Joseph Ryan Marine Bioscience University of Florida Dr. Joseph Ryan Lab Website Mon, 03/27/2023 - 12:40pm Athens Seminars Please join us Monday March 27 at 12:40 pm for the UGA Department of Marine Sciences seminar. Dr. Joseph Ryan, an Associate Professor at the University of Florida - Whitney Lab for Marine Bioscience, will present his work entitled The first and last million years of evolution in the ctenophore lineage. If anyone would like to meet with the speaker after the talk, please email Dr. Frischer to set up a meeting (marc.frischer@skio.uga.edu). Abstract: Current evidence suggests that ctenophores (comb jellies) are the earliest diverging animal phyla, which has led to controversy concerning whether neural and other electrical cell types were present in the last common ancestor or arose independently multiple times in evolution. To shed light on this debate and the first million years of ctenophore evolution, I will discuss our ongoing research, which incorporates genomics, single-cell transcriptomics, phylogenetics, as well as electrophysiology and is congruent with a single origin of the nervous system in animals. Additionally, we have conducted research on the phylogeography of the holopelagic ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi. This animal is native to a vast range of the Atlantic coastline of North, Central, and South America (a 25,000 kilometers range), and we have sequenced 150 nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from 13 populations spanning from Woods Hole, MA to Fort Pierce, MA. Our findings provide insight into the speciation process of holopelagic animals and expand our understanding of the last million years of ctenophore evolution. The Zoom link for those of you joining from your computers will be https://zoom.us/j/97461643834. Marine Sciences Room 239 and the Skidaway Auditorium will either host the speaker or have a live feed of the talk. The room will open at 12:25 pm, and the talk will begin at 12:40 pm.
