University of Findlay, Ohio Zoanthid Research Project: WE NEED YOUR HELP!

[gordonj1]

I have been meaning to post! I havent forgotten about this thread!

We have been workin like crazy in the lab lately. We extracted and ran PCR all last week. Hopefully by the end of the week we will send some samples out to get sequenced. I will keep everyone updated. The tank sure has changed an grown lately. I web from 2 red hornet polyps to 5 now. We also now have 3 Rastas. I am so afraid to frag them and extract their DNA!!!

We grafted nucs and deaths to make two faces. We will see how that goes. Wish us luck!

 

[Matt1351]

Post some pictures of the progress.

 

[gordonj1]

I will be able to post some tomorrow for sure. Using my iPod right now lol

 

[gordonj1]

So over the last two weeks my dual t5 had a ballast blow so I borrowed a pc from a friend then I decided to buy a new quad t5 fixture off eBay. The ballast will be here tomorrow and the quad will be here Wednesday. I will post pics

 

[gordonj1]

update time!!!
we have had some crazy stuff going on lately

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we get bored in the lab. sorry these uploaded all out of order

 

[gordonj1]

this is rob and big =]

 

[gordonj1]

 

[gordonj1]

theres another polyp hidden under the big one

look at one of my first posts and you can see how much this colony has grown =]

 

[gordonj1]

We sent samples to chicago for sequencing on Thursday. Soon we will have a phylogenetic tree constructed

 

[gordonj1]

We are on Spring break now! We went to Tidal Gardens yesterday and got a couple more zoas for our research project!

 

[gordonj1]

Hi everyone! Welcome back! We have been working hard on our project and have come a long way. Our research as well as our understanding has come a long way. We are looking into graduate school as we begin to finish up our senior year at Findlay.
Here's our most recent research poster

kool stuff eh?

Any questions? Post em! We will be happy to answer any. FYI, this has been published... so don't try to steal it. It is property of our University... be careful!

We are still looking for more zoanthids. If you have a couple zoas you would like to donate to our cause, let us know through message or post. We are happy to pay for samples, or shipping. Send us your zoas, and we will sequence them!

 

[puffster]

PM sent, Good luck! Is this a continuance of the latest zoanthid DNA program? I hope so, no need to start at the bottom every year. Keep us up to date. From my reading and research, DNA sequencing is turning Marine Taxonomy on its head. If this is true, how does this affect this discipline of science?

 

[gordonj1]

PM sent, Good luck! Is this a continuance of the latest zoanthid DNA program? I hope so, no need to start at the bottom every year. Keep us up to date. From my reading and research, DNA sequencing is turning Marine Taxonomy on its head. If this is true, how does this affect this discipline of science?

Yes this is a continuation of this research. We are actually going to continue researching zoanthid phylogeny through graduate school as well if all goes as planned.

DNA bar-coding is doing wonders for taxonomy. The issue is that years ago, researchers were going nuts describing species of zoanthids and competing to name new species in a race to get all of them and get the most. This lead to many species being called different names, and the only specimens to prove that these zoas they described even existed are in museums preserved in formaldehyde which destroys DNA. So they only way to identify the zoa is to dissect it. Which as you can imagine, is difficult.

before genetic analysis, morphological information was used to determine species of zoa.

check out this video Than made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpkHK1KffXY

 

[gordonj1]

UPDATE:

We have completed our second year of research on this topic, and graduated from Findlay yesterday!

The next chapter in out lives is to continue our research in graduate school at the University of The Ryukyus in Okinawa Japan! We are very excited for this opportunity, because we will be studying with the leading researcher in zoanthid phylogeny, Dr. Reimer. If it wasn't for RC we may have never met him.

I want to thank everyone who contributed to our research and I will continue to update everyone along the way. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. We are still accepting donations.

I am still in shock and can't believe we get to travel halfway across the world and study what we love. It is truly amazing.

Have a great night everyone!:frog:

 

[hustla22]

That's awesome, and congrats!

 

[GLHFriends]

Great job! Congrats!

 

[gordonj1]

Thanks! I've been dropping by the thread every once in a while.



Both Court and I were accepted into UR's graduate program. All that's left is to fill out student visa paperwork and we will be on our way to Japan in October where we will be for the next two years.

 

[gordonj1]

Update!! March 2015

Update!! March 2015

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to update everyone on our progress.

We moved to Okinawa Japan to work with Dr. James Reimer (world expert in zoantharians). Now we are in his lab as masters students. We dive often and get to collect wild specimens. I am mostly working on four species while I am here.
Zoanthus sansibaricus
Z. gigantus
Z. kuroshio
Z. vietnamensis

The other day, our lab went diving in a great spot in Ryugu, and they found some awesome Zoanthus spp. They were around 20-30 meters and found what the hobby refers to as blue hornets. When I saw the pictures, I nearly died. I was sick all last week and unable to attend 6 boat Dives!!!

Okinawa is the greatest! I am learning so much about zoantharians and I hope to post a new thread possibly titled te truth about Zoas. Idk if I have time I'll get on it. Thanks again to everyone who has been following along.