is director of Univ. of Hawaii's Békésy Laboratory of Neurobiology.
Publications:
Contact: robert.jennings$uconn.edu
Institution: Marine Science Institute, University of Connecticut at Avery Point, Groton, CT
Talk title: Phylogenetic analysis of Calanoid copepods: providing an evolutionary framework for the myelin innovation
Biographical: Rob is interested in zooplankton population genetics and adaptation especially of the marine annelid Clymenella torquata (bamboo worm) and calanoid copepods in the Northwest Atlantic. He is also interested in non-equilibrium gene flow, genetic metapopulation models, hydrothermal vent dispersal and gene flow (particularly of siboglinid polychaetes) and ribosomal gene sequence evolution models. [from web posting]
Publications:
- Jennings, R.M. and K.M. Halanych (2005). Mitochondrial genomes of Clymenella torquata (Maldanidae) and Riftia pachyptila (Siboglinidae): Evidence for conserved gene order in Annelida. Molec. Biol. Evol. 22: 210-222.
Contact: dgking$siu.edu
Institution: Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL
Talk title: What's so special about giant axons?
Biographical: David G. King is a neuroscientist (Ph.D., Univ. Calif. San Diego,
1975) with experience describing nerve cell architecture in spiny lobster (Panulirus)
and flies (Diptera). For the past decade, he has written about the genetic and evolutionary functions of
tandem-repetitive DNA (simple sequence repeats; micro- and minisatellites).
Publications:
Contact: petra$pbrc.hawaii.edu
Institution: Pacific Biosciences Research Center, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI
Talk title: The biogeography of myelinated copepods
Biographical: Petra is a zooplankton ecologist with expertise in neurobiology, behavior and genomics. She has studied physiological and structural relationships in copepod nervous systems (including myelin) and their impact on escape behavior and predator-prey ecology. More recently, she has started to use molecular techniques to investigate environmental stress. Her research focuses on the occurrence and structure of myelin in both adult and developing crustaceans and annelids, on behavioral studies in collaboration with Dan Hartline and Ed Buskey, on stress-induced changes in gene experssion in copepods and in population dynamics in cultures of copepods.
Publications:
Contact: mqmartin$hawaii.edu
Institution: Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI
Talk title: Evolution of triploblasty
Biographical: Mark is an evolutionary biologist interested in body plan innovations in invertebrates. His research focuses on the cellular, molecular, and evolutionary bases of biological pattern formation. He is co-P.I. (with Ken Halanych and Elaine Seaver) on NSF's WormNet project, which is reconstructing the early evolution of segmented annelid worms Mark is director of Univ. of Hawaii's Kewalo Marine Laboratory.
Publications:
- Martindale, M.Q., K. Pang and J.R. Finnerty. 2004. Investigating the origins of triploblasty: "Mesodermal" gene expression in a diploblastic animal, the sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis (phylum, Cnidaria; Class Anthozoa). Development 131 2463-2474.
- Lee, P.N., P. Callaerts, H.G. de Couet, and M.Q. Martindale. 2003. Cephalopod Hox genes and the origin of morphological novelties. Nature 424: 1061-1065.
David McClellan
Contact: mcclellanda143$gmail.com
Institution: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, West Boothbay Harbor, ME
Talk title: Turning the black box inside-out: A genetic decoder ring for deciphering the results of molecular adaptation
Biographical: David specializes in evolutionary bioinformatics and proteomics working on molecular systematics and protein evolution from a physicochemical perspective. As part of this work, David has developed a new approach to investigate directional evolution (TreeSAAP). He is interested in linking empirical results with theory, applying software he has developed and other bioinformatic approaches to structure-function analysis in the context of phylogenetic trees of character evolution.
Publications:
- McClellan, D.A., J.L. Moss, E.J. Palfreyman, M.J. Smith, R.G. Christensen, and J.K. Sailsbery. 2005. Physicochemical evolution and molecular adaptation of the cetacean cytochrome b protein. Molec. Biol. Evol. 22: 437-455.
- Woolley, S., J. Johnson, M.J. Smith, K.A. Crandall, and D.A. McClellan. 2003. TreeSAAP: Selection on Amino Acid Properties using phylogenetic trees. Bioinformatics 19: 671-672.
Contact: oakley$lifesci.ucsb.edu
Institution: Deptartment of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Talk title: Tree thinking, duplication, and co-option in the evolutionary origins of novelty
Biographical: Todd's research involves comparisons of independent evolutionary transitions such as convergence, parallelism, duplication, and homoplasy. Such transitions provide an element of replicability within the singular history of life, and can yield insight into the most general evolutionary questions. For example, when and why do the same molecular or developmental changes underlie similar - though independent - evolutionary changes? What are the fates of duplicated genes, and what causes them to diversify or retain old functions? How can we even determine what is an independent evolutionary event? These questions have driven his research on eye evolution, which focuses on major evolutionary transitions such as the independent origin of an arthropod compound eye and the loss of eyes in females - but not males - of one species. He also pursues them in research on gene duplication in salmonid fishes. In additon, he conducts methodological studies on ancestral state reconstruciton. [extract from web posting]
Publications:
- Serb J.M. and T.H. Oakley 2005. Hierarchical phylogenetics as a quantitative analytical framework for evolutionary developmental biology. BioEssays 27:1158-1166.
