Well done to PhD student Sally Lau who won an Antarctic Science International Bursary!
The bursary will help Sally to extend her PhD work on understanding how seascape dynamics structures octopus genetic variation in the Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean.
Jan and Laura on the cover of Marine and Freshwater Research
Special issue focusing on women in Marine Science in Australia featuring Jan Strugnell and Laura Woodings.
Distribution of Palinuridae and Scyllaridae phyllosoma larvae within the East Australian Current: a climate change hot spot
Laura Woodings, Nick Murphy, Andrew Jeffs, Iain Suthers, Geoff Liggins and Jan M. Strugnell
Laura sequenced the barcoding gene, Cytochrome oxidase I (COI), from palinurid and scyllarid lobster larvae (phyllosoma) caught off the east coast of Australia. She detected two tropical and one subtropical palinurid species ~75–1800 km to the south or southwest of their known species distribution. These results indicate tropical lobster species are reaching temperate regions, providing these species the opportunity to establish in temperate regions if or when environmental conditions become amenable to settlement.
Published in Marine and Freshwater Research
Featured image is a Phyllosoma by Ernst Haekel
SEMINAR “Antarctica and its evolution: rising sea levels”
Last night (Sat 2nd March 2019), Jan gave a seminar at the spectacular S.E.A. Aquarium in Singapore. The title of the seminar was “Antarctica and its evolution: rising sea levels”. The stage of the seminar was at the front of the biggest aquarium in the complex containing loads of fish and manta rays – a really wonderful backdrop!
Click here to read a detailed report from S.E.A Aquarium:)
The evolution and origin of tetrodotoxin acquisition in the blue-ringed octopus (genus Hapalochlaena)
Brooke L. Whitelaw, Ira R. Cooke, Julian Finn, Kyall Zenger, J.M. Strugnell
Blue ringed octopus make use of a deadly neurotoxin, TTX (tetrodotoxin) which is also found a wide variety of other animals. In order to do this they must be able to tolerate the toxin themselves, as well as acquire it from the environment or produce it. This paper reviews what we know about the evolution of ttx acquisition in blue ringed octopuses.
Featured image is by Flickr user Rickard Ling (CC 2.0)
Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Slime from the Striped Pyjama Squid, Sepioloidea lineolata, and the Southern Bottletail Squid, Sepiadarium austrinum (Cephalopoda: Sepiadariidae)
Nikeisha J. Caruana , Jan M. Strugnell, Pierre Faou, Julian Finn, and Ira R. Cooke
Nikeisha compared the slime from two bobtail squids and found that their proteomic composition was very similar. She also found several highly abundant, short secreted proteins in the slime, for which a function is unknown.
Published in the Journal of Proteome Research
Featured image is of Sepioloidea lineolata. Photograph by Richard Ling <wikipedia@rling.com> [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Shotgun Proteomics Analysis of Saliva and Salivary Gland Tissue from the Common Octopus Octopus vulgaris
Legana C. H. W. Fingerhut, Jan M. Strugnell, Pierre Faou, Álvaro Roura Labiaga, Jia Zhang, and Ira R. Cooke
A wide variety of octopus and cuttlefish species use venom to disable and kill their prey. Although this has been known for over a hundred years the molecules responsible for this toxicity remain relatively unknown. In this paper we found that a particular family of proteins (serine proteases) are extremely diverse and abundant in the venom glands of octopus. Although serine proteases are common in all animals (and not always toxins) we found that they are extraordinarily diverse in octopus and cuttlefish, and that this diversity is almost entirely due to molecules that are found in the venom glands.
Most of the work for this paper was done by Legana as part of her honours year. Well done Legana on your first paper.
Featured image is of Felicinda the octopus who was the mother of octopuses featured in this study. Photograph by Álvaro Roura
Published in the Journal of Proteome Research