Red Tides

June 15, 2017
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Congrats to Vicky Suarez-Ulloa on completing a great PhD!!!

Posted by | DNA, Epigenetics, FIU, Graduate student, Marine Biology, Omics, Oysters, Red Tides, Research, Toxicology | No Comments

Victoria Suarez-Ulloa defended her PhD dissertation last week with perfect scores!, this completes a very productive stage in her academic trajectory with 10 papers published, several presentations in international conferences and most importantly, a postdoctoral position already lined up in Europe to continue working with population epigenomics. Vicky, we’re really proud of you and wish you the best for the future!!!

March 08, 2017
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Eastern oyster epigenetics work accepted in Aquatic Toxicology!

Posted by | DNA, Epigenetics, FIU, Histones, Marine Biology, Oysters, Red Tides, Toxicology | No Comments

Our latest work “Effects of Florida Red Tides on histone variant expression and DNA methylation in the Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica” has been accepted for publication in the journal Aquatic Toxicology (3.557 impact factor, ranked 3/104 in Marine & Freshwater Biology). The unformatted version of the paper is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166445X17300760 and HERE. This work was developed by our lab at FIU (Environmental Epigenetics group, Dept. Biology, Institute of Water and Environment, CREST Center for Aquatic Chemistry and Environment) in collaboration with the Ecotoxicology Lab (SERC) and the University of Vigo, in Spain. We also collaborated with Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve during this research. Our results provide a basis to better understand how Florida Red Tides affect oysters and epigenetic mechanisms participating in their responses to environmental stress, opening new avenues to incorporate environmental epigenetics approaches into management and conservation programs. We are currently building on this work in collaboration with Mote Marine Lab as well as with aquaculture stakeholders in south and central Florida.

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November 13, 2016
1

Back from SETAC world 2017 in Orlando

Posted by | Conference, DNA, Epigenetics, Graduate student, Marine Biology, Oysters, Red Tides, Research, Toxicology | No Comments

Last week we had the chance of participating in a session focused on environmental epigenetics in the world congress of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. It was really great to see so many people interested in using epigenetic approaches to address environmental problems, involving a wide range of new model organisms encompassing environmental and ecological relevance. From our side, we presented works investigating the epigenetic modifications involved in responses to Florida Red tides in Eastern oysters (talk by Dr. Eirin-Lopez), the different genetic networks activated during responses (Victoria Suarez-Ulloa) as well as the first results from our most recent efforts to elucidate the epigenetic mechanisms underlying coral responses to nutrient stress in the ocean (Javier Rodriguez-Casariego). Overall, we left with a great feeling and looking forward to see environmental epigenetics grow and its links with ecology, toxicoloy and physiology being further explored in the future!img_4039

March 14, 2016
2

New Ph.D. student Javier Rodriguez Casariego joins Chromevol next fall

Posted by | Epigenetics, FIU, Genetics, Graduate student, Marine Biology, Oysters, Red Tides, Toxicology | No Comments

Javier graduated from the University of Havana, Cuba (B.S. Biology, 2008; M.S. Marine Biology, 2012) and has worked as a research scientist for the Marine Research Center at this institution until his transition to FIU. During the last 2 years he acted as senior research technician for FIU’s Ecotoxicology Laboratory before joining the Biology Graduate program. Javier is already participating in several Chromevol projects examining environmental epigenetic responses in marine invertebrates. His collaboration has been instrumental for the simulation of HAB episodes using Eastern oysters last summer (he presented preliminary results about this work in the Biosymposium last month), as well as for the analysis of coral samples exposed to nutrient loading. Those preliminary results will constitute the conceptual basis for his Ph.D. project. Welcome!!!

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November 19, 2015
2

Our last work has been just published today on Peer J!

Posted by | Bioinformatics, DNA, Marine Biology, Omics, Red Tides, Research, Toxicology | No Comments

Victoria (Vicky) Suarez-Ulloa, a Graduate Student at Chromevol, has led our last paper entitled “Unbiased high-throughput characterization of mussel transcriptomic responses to sublethal concentrations of the biotoxin okadaic acid”, published today in the journal Peer J. In this work we have collaborated with researchers from UK and Spain characterizing the genes involved in responses to the effects of marine biotoxins. In the pictures below you can see the now traditional “hanging ceremony” of the paper reprint below the corresponding poster (presented at the Gordon Conference in Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics last summer) in the hallway near our lab. Vicky was fortunate enough to count with the help and indications of three gentleman during this operation.

Congrats!!!

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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.

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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.

June 09, 2015
1

Chromevol gets seed funds to study oyster responses to red tides

Posted by | DNA, FIU, Oysters, Red Tides, Research, Technology | No Comments

The Biomolecular Sciences Institute at FIU has awarded Chromevol with seed funds to investigate the epigenetic mechanisms participating in the responses of the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) to Florida Red Tides (caused by the dinoflagellate Karenia brevis) in the Gulf of Mexico. This research is developed in collaboration with Dr. John Berry from the Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and it complements our work focused on mussels exposed to okadaic acid in the NE Atlantic. Tomorrow we’ll be doing the first oyster exposure experiments in the Ecotoxicology Laboratory (Dr. Gary Rand) at FIU, using K. brevis cultures provided by Dr. Kelly Rein in the core facility for the culture of toxic algae!

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