- Plachetzki D.C. and T.H. Oakley 2007. Key transitions during animal eye evolution: Novelty, tree thinking, co-option and co-duplication. Integr. Comp. Biol. (adv access June 22)
- Gould, R.M., T.H. Oakley, J.V. Goldstone, J.C. Dugas, S.T. Brady and A. Gow, 2009. Myelin sheaths are formed with proteins that originated in vertebrate lineages. Neruon Glia Biol. 4(2): 137-152 (Abstract)
Contact: bir$zoo.utoronto.ca
Institution: Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Talk title: Annelid myelin, structure, function, composition and questions
Biographical: Betty has two major research interests. One is the response of animals to changes in their environment with special reference to the nervous system. The other is in the structure and function of glial cells and neuron-glia relationships, particularly from a phylogenetic point of view. Myelinating glia in both vertebrates and invertebrates and the chemical nature of myelin are of particular interest. [web posting]
Publications:
- Cardone, B., and Roots, B.I. 1996. Monoclonal antibodies to proteins of the myelin-like sheath of earthworm giant axons show cross-reactivity to crayfish CNS glia: An immunogold electron microscopy study. Neurochem. Res 21: 505-510.
- Roots, B.I. 1995. The evolution of myelinating cells. In: Neuron-Glia Interrelationships During Phylogeny I Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Glial Cells. Eds A. Vernadakis and B. I. Roots. Humana Press Inc Totowa, NJ. pp 223-248.
- Roots, B.I. 2009. The phylogeny of invertebrates and the evolution of myelin. Neuron Glia Biol. 4(2): 101-109. (Abstract)
Contact: seaver$hawaii.edu
Institution: Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Talk title: Evolution of segmentation
Biographical: Elaine is a developmental biologist investigating the evolutionary origins of novel annelid body plans. Her lab utilizes a variety of molecular techniques (e.g., PCR, cloning, sequencing, whole-mount in situ hybridization, immunolocalization) in conjunction with classical techniques of microinjection, cell labeling, ablation, and transplantation, to address fundamental problems in developmental biology in a phylogenetic context. She is co-P.I. (with Ken Halanych and Mark Martindale) on NSF's WormNet project, which is reconstructing the early evolution of segmented annelid worms.
Publications:
- Seaver, E. C., Segmentation: mono or polyphyletic? Int. J. Dev. Biol. 47:583-596.
- Seaver, E. C. and L.M. Kaneshige. 2006. Expression of 'segmentation' genes during larval and juvenile development in the polychaetes Capitella sp. I and H. elegans. Dev. Biol. 289: 179-194.
Monica Vianna
Contact: mrmvianna$yahoo.com
Institution: PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Talk title:Shrimp myelin: a penaeid perspective
Biographical: Monica is a cell biologist interested in the function of adhesion molecules in the nervous system, and the role of cell-cell interactions in nervous system development and regeneration. She is actively investigating the proteins and gene sequences of copepod and shrimp myelin.
Contact: gunter.wagner$yale.edu
Institution: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale Univ., New Haven, CT
Talk title: Molecular evolution of novelties: the endometrial stromal cells
Biographical: Günter is an evolutionary biologist trained in theoretical population genetics. His lab is working on the evolution of developmental control genes, mostly Hox genes in vertebrates. He works on conceptual issues of "homology," "character" and evolutionary novelties. Empirical research in his lab, motivated by concepts developed in his theoretical papers on homology and innovation, includes the evolution of digit identity, origin of the tetrapod limb and the role of Hox gene cluster duplications in vertebrate body plan evolution. Günter is chair of Yale's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental Zoology.
Publications:
- Wagner, G. and V.J. Lynch. 2005. Molecular evolution of evolutionary novelties: The vagina and uetrus of therian mammals. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.) 304B: 580-592
- Kohlsdorf, T. and G.P. Wagner. 2006. Evidence for the reversibility of digit loss: A phylogenetic study of limb evolution in Bachia (Gymnophthalmidae: Squamata). Evolution 60(9): 1896-1912.
Hauke Werner
Contact: hauke$em.mpg.de
Institution: Department of Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute, Goettingen
Talk title: Proteolipids are cholesterol-binding proteins required for CNS myelin assembly
Biographical: Hauke is a neurobiologist analyzing molecular interactions of myelin proteins. His main focus is the association of the most abundant protein of mammalian central nervous system myelin, proteolipid protein, with membrane cholesterol. He utilizes tools of cell biology, mouse genetics, and protein biochemistry (proteome analysis). He is also interested in the evolution of lipid-associated myelin proteins. Hauke is a research associate at the Max-Planck-Institute of Experimental Medicine in Goettingen, Germany.
Publications:
- Schweitzer J, Becker T, Schachner M, Nave KA, Werner H 2006.Evolution of myelin proteolipid proteins: gene duplication in teleosts and expression pattern divergence. Mol Cell Neurosci 31:161-77.
- Werner, H., K. Kuhlmann, S. Shen, M. Uecker, A. Schardt, et al. 2007. Proteolipid protein is required for transort of sirtuin 2 into CNS myelin. J. Neurosci. 27(29): 7717-7730.
- Möbius, W., J. Patzig, K-A Nave and H.B. Werner, 2009. Phylogeny of proteolipid proteins: divergence, constraints, and the evolution of novel functions in myelination and neuroprotection. Neuron Glia Biol. 4(2): 111-127. (Abstract)
Caroline Wilson
Contact: wilsonc$denison.edu
Institution: Denison University (formerly PBRC, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa)
Talk title: Ring around the axon: myelin development in copepods
Biographical: Caroline is a neurobiologist with training in immunohistochemical and electrophysiologoical approaches to nitric-oxide signalling in insect olfactory systems. She is currently investigating the developing copepod nervous system at ultrastructural levels.