Laboratory of Marine Eco-Evo-Devo｜Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica

My team is interested in how hormones and their receptors play a role in evolutionary processes. To do so, we focus on thyroid hormones and their function in the control of metamorphosis. In amphibians thyroid hormones, combined with other hormones such as corticosteroids, have been shown to be essential for triggering and coordinating the transformation of the tadpole into a frog. In the lab, we use the extraordinary diversity of coral reef fish to better understand the role of hormones in the evolution of life history strategies, in a perspective integrating ecological, evolutionary and developmental components. Most coral reef fish exhibit a biphasic life cycle with a pelagic larva that ultimately transform into a reef associated juvenile. We have shown that TH controls one of the most salient features of metamorphosis: the development of the extraordinarily variable pigmentation pattern of the reef-associated fish.

The ca. 30 species of clownfish display a relatively simple color pattern made of zero to three white bars well visible on a darker body background. We have studied the ontogenesis and phylogenesis of these bars and revealed their role in species recognition. Overall, this illustrates how developmental and ecological processes have shaped the diversification of color patterns during the radiation of this lineage. Our recent results show that thyroid hormones control the development of the white bars. Our goal is to understand how this control is achieved mechanistically. We combine developmental, transcriptomic and genetic analyses to better understand how the thyroid hormones signaling pathway controls pigment cell differentiation and behavior.

We also work a lot to develop the anemone fish as marine model species since a marine teleost fish species is still lacking as a convenient model organism suitable for laboratory experiments in Eco-Evo-Devo. Marine teleost species used for research purposes are mostly aquaculture models (sea bass, sea bream, salmon, flatfish, tuna and grouper). Unfortunately, the size of adult individuals and the difficulty in raising these fishes in laboratory settings make them quite difficult to use. On the contrary, due to their remarkable biological traits the anemone fishes allow to tackle a large set of scientific questions in several disciplines: ecology, developmental biology and evolutionary sciences. We are therefore developing new method to improve the use of these fish as models.

The lab is joined to the Marine Eco-Evo-Devo unit at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (https://groups.oist.jp/meedu) in which I am Faculty. Both sites share models, biological questions, reagents, lab meetings and a lot of friendship!