[All-postdocs] Biology Seminar this Thursday: Dr. Dannise Ruiz-Ramos, USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center

[Margot McKlveen]

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*Biology Department Virtual Seminar*

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Thursday, April 8 at Noon

Zoom link: 
https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/94244480622?pwd=RFNHdEwvcEJtRkhFZXFINjlRaDlUUT09 
<https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/94244480622?pwd=RFNHdEwvcEJtRkhFZXFINjlRaDlUUT09>


Dr. Dannise V. Ruiz-Ramos

Postdoctoral Researcher, USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center, 
Columbia, MO


Genetic approaches for understanding marine disease and biodiversity

Genome-wide data might increase the precision of genetics parameters 
used in conservation and increase our capacity to investigate the 
evolutionary forces shaping genetic variation. We used comparative 
genomics to study the effects of asteroid idiopathic wasting syndrome. 
In 2013, sea stars throughout the Eastern North Pacific were decimated 
by wasting disease. We used the genome for Pisaster ochraceus and 
differential gene expression (DGE) analyses of size classes and tissue 
types in symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. We integrated 
nucleotide polymorphisms associated with survivors of the wasting 
disease outbreak, DGE associated with temperature treatments in P. 
ochraceus, and DGE associated with wasting in another asteroid, 
Pycnopodia helianthoides. In cross-species comparisons of symptomatic 
and asymptomatic individuals, consistent responses distinguish genes 
associated with invertebrate innate immunity and chemical defense.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) serve as a non-invasive tool to study 
biodiversity patterns and to monitor species of interest. We used eDNA 
to examine hypotheses contrasting diversity in marine versus terrestrial 
realms and the biogeography of microbes versus macrobiota. We sampled 
three habitat types at 22 locations along a 1200 km coastal transect in 
California within two days. We found that eDNA exhibits familiar alpha 
diversity patterns: marine diversity is generally lower than terrestrial 
diversity in microorganisms and macrobiota. Likewise, beta diversity 
shows marine assemblages are more similar than terrestrial assemblages; 
microbial assemblages are more similar than macrobiotic assemblages. 
These patterns are consistent with general predictions based on expected 
differences in dispersal and environmental structure but show 
considerable heterogeneity. In both datasets, microbial and macrobiotic 
beta diversity appear negatively weakly correlated.


Join Zoom Meeting

https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/94244480622?pwd=RFNHdEwvcEJtRkhFZXFINjlRaDlUUT09 
<https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/94244480622?pwd=RFNHdEwvcEJtRkhFZXFINjlRaDlUUT09>


Meeting ID: 942 4448 0622

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*

-- 
Margot McKlveen | she/her
Senior Administrative Assistant
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Redfield Building Room 305 | MS 32
266 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA 02543
508-289-2334
mmcklveen at whoi.edu

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