Each Friday throughout the academic year, the UTM Biology Department welcomes distinguished researchers from top universities around the globe to share their cutting-edge work with our academic community. This seminar series provides students with a unique opportunity to engage with a diverse array of research topics, gaining invaluable insights into fields such as Cell and Systems Biology, as well as Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Attend a biology seminar for a chance to broaden your understanding, connect with experts, and deepen your knowledge in these dynamic areas of study!
Where: Instructional Building (IB) 140
When: Fridays, 12 pm to 1 pm
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PI: Prof. Adriano Senatore
Title: Evolution of iGluR ligand specificity, polyamine regulation, and ion selectivity inferred from a placozoan Epsilon receptor
Abstract: Epsilon ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) form a distinct sub-family among metazoan receptors, separate from AMPA, Kainate, Delta, and Phi (AKDF), NMDA, and Lambda sub-families. In this study, we investigated the evolutionary and functional characteristics of Epsilon receptors using homologues from the basal invertebrate Trichoplax adhaerens (phylum Placozoa). We constructed a new phylogeny of eukaryotic iGluRs guided by species and a comprehensive phylogeny of placozoan receptors, revealing significant diversification of Epsilon receptors into three conserved subclades, alongside four invariant subclades of AKDF receptors. Functional analysis of the T. adhaerens Epsilon receptor GluE1αA showed strong activation by glycine, alanine, serine, and valine, but not by glutamate. Using structural modeling and mutation experiments, we tested the hypothesis that specific amino acids in the ligand binding domain dictate ligand selectivity. By mutating three amino acids, we altered GluE1αA's selectivity towards glutamate, rendering it sensitive to AMPA and increasing susceptibility to the AMPA/Kainate receptor blocker CNQX. Furthermore, our combined modeling and mutation experiments identified a serine residue in the pore NQR site of GluE1αA, along with a downstream aspartate, as crucial for sensitivity to voltage-dependent polyamine block. This serine residue contrasts with the asparagine and glutamine residues found in AMPA and Kainate receptors, by diminishing both polyamine block and calcium permeation. In summary, our findings highlight conserved molecular determinants regulating polyamine sensitivity between Epsilon and AKDF receptors. Natural variations in NQR residues play significant roles in ion permeation and polyamine regulation, underscoring their importance in receptor function and evolution.
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PI: Prof. John Ratcliffe & Prof. Darryl Gwynne
Title: Traffic Noise as a Source of Acoustic Interference in Crickets
Abstract: Female crickets reared in traffic noise have been reported to be faster or slower to locate male song than those reared in silence across species. We reared female Teleogryllus oceanicus in traffic noise and silence, and had adult females locate male song broadcast amidst traffic noise or silence. We recorded activity of two auditory interneurons in a subset of individuals under identical acoustic conditions. Regardless of rearing treatment, crickets were slower to leave their shelter when presented with male song in silence than in traffic noise, while crickets reared in traffic noise were also slower to leave overall. Crickets reared in traffic noise also had higher baseline AN2 activity, but rearing condition did not affect hearing thresholds or auditory response to male song. Our results demonstrate behavioural and auditory effects of long-term exposure to anthropogenic noise. Further, they support the idea that silence itself is a potentially aversive acoustic condition.
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Hosted by: Prof. Adriano Senatore
Title: The neuron-free guide to nervous system evolution
Abstract: Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that facilitate communication between neurons, allowing for the coordination of bodily functions and behaviour. Exploring their evolution helps us uncover the origins of neurons and nervous systems, revealing how they emerged and adapted in early life forms. By examining neurotransmitter systems across diverse species, we can trace the evolutionary steps that eventually led to the development of complex nervous systems. This research provides crucial insights into the foundational mechanisms of neural communication and deepens our understanding of the origins of brain function and behaviour in advanced organisms.
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Hosted by: Prof. Ted Erclik
Title: Deterministic and stochastic neural fate determination in the Drosophila Visual System
Research Background: Dr. Desplan has been a Silver Professor at NYU since 1999 where he researches the development and function of the visual system in fruit flies (Drosophila), focusing on color vision. He studied calcium regulation for his Ph.D. at INSERM in Paris and worked on homeodomain proteins as a postdoc at UCSF. At Rockefeller University, he explored the structural and functional aspects of DNA binding domains and insect axis formation. His lab has revealed molecular mechanisms behind the patterning of color-sensing neurons and how color information is processed in the brain, utilizing neural stem cell lineage and patterning genes. Desplan also investigates evolutionary developmental biology using wasps and ants.
