Collaborative Research: RUI: Molecular mechanisms and physiological triggers underlying neuromodulator plasticity in a lobster pattern generator

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The overarching goal of this project is to understand the processes that underlie variability in behavior. Specifically, the project will focus on variability in the responses of neuronal networks generating the activity that controls rhythmic movements to one hormone. This project will utilize the lobster cardiac neuromuscular system, a simple model for understanding this phenomenon. In this system, some hearts respond to the hormone allatostatin-C with increased contraction force, while others respond by decreasing contraction force. The project is multi-disciplinary, using physiological, molecular and biochemical approaches. Experiments will include recording changes in activity of the lobster heart when exposed to the hormone, using molecular biological techniques to determine the genes that contribute to the differential responses to the hormone in different animals, and analyzing proteins within the heart to determine how they differ among animals that respond differently to the hormone. This project is a collaboration between researchers at Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine) and the University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu). It will train undergraduates, including underrepresented minority students, at both institutions in a wide variety of chemical, molecular and physiological techniques. It will provide interdisciplinary training and will introduce undergraduates to the importance of examining scientific questions from multiple perspectives. The molecular components of the project will also provide resources that can be used by other scientists to address additional issues in lobster biology, including the origin and physiological consequences of shell disease.To determine the mechanisms and triggers that underlie the variability in the responses of neuronal networks to modulators, this project will examine a simple pattern generator, the lobster cardiac ganglion. This project will combine transcriptomics and physiology to look for differences in gene expression that correlate with differential responses to the peptide hormone, allatostatin-C. At the same time, the project will ask whether these differences may be triggered by changes related to the molt cycle. The project, which will use Illumina sequencing, will assemble de novo transcriptomes from lobster tissues. These transcriptomes will provide references onto which RNA-Seq data from lobsters that respond differentially to allatostatin-C in physiological experiments will be mapped to determine changes in gene expression. The investigation will target specific genes and will use a genome-wide assessment to look for additional changes. The project will also use mass spectrometry to ask whether specific proteins show different post-translational modifications in lobster hearts that respond differentially to the neuropeptide.