Genomics

The application of functional genomics technologies to ecological research will add new power to tools currently available for the study of an organism’s response to the environment. One particularly important area where this technology will have a large impact will be in the study of human and environmental health. In the future we could rely on changes in gene or protein expression in an organism as an early warning of exposures to and effects of different stressors in the environment and to indicate the overall health of organisms in the environment. We are currently using genomic technologies to study the impact of methylmercury on reproduction as well as the impacts of nanomaterials on aquatic organisms.

Publications

Klaper, R. D. and M. Thomas. 2004. At the Crossroads of Genomics and Ecology: The Promise of a Canary on a Chip. Bioscience 54:403-412. [Link]

Thomas, MA and R Klaper 2004. Genomics for the Ecological Toolbox. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19:440-445. [Link].

Klaper, R, Rees C, Carvan, M, Weber, D, Drevnick, P, Sandheinrich, M . 2006 . Gene expression links to endocrine function and reproduction decline after mercury exposure in fathead minnows. Environmental Health Perspectives 114:1337-43. [Link]

Gallagher, K., Benson, W.H., Brody, M., Fairbrother, A., Hasan, J., Klaper, R., Lattier, D., Lundquist, S., McCarroll, N., Miller, G., Preston, J., Sayre, P., Seed, J., Smith, B., Street, A., Troast, R., Vu, V., Reiter, L., Farland, W., Dearfield, K. 2006. Genomics: Applications, Challenges and Opportunities for the U.S. EPA. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 12(3):572-590.

Degitz, S., S. Bradbury, RA Hoke, R Klaper, L Furgeson, S Thompson, R Brennan. 2007. Application of Genomics to Regulatory Ecological Risk Assessments for Pesticides. In Molecular Biology and Risk Assessment: Evaluation of the Potential Roles of Genomics in Regulatory Ecotoxicology. SETAC Press.

Shaw, J.R., M. Pfrender, B.D. Eads, R. Klaper, A. Callaghan, I. Colson, D. Gilbert and, J.K. Colbourne. 2008. Daphnia as an emerging model for toxicological genomics. In: Advances in experimental biology on toxicogenomics. eds. C. Hogstrand and P. Kille. Elsevier Press.

R. Klaper, B. J. Carter, C. A. Richter, P. E. Drevnick, M. B. Sandheinrich, and D. E. Tillitt. 2008. Use of a 15,000-gene microarray to determine gene expression changes in response to acute and chronic methylmercury exposure in the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). Journal of Fish Biology. 72(9):2207-2280.