The mission of the Center for Marine Functional Genomic Studies (CMFGS) is to exploit the advantages of comparative approaches, using marine models to understand the relationships between genomic sequence and biological function, and to apply this understanding to improve human health, particularly in toxicology and diseases involving membrane biology and ion transport. The Center for Marine Functional Genomic Studies is supported by a combination of federal, state and private grants and represents the major year-round research commitment to the future growth of MDIBL.
The Director of the Center is John Forrest, Jr., M.D., Director, MDIBL and Professor of Medicine, Yale University. The Associate Director is David Barnes, Ph.D., MDIBL Senior Investigator.
Upcoming CMFGS Seminars
Research Groups within the Center include:
| Investigator |
Project |
| David W. Barnes, Ph.D. |
Cell and molecular biology of marine elasmobranchs |
| James A. Coffman, Ph.D. |
Cell fate specification in the sea urchin embryo |
| Hermann Haller, M.D. |
Molecular mechanisms of renal tissue regeneration in the spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) and the little skate (Leucoraja erinacea) |
| George Kidder, Ph.D. |
Osmoregulation in euryhaline fish |
James L. Boyer, M.D.
Carolyn Mattingly, Ph.D. |
The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database |
| Antonio Planchart, Ph.D. |
Discovery and analysis of novel regulatory elements that control transcription of spermatogenesis-specific genes in vertebrates |
| J. Denry Sato, Ph.D. |
Angiogenic growth factor signaling pathways |
| David W. Towle, Ph.D. |
1. Functional genomics of environmental adaptations in marine crustaceans
2. Expressed sequence tag libraries for lobster, green crab, killifish, dogfish shark, and little skate
ESTs are now available |
NIH / NHGRI Skate (Leucoraja erinacea) Genome Project:
A large-scale project to sequence the genome of the skate has been approved by the National Human Genome Research Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health. The decision to fund the sequencing of the skate was in response to a proposal submitted by the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, the Genome Sequencing Center of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Benaroya Institute in Seattle.
The skate is one of 11 strategically selected non-mammalian organisms determined by the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research to have the greatest potential to fill crucial gaps in human biomedical knowledge.
New cell lines derived; the following are available through MDIBL:
The SAE Squalus acanthias shark embryo-derived cell line (A. Parton et al.; D. Forest et al., 2006, see below) and the XM Xiphophorus melanoma-derived cell line (D. Barnes et al., 2006) may be obtained by contacting David Barnes, Ph.D., dbarnes@mdibl.org; Telephone: 207-288-9880, ext 472; FAX: 207-288-2130; PO Box 35, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Salsbury Cove, ME 04672. Approximately 5200 expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences from the 5’ end and 600 EST sequences from the 3’ end of clones from a normalized SAE mRNA-derived library are available through GenBank and the MDIBL website. In addition, approximately 5000 EST sequences from Squalus acanthias rectal gland and 5000 from little skate (Leucoraja erinacea) embryo are also available through these sources.
Citations:
David Barnes, L. Dowell, D. Forest, A. Parton, A., and S. Kazianis, 2006, Characterization of XM, a novel Xiphophorous melanoma-derived cell line. Zebrafish. 2006 3(3):371-381.
Angela Parton, D. Forest, H, Kobayashi, L. Dowell, C. Bayne, and D. Barnes. 2006, Cell and molecular biology of SAE, a cell line from the spiny dogfish shark, Squalus acanthias. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 2006, Jul 14; Epub ahead of print. Vol. 144, Issue 4, in press.
David Forest, R. Nishikawa, H. Kobayashi, A. Parton, C. J. Bayne and D. W. Barnes, 2006, RNA expression in a cartilaginous fish cell line reveals ancient 3’ non-coding regions highly conserved in vertebrates, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, in press.
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