Tami Panhuis

Biology Seminar

Date & Time

Thu, Feb 09
11:00 AM

Location

Mateer Hall
G-01

Contact

Beth Snyder
330-263-2379
Email

Tami Panhuis from the Department of Biology at Ohio Wesleyan University will present: "Evolution of the Poeciliid fish placenta: placenta genes and structures".

Her research focuses on the identification and evolution of placenta proteins in poeciliid fish species. Most people are familiar with placental mammals in which there is a physical connection between the developing embryo and the mother through a structure called the placenta. In mammals, the placenta is a highly specialized structure that functions as a site of nutrient and gas exchange between the mother and fetus. What is not as well known is that placental-like structures have evolved independently in a number of different taxa, including sharks, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. Studying these structures in organisms other than mammals can lead to important insight into different evolutionary processes involved in placental evolution.

Fish in the genus Poeciliopsis (Poeciliidae) exhibit a range in live-bearing from species that retain eggs after fertilization with no further maternal provisioning to species that exhibit varying amounts of maternal provisioning after fertilization. The elaborate structures that facilitate large maternal provisioning after fertilization are maternal and embryonic tissues that exchange nutrients between the mother and the developing embryo. These tissues are termed the pseudo-placenta or the follicular placenta.

The research goals in her lab are to use genetic, bioinformatics, and molecular tools to identify and then characterize candidate genes associated with the evolution of the placenta in the poeciliid fishes. Recently, she has isolated maternal placental tissue from two species of poeciliid and have purified mRNA from this tissue. Using the mRNA, she has made cDNA libraries and she is in the early stages of sequence analysis.

Once genes are identified, experiments will be designed to explore questions with respect to their evolution, such as 1) how rapidly are these genes evolving, 2) what are the potential mechanisms driving their evolution, 3) what is the function of the identified genes, 4) what genes are involved in the embryonic tissue that interact with the maternal tissue, 5) how do the maternal and embryonic proteins differ at different stages of embryonic development, 6) what are the population genetics of these proteins, 7) does the evolution and function of these proteins differ among species with large maternal provisioning vs. species with little maternal provisioning after fertilization, and 8) what are the potential evolutionary mechanisms driving the evolution of these proteins in species with different life histories?

Publications

Kyle J Gaulton, Takao Nammo, Lorenzo Pasquali, Jeremy M Simon, Paul G Giresi, Marie P. Fogarty, Tami M. Panhuis, Piotr Mieczkowski, Antonio Secchi, Domenico Bosco, Thierry Berney, Eduard Montanya, Karen L Mohlke, Jason D Lieb & Jorge Ferrer. 2010. A map of open chromatin in human pancreatic islets. Nature Genetics (31 January) doi:10.1038/ng.530.

Panhuis, T.M., M. Buchkovich, K. Molhke. (in preparation) Allele-specific differences in expression for a subset of Type 2 Diabetes associated SNPs near the JAZF1 locus.

Panhuis, T. M. and L. Nunney. 2007. Insight into the co-evolution of post-mating interactions between the sexes: relatedness suppresses productivity of singly mated female Drosophila melanogaster. J. Evol. Biol. 20: 1988-1997

Panhuis, T.M. and W.J. Swanson. 2006. Molecular evolution and population genetic analysis of candidate female reproductive genes in Drosophila. Genetics 173: 2039-2047

Panhuis, T.M., N.L. Clark, and W.J. Swanson. 2006. Rapid evolution of reproductive proteins in abalone and Drosophila. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 361: 261-268

Zuk, M., S.N. Gershman, K.J. Lesser, T.M. Panhuis, T. Schmidt, and R.M. Tinghitella. 2006. Review of “Sexual Conflict. Monographs in Behavior and Ecology” (G. Arnqvist and L. Rowe). Quarterly Review of Biology 81: 204-205

Panhuis, T.M., W.J. Swanson, and L. Nunney. 2003. Population genetics of accessory gland proteins and sexual behavior in Drosophila melanogaster from Evolution Canyon. Evolution 57: 2785-2791
[Faculty of 1000 selection]

Panhuis, T.M., R. Butlin, M. Zuk, and T. Tregenza. 2001. Sexual selection and speciation. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16: 364-371

Panhuis, T.M. and G.S. Wilkinson. 1999. Exaggerated male eye span influences contest outcome in stalk-eyed flies (Diopsidae). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 46: 221-227