Research Summary:
We are a molecular biology and genomics lab working on (i) biofluorescence and (ii) evolution in the marine environment. We address a wide range of issues, including:
- molecular biology and ecology of fluorescence in marine organisms;
- resurrection of ancestral proteins and recreation of protein evolution pathways;
- artificial design of fluorescent proteins;
- adaptation of corals to ongoing climate change at the genomic level;
- tempo and mode of evolution of the deep-sea fauna;
- origin of novel larval body plan in ribbon worms (phylum Nemertea);
We integrate methods from the fields of optics, statistical phylogenetics, organismal biology and modern molecular biology including high-throughput genotyping, gene expression analysis, and new generation sequencing approaches.
Research Images:
Evolution of coral colors recreated - Phylogenetic tree of the coral fluorescent proteins drawn on a Petri dish with bacterial cultures expressing resurrected ancestral proteins and present-day proteins (from Ugalde, Chang and Matz, Science 2004). |
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In vivo labeling using coral proteins - The first application of fluorescent proteins from reef organisms for dual-color in vivo labeling: tracing the progeny of left and right dorsal blastomeres in a developing tadpole (from Matz et al, Nature Biotechnol 1999). Left: white light; right: fluorescent optics. |
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Fluorescent great star coral - Fluorescent photo of the cyan/green color morph of the great star coral (Montastrea cavernosa) |
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MATZ vs. GFP - Matz wrestling the secrets out of GFP structure at Friday Harbor Labs |
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Publications:| 2009 | Meyer, E., S. Davies, S. Wang, B. L. Willis, D. Abrego, T. Juenger, and M. V. Matz, Genetic variation in responses to settlement cue and elevated temperature in a reef-building coral Acropora millepora., Mar Ecol Prog Ser in press. | | 2009 | Field SF, Matz MV., Retracing evolution of red fluorescence in GFP-like proteins from Faviina corals., Mol Biol Evol in press. | | 2009 | Meyer E, Aglyamova GV, Wang S, Buchanan-Carter J, Abrego D, Colbourne JK, Willis BL, Matz MV., Sequencing and de novo analysis of a coral larval transcriptome using 454 GSFlx, BMC Genomics 12:219. | | 2008 | Matz MV, Frank TM, Marshall NJ, Widder EA, Johnsen S., Giant deep-sea protist produces bilaterian-like traces., Current Biology 18:1849-1854. | | 2008 | Alieva NO, Konzen KA, Field SF, Meleshkevitch EA, Hunt ME, Beltran-Ramirez V, Miller DJ, Wiedenmann J, Salih A, Matz MV., Diversity and evolution of coral fluorescent proteins., PLoS ONE 16:e2680. | | 2004 | Ugalde, J. A., Chang, B. S. W. and Matz, M. V. , Evolution of coral pigments recreated, Science 305:1433. |
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