I am delighted to receive one of the nine FFP Awards from @researchireland.ie . We @uniofgalway.bsky.social will be studying sexual development in the #cnidarian #Hydractinia , an animal that continuously generates gonads and germ cells in adult life.
Thanks to Uri Frank @thecocodium.bsky.social from @uniofgalway.bsky.social for giving a great talk at the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social @univie.ac.at today, introducing the remarkable reproductive system of #Hydractinia and fascinating research into sex determination; more at doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Thrilled to receive a Discovery Award from @wellcometrust.bsky.social. We are working on adult, pluripotent stem cells in #Hydractinia. This animal is among the most regenerative creatures and does not succumb to age. Thanks to my team members and colleague at chromosome.ie @uniofgalway.bsky.social
This is cool, Andy. But it might even be a bit older. Here is an image from Muller et al. (2007), showing Wnt3 expression at the tip of the #Hydractinia male sporosac. this is the point from which they spawn. Would be interesting to look at some other genes.
Congrats to all, in particular Camille and Gab (amazing senior post doc in my lab) for their joint post-doc paper on #hydractinia aggregates
Gonads and germ cells have an interdependent relationship in the cnidarian #Hydractinia. Germ cells secrete a TGF-beta ligand (called Gonadless) to induce and maintain the somatic gonad; gonads activate Tfap2 in pluripotent stem cells (i-cells) to commit them to germ fate
tinyurl.com/245rw699
#Hydractinia takes regeneration to the extreme¬in a new preprint, Curantz et al. show that dissociated, reaggregated cells can form a new individual. We also show how they do it and which cells types actually contribute to the new individual (tip: not many of them).
tinyurl.com/mr2s9zyf
So what about Hydractinia's immune system?
In 2019, our former student Alejandra Zarate-Potes characterized the potential immune molecules in Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus following an immune challenge, using a transcriptomic approach
#Hydractinia #Immunity #Evolution
doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...
Do you like our profile pic? This amazing take was made in 2022 by our undergrad student Sebastian Jimenez
@sebjimra.bsky.social Isn't Hydractinia amazing?
#Cnidarian #Hydractinia #Microscopy
This work by our director Luis Fernando Cadavid established our group's main research focus revealing the allorecognition complexes ALR1 and ALR2 in the colonial cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus and their role in the origin of allorecognition
#Hydractinia #Immunology
doi.org/10.1534/gene...
An i-cell transgenic reporter in #Hydractinia
Hola amigos científicos!!! Dejo por aquí el video de mi presentación para ISCB Latam 2024 de mi trabajo con #Hydractinia espero les guste y cualquier sugerencia es aceptada 😁
youtu.be/2K_8qZNWbwM
Hello scientific community!!! I'll let you the video of my presentation for ISCB Latam 2024 of my work with #Hydractinia hope you like it and any suggestions are received 😁
youtu.be/2K_8qZNWbwM
Our paper providing the first comprehensive analysis of the #Hydractinia genome is out! The big take-home message: our orthology analyses have revealed that there is shared ancestry with other animals in the form of a conserved toolkit for regeneration. Cool stuff!
genome.cshlp.org/content/34/3...
Looking forward @thecocodium talk today at the Institut Jacques Monod invited by @stemdevevo !
#hydractinia #regeneration #stemcells #germcells
