Elaine Seaver
PhD University of Utah, 1995
Associate Researcher, Kewalo Marine Laboratory (PBRC)
University of Hawaii
Kewalo Marine Laboratory
41 Ahui Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
phone: (808) 539-7324
fax: (808) 599-4817
seaver@hawaii.edu
www.kewalo.hawaii.edu/labs/seaver/index.html

Comparative developmental biology of marine annelids
I am interested in the origins of body plan novelty during evolution. My lab approaches this problem by studying the cellular and molecular changes in the developmental that lead to changes in the adult body plan. We focus on polychaete annelids, and other vermiform lophotrochozoans such as sipunculids, myzostomids and echiurans. We study multiple species with distinct life history characteristics and body plan morphologies to utilize the strengths of a comparative approach.

One focus of the lab has been to develop Capitella sp. I, a polychaete annelid, as a developmental model for studies of body plan evolution within the lophotrochozoans. Capitella has a number of advantages for developmental studies including the ability to culture it in the laboratory and obtain embryos and larvae year round. The Capitella genome has recently been sequenced to 8x coverage by the Joint Genome Institute (Department of Energy,http://genome.jgipsf.org/Capca1/Capca1.home.html) providing another important resource. In addition, because polychaetes continue to add segments into adulthood and have robust regenerative capacities, they offer a unique system in which to study the dynamic maintenance of axial position in the adult body. Ongoing projects of the lab include studies of the evolution of the segmented body plan, annelid nervous system development and evolution, development of the through gut, evolution of mesoderm, germ line development, molecular mechanisms of early fate specification, and establishment of a fate map for the Capitella body plan.

Publications:
Meyer, N. P. and Seaver, E. C. (2009). Neurogenesis in an annelid: characterization of neural progenitors in the polychaete Capitella sp. I. Developmental Biology (in press).

Boyle, M. J. and Seaver, E. C. (2009). Evidence of a dorsal pharynx in the marine polychaete, Capitella sp. I (Polychaeta: Capitellidae). Zootaxa (in press).

Fröbius AC, Matus DQ, Seaver EC (2008). Genomic Organization and Expression Demonstrate Spatial and Temporal Hox Gene Colinearity in the Lophotrochozoan Capitella sp. I. PLoS ONE 3(12): e4004. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004004.

Dill, K. K., and Seaver, E. C. (2008). Vasa and nanos are co-expressed in somatic and germ line tissue from early embryonic cleavage stages through adulthood in the polychaete Capitella sp. I. Development, Genes and Evolution 218(9):453-63.

Thamm, K. and Seaver, E. C. (2008). Notch signaling during larval and juvenile development in the polychaete annelid Capitella sp. I. Developmental Biology, 320 (1): 304-318.

Boyle, M. J. and Seaver, E. C. (2008). Developmental expression of foxA and gata genes during gut formation in the polychaete annelid, Capitella sp. I. Evolution and Development 10(1):89-105.

Dill, K. K., Thamm, K. and Seaver, E. C. (2007). Characterization of twist and snail gene expression during mesoderm and nervous system development in the polychaete annelid Capitella sp. I. Development, Genes and Evolution 217(6):435-47.

Fröbius, A. C. and Seaver, E. C. (2006). Capitella sp. I homeobrain-like, the first lophotrochozoan member of a novel paired-like homeobox gene family. Mechanisms of Development 6(8):985-91.

Irvine, S. Q. and Seaver, E. C. (2006). Early Annelid Development, A Molecular Perspective. in Greg Rouse and Fredrick Pleijel, eds. Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Annelida. Pp. 93-140. Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny, v. 4. Barrie G.M. Jamieson, series ed. Science Publishers: Enfield, NH.

Fröbius, A. C. and Seaver, E. C. (2006). ParaHox gene expression in the polychaete annelid Capitella sp. I. Development, Genes and Evolution 216(2): 81-88.

Seaver, E. C. and Kaneshige, L. M. (2006). Expression of 'segmentation' genes during larval and juvenile development in the polychaetes Capitella sp. I and H. elegans. Developmental Biology 289: 179-194.

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