Recent Advances in the Biology of Radiata

1. Recent Advances in the Biology of Radiata By: Katie Boudreau, Cosmo Kunzelmann, Ryan Lee, Heather Gosnell, and Martin Davis

2. Dr. Sharp’s Study • The onset of coral-bacterial associations • The functional roles that bacteria play in healthy corals • How bacteria influence coral reef response to environmental change • Results • Microbes on coral reefs play a critical role in regulating larval recruitment, bacterial colonization, and pathogen abundance under ambient conditions, ultimately governing the overall resilience of coral reef systems • Microbial processes may be involved in reef ecosystem-level responses to climate change

3. Anthosactis pearseae • A new species of sea anemones discovered in 2007 • lives on whale falls- “Once a whale dies, its carcass sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Scientists call this a "whale fall.”” • Found in Monterey canyon in the pacific • Not much is yet known on these newly discovered creatures http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=19710324608

4. Biofluorescence in jellyfish Scientists have recently isolated the green fluorescent protein They have found that mutations in the GFP can produce different colors. One mutation has allowed the proteins to produce a near infrared light that is almost invisible to the naked eye. These proteins have allowed the scientists to inject the protein andstudy cells in much greater detail

5. Dartmouth Cnidaria DNA Study • Found that some genes switched on in embryos were nearly identical to the genes that determined the head-to-tail axis of bilaterians, including humans. The genes switched on in the same head-to-tail pattern as in bilaterians. • Cnidarians used other genes from the bilaterian tool kit. The same genes that patterned the front and back of the bilaterian embryo, for example, were produced on opposite sides of the anemone embryo. • "The nervous system of a cnidarian is described as a nerve net, but that's a textbook simplification." Predicts that research will show that this net is divided into specialized regions like the human brain. • Genes once thought to be unique to vertebrates have turned up in the genomes of cnidarians. It is now clear that these genes did not, in fact, arise in early vertebrates. They evolved in the common ancestor of cnidarians and bilaterians 600 million years ago and then disappeared in branches of bilaterians like insects and nematodes.

6. The ‘Immortal’ Jellyfish • Jellyfish known as Turritopsis dohrnii, discovered and studied its hyrdozoans • Reproduction habits showed reversal aging • Studies revealed Turritopsis dohrnii rejuvenation is caused by environmental stress or physical assault • undergoes cellular transdifferentiation - same process as human stem cells • Humans and jellyfish are closely linked may help with cancer and medical research - because hyrda are so simple (no head, tail, vision) they gained “immortality” and therefore may lead to the study of how to fight cancer, old age, and death

8. References • Multi-Partner Interactions in Corals in the Face of Climate Change. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.biolbull.org/content/223/1/66.full • http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/science/21jell.html?ref=jellyfish&_r=1& • http://www.nature.com/news/artificial-jellyfish-built-from-rat-cells-1.11046 • http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0