Desplan Lab Website: Desplan Lab – NYU Department of Biology
Hosted by: Prof. Ingo Ensminger
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Title: Plant Optics: Bridging plant physiology and remote sensing for phenotyping applications
Abstract: Leaf optics is linked to plant physiology and structure. Because of this relationship, we can leverage remote sensing of leaf optical variation to estimate and assess plant traits and functions. This talk will highlight examples of applications leveraging remote sensing of leaf optics for assessing plant responses across seasons and stress for phenotyping applications.
** Dr. Wong obtained his PhD from UofT where he was part of the Ensminger Lab! He successfully defended his thesis in 2020.
Research Background:
Dr. Wong's research takes an interdisciplinary approach leveraging remote sensing and ecophysiology to better understand plant and ecosystem response to environment and climate change. He uses remote sensing techniques across spatial scales (leaf, canopy, drone, and satellite) and temporal scales (short-term stress response [heat, drought, disease], phenology, intra- and inter-annual variation) to advance techniques for ecosystem monitoring and assessment, and for applications in high-throughput phenotyping in forestry and agriculture.
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PI: Prof. Cassidy D'Aloia
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- Cell and Developmental Biology
- Molecular Biology, Genetics & Genomics
- System and Synthetic Biology
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PI: Prof. Rob Ness
Title: Understanding and Improving Heat Tolerance in Photosynthetic Cells Using the Unicellular Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Abstract: High temperature jeopardizes plant growth, reduces crop yields, and hinders biofuel production. This problem will only exacerbate as global warming progresses. Despite this, some of the important mechanisms employed by photosynthetic cells to regulate heat responses remain elusive. To engineer heat-tolerant crops and algae for food and biofuel, it is essential to understand how plant cells respond to and recover from high temperatures. The eukaryotic, unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is an excellent model organism to study many important cellular processes, especially heat responses, due to several prominent advantages, e.g. haploid genome, fast growth, homogenous heat treatment in liquid cultures, similar photosynthesis as in land plants, and simpler gene families than land plants. A genome-saturating, mapped, indexed mutant library of Chlamydomonas is available, enabling both reverse and forward genetic screens. By using tightly controlled Chlamydomonas cultivation and heat treatment in photobioreactors and quantitative, barcoded phenotyping tools, we investigated how Chlamydomonas responded to moderate and acute high temperatures at systems-wide levels, revealed dynamic heat responses under high tempratures, and identified high-confidence, putative heat tolerance genes (HTGs) at the genome-wide levels. Many of these high-confidence HTGs are highly conserved in land plants. We selected one high-confidence HTG, HTG1, for detailed function analysis. HTG1 transcripts in both Chlamydomonas and Arabidopsis were heat-inducible and the corresponding mutants were heat-sensitive, suggesting the information gained in Chlamydomonas can be transformed into land plants to improve crop thermotolerance and we can accelerate gene function analysis in land plants by using Chlamydomonas.
Research Background: Dr. Zhang's research focuses on photosynthesis, covering plant physiology, algal genomics, and organelle evolution. During her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she studied high-temperature effects on Arabidopsis and tobacco. As a postdoc at the Carnegie Institution, she developed tools for Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, identifying photosynthesis-deficient mutants and creating a mutant library. She also researched the photo-acclimation of Paulinella chromatophora. Passionate about abiotic stress responses in photosynthesis, Ru aims to engineer it for better agriculture and biofuels. Outside of research, she enjoys cooking, gardening, and spending time with her two sons, Zoran and Roger, and started her lab at Danforth in 2016.
Zhang Lab Website: Home | Mysite
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PI: Prof. Kara Layton
Title: Hot topics in 'cool' adaptations: how Canada's invertebrates survive the winter
Abstract: In Canada's winters, animals must contend with subzero temperatures. Some species migrate, others find warm microhabitats, and yet others just develop the impressive ability to either prevent or survive ice crystal growth at very low temperatures. Our lab studies the ability of boreal forest pest eastern spruce budworm as well as West Coast intertidal invertebrates to survive and thrive in subzero conditions. We work on everything from the biochemistry of ice binding proteins and the biosynthesis of cryoprotectants through to the impacts of winters on population growth and distribution. In a world where winters are changing rapidly, a better understanding of cold and its impacts will help us make better predictions for species ranges in the future.
