Boston University Department of Biology

Faculty Profiles

Current Research

My laboratory tackles fundamental questions in biodiversity using an interdisciplinary approach that combines genomics, genetics, molecular biology, developmental biology, organismal biology, and ecology. Our primary study organisms are coastal marine invertebrates—sea anemones, corals, and jellyfishes. In particular, we have played a central role in developing the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, into an important new model system for genomics and developmental biology. By comparing “Stella” to “higher animals,” we are investigating the early evolution of animal genomes and animal body plans. By comparing the free-living Nematostella to the closely-related parasitic anemone, Edwardsiella lineata, we are investigating the origin of parasitism. By comparing the performance of different strains of Nematostella under exposure to various environmental stressors using genomic and developmental assays, we are investigating the basis of this animal’s remarkably wide stress tolerances. We are also extending these stress-studies to corals, in an attempt to understand how corals respond to various environmental stressors, including those associated with global climate change.

Websites

• CnidBase
• StellaBase
• The Nematostella Web Resource

Courses Taught

• BI 301 Invertebrate Zoology
• BI 505 Evolution and Development
• BI 547 Marine Invertebrates
• CC 106 Biodiversity—Causes & Consequences

Selected Publications

• Putnam NH, Srivastava M, Hellsten U, Dirks B, Chapman J, Salamov A, Terry A, Shapiro H, Lindquist E, Kapitonov VV, Jurka J, Genikhovich G, Grigoriev I, JGI Sequencing Team, Steele RE, Finnerty JR, Technau U, Martindale MQ, Rokhsar DS. (2007). Sea anemone genome reveals the gene repertoire and genomic organization of the eumetazoan ancestor. Science 317, 86-94
• Reitzel AM, Sullivan JC, Brown BK, Chin DW, Cira EK, Edquist SK, Genco BM, Joseph OC, Kaufman CA, Kovitvongsa K, Muñoz MM, Negri TL, Taffel JR, Zuehlke RT, Finnerty JR. (2007). Ecological and developmental dynamics of a host-parasite system involving a sea anemone and two ctenophores. J. Parasitology 93, 1392-1402
• Ryan JF, Mazza ME, Pang K, Matus DQ, Baxevanis A, Martindale MQ, Finnerty JR. (2007). Pre-bilaterian origins of the Hox cluster and the Hox code: Evidence from the sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. PLoS ONE 2(1), e153
• Sullivan JC, Finnerty JR. (2007). Human disease genes in a simple “basal” animal, the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. Genome. 50, 689-692
• Sullivan JC, Reitzel AR, Finnerty JR. (2006). A large percentage of introns in human genes were present early in animal evolution: Evidence from the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. Genome Informatics 17(1), 219-229.      
• Finnerty JR. (2005). Did internal transport, rather than directed locomotion, favor the evolution of bilateral symmetry in animals? Bioessays 27(11), 1174-1180.
• Finnerty JR, Pang P, Burton K, Paulson D, Martindale MQ. (2004). Homology of Bilateral Symmetry in Cnidaria and Bilateria: Axial expression of Hox genes and Dpp in the sea anemone Nematostella. Science. 304, 1335-1337.
• Martindale MQ, Pang K, Finnerty JR.  (2004). Investigating the origins of triploblasty: “Mesodermal” gene expression in a diploblastic animal, the sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis (phylum, Cnidaria; Class Anthozoa). Development. 131, 2463-2474.