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Ruth
Gates
PhD University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1990
Assistant Researcher, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology/SOEST
Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology
SOEST, University of Hawaii
PO Box 1346
Kaneohe, HI 96744
phone: (808) 236-7420
fax: (808) 236-7443
rgates@hawaii.edu
www.hawaii.edu/HIMB/Faculty/gates.html
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Craig
Coleman
(PhD Oceanography)
Marissa Hirst (PhD Zoology)
Anderson Mayfield (PhD Zoology)
Jacqueline Padilla-Gamino (PhD Oceanography)
Daniel Reineman (PhD Oceanography)
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The
biology of corals and the evolution of animal sensory systems
My overarching interest lies in the biological mechanisms and traits
that drive the ability of marine organisms to respond to changes
in their environment. Using tools drawn from the fields of molecular
biology, developmental genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, organismal
physiology and ecology, and focusing on marine invertebrates, my
research explores questions that relate to two specific areas. The
first examines the mechanisms that underlie the flexibility and/or
sensitivity of coral-dinoflagellate symbioses to their environment.
In this work, I emphasize a combination of field and laboratory
approaches to address questions at multiple scales of resolution.
This research is aimed at both expanding our basic understanding
of these complex reef organisms and identifying novel tools with
utility in conserving coral reef ecosystems into the future. My
second research area explores the evolution of animal sensory systems.
In this capacity, I exploit genetic databases and the primary literature
to identify gene candidates that play pivotal roles in the sensory
development of flies, nematodes and model vertebrates e.g mouse.
Once identified, I attempt to isolate and characterize these genes
in more ancient organisms, such as corals and sponges, with the
goal of evaluating their ancestral function and ultimately attaining
a more detailed understanding of the evolution of biological systems
that lie at the very heart of the animal condition.
Representative
publications
Edmunds, P. J. and R. D. Gates. 2003. Has coral bleaching delayed
our understanding of fundamental aspects of coral-dinoflagellate
symbioes? BioScience 53(10): 976-980.
Jacobs, D. J. and R. D. Gates. 2003. Developmental genes and the
reconstruction of metazoan evolution - implications of evolutionary
loss, limits on inference of ancestry and type 2 errors. Integrative
and Comparative Biology 43: 11-18.
Lee, S. E.; Gates, R. D. and Jacobs, D. K. 2003. Gene fishing: the
use of a simple protocol to isolate multiple homeodomain classes
from diverse invertebrate taxa. Journal of Molecular Evolution 56:
509-516l
Edmunds, P. J.; Gates, R. D. and D. F. Gleason. 2001. The biology
of planulae freshly released from the reef coral Porites astreoides
and their response to temperature disturbances. Marine Biology 139:
981-989.
Gates, R. D. and Edmunds, P. J. 1999. The physiological mechanisms
of acclimatization in tropical reef corals. American Zoologist 39(1):
30-43.
Gates, R. D.; Bil, K. Y. and Muscatine L. 1999. The influence of
an anthozoan "host factor" on the physiology of a symbiotic dinoflagellate.
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 232(2): 241-259.
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