Visit the Marshall Lab @ UBC website to learn more about Dr. Marshall!
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PI: Prof. Baohua Liu
Title: Primary cilia, underappreciated signaling sensors in the brain
Research Background: Dr. Guo completed her BS degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Jilin University, China. She completed her postdoctoral training with Dr. Eva Anton at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Dr. Guo's research aims to understand how neural circuits are constructed in development and disease, focusing on the primary cilium, a critical signaling structure in cells. The goal of her research is to uncover key mechanisms involved in neural circuit formation and to enhance understanding of the genetic and environmental factors contributing to neurodevelopmental disorders.
Guo Lab Website: HOME | Guo Lab
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- Principal Investigator, H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest
- Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife, OSU
- Courtesy Faculty, Geosciences, OSU
- Honorary Research Associate, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick
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Title: Nuclear organization in genome expression, stability, and health
Abstract: Dr. Mekhail will discuss his team’s research, revealing principles through which the non-random organization of the cell’s nucleus contributes to regulating genome expression and stability. He will also present how such processes intersect with human health and disease. The research employs multidisciplinary tools at the intersection of molecular and cell biology, engineering, bioinformatics, and machine learning approaches applied within diverse experimental systems, including human cells, clinical samples, and mouse and yeast genetic models.
Background: Dr. Karim Mekhail is a tenured full professor at the University of Toronto and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. His laboratory studies nuclear organization and its roles in genome regulation, aging, and age-related diseases such as cancer, premature aging, and neurodegeneration. His laboratory has discovered seminal roles for the nuclear envelope in maintaining genome stability and showed how the alteration of such processes contributes to health, aging, and disease states. Amongst his other seminal contributions are the discovery of nucleolar RNA polymerase II, the directional movement of DNA, the first molecular DNA ambulance, DNA repair by liquid-like proteins, novel therapeutic avenues for breast and ovarian cancer control, and the functions of genes linked with different neurodegenerative disorders. His laboratory relies on multidisciplinary tools at the intersection of molecular biology, engineering, bioinformatic, and machine learning approaches applied within diverse experimental systems, including human cells, clinical samples, and mouse and yeast genetic models. Dr. Mekhail held the Canada Research Chair in Spatial Genome Organization for a decade. He has also received several honors and awards, including the Canada Governor General Gold Medal in the Sciences, Maud-Menten Investigator Prize, Lap-Chee Tsui Prize, and Ontario Early Researcher Award. He originally joined the University of Toronto after completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Visit Dr. Mekhail's website to learn more!
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Title: Ecology and evolution of aquatic microbiomes: from inland lakes to the Arctic Ocean
Abstract: From inland waters to the open oceans, microorganisms comprise a diverse and essential component of Earth’s aquatic ecosystems. As the climate warms and human activities intensify, changes in the composition and activities of aquatic microbiomes are inevitable but difficult to predict. In this talk, I will present some of our recent work combining large-scale spatiotemporal surveys of aquatic ecosystems with meta-omics approaches to better understand the ecology and evolution of aquatic microorganisms in the context of a changing planet. Beginning with our research on freshwater systems, I’ll introduce a continental-scale study of lake microbiomes carried out in the context of the Canadian LakePulse Survey. Here we generated and analysed hundreds of lake metagenomes and used this resource to reveal terrestrial influences, including agriculture and urban development, on the structure and function of bacterial and micro-eukaryotic communities. Moving to our research in the ocean, I’ll introduce a multi-decadal time-series study of microbiomes from the rapidly changing Arctic Ocean. Here we have shown interannual changes in microbial diversity and community structure that may be related to ocean warming and Arctic sea ice loss. I’ll also present some interesting evolutionary adaptations we’ve discovered in Arctic Ocean microbiomes, including evidence for the unexpected role of terrestrial organic matter and volatile organic compounds in fueling microbial food webs. Overall, these studies are contributing to our fundamental understanding of microbial life, as well as insights into the trajectory of Earth’s aquatic ecosystems on a changing plane.
Background: Dr. David Walsh is a Professor in Biology and the Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics. His research focuses on the origin and maintenance of microbial diversity in aquatic systems and in understanding the feedback that exist between microbial communities and environmental variability. He recently published a breakthrough study where he used metagenomics to describe, the role of a major lineage of bacteria in carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycling in the oceans.
Visit Dr. Walsh's lab website to learn more about him and his research!