2015 July

July 23, 2015
2

Congratulations to Dr. Rivera-Casas!

Posted by | Awards, Chromatin, Evolution, Histones, Marine Biology, Research | No Comments

Yesterday Chromevol’s graduate student Ciro Rivera-Casas defended (with great success!) his Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Histone variants in marine invertebrates: chromatin analysis and characterization of macroH2A and H2A.Z.2 variants in bivalve molluscs”. Ciro joined Chromevol in 2010 and is the second Ph.D. student graduating under Dr. Eirin-Lopez’s supervision. We want to make you all participants of his achievement and we hope he can visit us soon in Miami to tell us more about his research!

Chromevol_Picture

 

July 13, 2015
1

It’s all too much for me to take …

Posted by | Cytogenetics, DNA, Genetics, Marine Biology, Red Tides, Research, Toxicology | No Comments

… when it comes to marine biotoxins!!!

For more than a decade now, we have been studying the effect of pollution on the genome of marine invertebrates, notably the genotoxic effect of marine biotoxins produced during harmful algal blooms. However, while the toxic effect of these compounds is well known, little is known about how much of them is needed and for how long to produce DNA damage. That is precisely what our own Veronica Prego-Faraldo has been studying during the last 2 years.

vero_600x400

In a paper published today in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A (78:814-824. Jul. 2015. View PDF), she provides in vitro evidence supporting the harmful effect of the biotoxin okadaic acid a low concentrations in specific tissues of bivalve molluscs. This work constitutes the first report investigating the early genotoxic effect of this biotoxin, which soon will be followed by complementary in vivo analyses in the mussel Mytilus.