{"id":136131,"date":"2020-09-25T10:42:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T14:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=136131"},"modified":"2020-10-30T13:53:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T17:53:35","slug":"bates-biologist-april-hill-is-part-of-first-genome-sequencing-of-a-freshwater-sponge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/09\/25\/bates-biologist-april-hill-is-part-of-first-genome-sequencing-of-a-freshwater-sponge\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates biologist April Hill is part of first genome sequencing of a freshwater sponge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Not long after arriving at Bates to teach biology, Professor April Hill took a map, drew a circle with a 50-mile radius around Lewiston and the college, and gave Gavin Chen ’20, then a junior biology major, directions on how to start looking for sponges within that area. Rivers, lakes, anywhere with moving freshwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evolutionary developmental geneticist was then nearly a decade into a research project with scientists around the world, studying Ephydatia muelleri<\/em>, a freshwater sponge found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group was working on the first chromosomal-level genome sequencing of the sponge, a goal they reached in July, with Hill serving as one of 17 authors of a paper published in the journal Nature Communications<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a big culminating work for our group,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes this sponge special is its very common nature: It\u2019s pancontinental. \u201cIt\u2019s got this commonality to it where people can work on it all around the world,\u201d Hill said. A Swedish E. muelleri <\/em>is the same as a Chinese E. muelleri <\/em>or an Androscoggin River E. muelleri. <\/em>In learning more about this animal\u2019s lineage and sharing that genome, Hill and her colleagues want to elevate it as a model animal for studying adaptations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This example of a freshwater sponge, Ephydatia muelleri<\/em>, was photographed in the Sooke River of Vancouver Island in 2016 by Sally Leys, senior author of the recent study on the sponge genome published in Nature Communications<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve mapped how the sponge has changed over time to adapt to (and survive) its environment; that model can then be applied to research around human health and maintaining clean freshwater sources. Sponges are by no means exactly like us \u2014 for one thing, they often have symbiotic relationships with organisms like green algae, living inside their cells, conducting photosynthesis, and simultaneously feeding sugars to the sponge. But they can be related to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They’re biomedically relevant,\u201d said Hill, the college\u2019s inaugural Wagener Family Professor of Equity and Inclusion in STEM<\/a>. \u201cAnd they\u2019re also ecologically important. If you think about the environment or care about climate change, they are important organisms for us to pay attention to.\u201d One of her main inquiries has focused on how genetic pathways are conserved \u2014 used and reused by different animals\u2014 over the course of evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Professor
In 2019, Wagener Professor of Equity and Inclusion in STEM April Hill works with Jasmine Nutakki \u201921 of Augusta, Maine, who is learning a technique called the polymerase chain reaction to “amplify” genes, or make copies of them, from freshwater sponges. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But in those early days at Bates after leaving the University of Richmond, where she had chaired the biology department, Hill needed some fresh samples. She was confident that Chen, who had taken a research position for Short Term, could find them, since they are prevalent worldwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he would have to put on his waders \u2014 as a recreational fly fisherman, not a problem \u2014 and plunge his hand into Maine\u2019s spring waters to turn over rocks, looking on their bottoms for creatures that have been living, and evolving, on Earth for some 600 to 800 million years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her advice to the average sponge hunter? She\u2019d tell them to keep an eye out for the prime consumer and spreader of sponges worldwide, waterfowl. \u201cGo downstream of duck butts,\u201d is the phrase she and her colleagues use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Chen did. \u201cIt was difficult at first,\u201d he said. \u201cFreshwater sponges don\u2019t look like a lot in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI made some mistakes along the way,\u201d he said. Like the times he brought back dirt. \u201cI would be like, \u2018April, I think this a sponge\u2019 and she would look at it and say, \u2018You were close but this is dirt.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Assistant
In 2019, Gavin Chen ’20 (center) works with fellow students Joseph Ho ’20 (left) and Brianna Karboski ’21 (right) in a class on biomimetics, the study of how living beings inspire human-designed objects. Here, they test 3D printed models of grooming brushes inspired by cat tongues. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not an unreasonable confusion, dirt and sponges. Over winter, sponges go into a sort of hibernation. They\u2019ll make, Hill said, \u201ca decision and most of their cells will die except their stem cells. They have stem cells just like we have stem cells. And they\u2019ll form these little bitty balls. We call them gemmules and they\u2019ll secrete antifreeze proteins to cover all the stem cells.\u201d Hill has \u201cthousands of gemmules in the refrigerator\u201d (in her lab at Bates). When she wants to work with them, she thaws them out and they\u2019ll grow into a sponge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is what I mean by adaptations,\u201d Hill said. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool. Like, if we got really cold, we\u2019re gone, right?\u201d But not the sponge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s also used the sponges in classes, including in the new introductory course, “Lab-Based Biological Inquiry,” that aims to plunge first years and sophomores right into research on various topics. Regardless of the topic, “What we teach students is, How do biologists ask questions? How do they plan experiments?\u201d And then the students put that to practical use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her offering of the course last year, looking at symbiotic microalgae, \u201cthe students actually worked with both the sponges and the algae.\u201d They cultured the algae to see if any of them made antibiotic compounds. They also did a simulated climate change experiment. (One of the features of freshwater sponges is that they have survived extreme conditions over time, Hill said.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot more potential research in that area, she said. While ocean organisms and their susceptibility to death and degradation due to climate change have been studied extensively, not much is known about freshwater ecosystems. \u201cNo one has really asked that question yet,\u201d Hill said. \u201cLike what happens if our fresh waters are polluted or heating up because of climate change?\u201d It\u2019s not just about the impact on how clean the water would be, but also on the fish life within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A freshwater sponge, Ephydatia muelleri <\/em>with showing the tiny buds, called gemmules, that aid in a sponge’s remarkable ability to withstand winter. (Photograph by Sally Leys)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That sponges even live in freshwater surprises many. \u201cMost people think of sponges in the ocean,\u201d Hill said. (She works on those too.) But what may seem obscure to some has proved good research material for Bates students. \u201cIt is definitely something that students have enjoyed working on,\u201d Hill said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Chen, who has fond memories of that Short Term he spent hunting sponges in Maine waterways and plugging what he\u2019d find there into an Excel spreadsheet. (Lake Andrews? Not spongeworthy.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes he encountered people who wanted to know what he was up to. \u201cThey would look at me a little funny,\u201d he said. He discovered that water flow made a big difference in what he\u2019d find. Too fast? Nothing. Ditto for too slow. He found a treasure trove of sponges near Sabattus. \u201cWhen I started flipping over rocks, there were just sponges everywhere,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back at the lab with Hill, he learned to isolate the DNA of the sponge and do species identification. Chen, who is working as a dental assistant while he waits to hear back from dental schools, said the project gave him new perspective. \u201cIt has changed my view,\u201d he said. \u201cI look at a river and think, there could be something in there.\u201d  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

However lowly, or low in the water, freshwater sponges are “biomedically relevant,\u201d says Bates biologist April Hill “They are important organisms for us to pay attention to.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1283,"featured_media":136164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,217],"tags":[11728,11339],"class_list":["post-136131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-science-technology","tag-april-l-horton","tag-the-bates-campaign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136131"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136165,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136131\/revisions\/136165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}