The netrin guidance cue, UNC-6, and the netrin receptors, UNC-5 and UNC-40, guide SDQR cell and axon migrations in C. elegans. In wild-type larvae, SDQR migrations are away from ventral UNC-6-expressing cells, suggesting that UNC-6 repels SDQR. In unc-6 null larvae, SDQR migrations are towards the ventral midline, indicating a response to other guidance cues that directs the migrations ventrall...

Sponges (Phylum Porifera) are an evolutionary and ecologically significant group; however information on processes influencing sponge population distributions is surprisingly limited. Carteriospongia foliascens is a common Indo-Pacific sponge, which has been reported from the intertidal to the mesophotic. Interestingly, the distribution of C. foliascens at inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Ree...

Many species endemic to deep-sea methane seeps have broad geographical distributions, suggesting that they produce larvae with at least episodic long-distance dispersal. Cold-seep communities on both sides of the Atlantic share species or species complexes, yet larval dispersal across the Atlantic is expected to take prohibitively long at adult depths. Here, we provide direct evidence that the ...

How deep-sea fauna evolved is a question still being investigated. One of the most accepted theories is that shallow water organisms migrated to deeper waters and gave origin to the deep-sea communities. However, many organisms are prevented from performing long vertical migrations by the increasing hydrostatic pressure. Tadpole larvae of the ascidian Polyandrocarpa zorritensis were submitted t...

The Syrian Golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) has been used to model infections with the hookworm Ancylostoma ceylanicum. New molecular immunological reagents to measure cellular immune responses in hamsters were developed and used to determine the impact of A. ceylanicum hookworm infection on host cytokine responses and lymphoproliferation. Initial larval infection with 100 third-stage A. c...

The larvae or phyllosomes of many species of spiny lobsters (Palinuridae) are known to complete their development in offshore oceanic waters. Phyllosomes metamorphose to non-feeding, nektonic post-larvae or pueruli, which move into shallow coastal waters where they settle to become benthic dwelling juveniles. There is growing evidence that the movement of pueruli is directed toward the coast ra...

Population genetic variation of Australian grayling Prototroctes maraena was examined to determine whether the dispersal strategy of this amphidromous species favours retention of larvae and juveniles in close proximity to their natal river, or mixing of populations via marine dispersal. Variation in microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA markers was unstructured and differentiation was indisting...

In order to study the function of specific neural circuits, we generated UAS-Channelrhodopsin2 (ChR2) transgenic Drosophila and established a ChR2-based system that enables specific activation of targeted neurons in larval and adult fruit flies with blue light illumination, under the control of a newly designed light source that provides fully programmable stimulation patterns. We showed that s...