A5023911499- Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology
- Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Planarian Biology and Electrostimulation
- Plant and Fungal Species Descriptions
- Marine and environmental studies
- Protist diversity and phylogeny
- Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics
- Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
- Cell death mechanisms and regulation
- Phagocytosis and Immune Regulation
- Cellular Mechanics and Interactions
- Radiomics and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging
- Reproductive biology and impacts on aquatic species
- Marine and coastal plant biology
- Parasite Biology and Host Interactions
- Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
- Plant tissue culture and regeneration
- Fern and Epiphyte Biology
- Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway
2022-2025
Stowers Institute for Medical Research
2025
In most animals, pluripotency is irreversibly lost post gastrulation. By this stage, all embryonic cells have already committed either to one of the somatic lineages (ectoderm, endoderm, or mesoderm) germline. The lack pluripotent in adult life may be linked organismal aging. Cnidarians (corals and jellyfish) are an early branch animals that do not succumb age, but developmental potential their stem remains unclear. Here, we show cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus (known as i-cells)...
Cell fate stability is essential to maintaining "law and order" in complex animals. However, high comes at the cost of reduced plasticity and, by extension, poor regenerative ability. This evolutionary trade-off has resulted most modern animals being rather simple or non-regenerative. The mechanisms mediating cellular allowing for regeneration remain unknown. We show that signals emitted senescent cells can destabilize differentiated state neighboring somatic cells, reprogramming them into...
The fertile gonad includes cells of two distinct developmental origins: the somatic mesoderm and germ line. How interact to develop maintain fertility is not well understood. Here, using grafting experiments transgenic reporter animals, we find that a specific part gonad—the germinal zone—acts as sexual organizer induce de novo gonads in cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus . Germ express member transforming growth factor–β family, Gonadless ( Gls ), induces morphogenesis. Loss resulted...
Hydrozoan cnidarians are among the few animals that can regenerate whole bodies from reaggregated cell dissociations but cellular and molecular mechanisms control this ability how it is related to embryonic development not well understood. Furthermore, evolution of type regeneration enigmatic since does occur naturally. Here, we show aggregate in Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus proceeds through several, consistent stages include formation an epidermal layer, followed by migration,...
Abstract Coloniality is a widespread growth form in cnidarians, tunicates, and bryozoans, among others. Colonies function as single physiological units despite their modular structure of zooids supporting tissues. A key question how structurally functionally distinct colony parts are generated. In the cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus , colonies consist (polyps) interconnected by stolons attached to substrate. Using single-cell transcriptomics, we profiled ~200,000 cells, including two...
Apoptosis is regulated cell death that depends on caspases. A specific initiator caspase involved upstream of each apoptotic signaling pathway. Characterized in nematode, fly, and mammals, intrinsic apoptosis considered to be ancestral, conserved among animals, shared initiators: caspase-9, Apaf-1 Bcl-2. However, the biochemical role mitochondria, pivotal function cytochrome c modality activation remain highly heterogeneous hide profound molecular divergence pathways animals. Uncovering...
Abstract Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus is a pioneering model organism for stem cell biology, being one of only few animals with adult pluripotent cells (known as i-cells). However, the unavailability chromosome-level genome assembly has hindered comprehensive understanding global gene regulatory mechanisms underlying function and evolution i-cells. Here, we report first H. (HSymV2.0) using PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing Hi-C scaffolding. The final 483 Mb in total length 15 chromosomes...
Abstract Coloniality is a widespread growth form in cnidarians, tunicates, and bryozoans, among others. Despite being modular, composed of multiple zooids supporting tissues, colonies function as single physiological unit. A major question the biology cellular mechanism generating structurally functionally distinct colony parts. The cnidarian Hydractinia establishes with different types (polyps), interconnected by gastrovascular system that attached to substrate known stolons. We obtained...
OPINION article Front. Cell Dev. Biol., 13 December 2022Sec. Death and Survival Volume 10 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2022.1033645
Abstract In most animals, pluripotency is irreversibly lost post-gastrulation. By this stage, all embryonic cells have already committed either to one of the somatic lineages (ectoderm, endoderm, mesoderm) or germline. The lack pluripotent in adult life may be linked organismal aging. Cnidarians (corals, and jellyfish) are an early branch animals that do not succumb age, but developmental potential their stem remains unclear. Here, we show cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus (known as...
Abstract The fertile gonad includes cells of two distinct developmental origins: the somatic mesoderm and germline. How germ interact to develop maintain fertility is not well understood. Here, using grafting experiments transgenic reporter animals, we find that a specific part gonad–the germinal zone–acts as sexual organizer induce de novo gonads in non-sexual tissue cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus . We further show express novel member TGF-β family ( Gonadless , Gls ) induces...
Abstract Apoptosis is the main form of regulated cell death in metazoans. Apoptotic pathways are well characterized nematodes, flies, and mammals, leading to a vision conservation apoptotic However, we recently showed that intrinsic apoptosis fact divergent among In addition, extrinsic poorly studied non-mammalian animals, making its evolution unclear. Consequently, our understanding signaling black box which must be illuminated by extending research new biological systems. Lophotrochozoans...
Abstract Apoptosis is the main form of regulated cell death in metazoans. Apoptotic pathways are well characterised nematode, fly and mammals, leading to a vision conservation apoptotic However, we recently showed that intrinsic apoptosis fact divergent among In addition, extrinsic poorly studied non-mammalian animals, making its evolution unclear. Consequently, our understanding signalling black-box which must be illuminated by extending research new biological systems. Lophotrochozoans...
SUMMARY Cell fate stability is essential to maintaining ‘law and order’ in complex animals. However, high comes at the cost of reduced plasticity and, by extension, poor regenerative ability. This evolutionary trade-off has resulted most modern animals being rather simple or non-regenerative. The mechanisms mediating cellular allowing for regeneration remain unknown. We show that signals emitted senescent cells can destabilize differentiated state neighboring somatic cells, reprogramming...