Allied Research Programs
 | The Marine Resources and Aquatic Technology Program |
| The Marine Biomedical Institute |
| The Texas Institute of Oceanography |
| Computer Automation and Process Control |
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Marine Resources and Aquatic Technology Program
| Research Interests
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| Faculty |
Research Interests of the Marine Resources and Aquatic Technology Program
MARICULTURE & BIOENGINEERING
Phillip G. Lee, Ph.D., and John W. Forsythe, M.S.
Mariculture. The NRCC research program focuses on the laboratory culture of the squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana and the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis. These cephalopods are highly promising biomedical models because neurobiologists are interested in their brains, nervous system (e.g., giant axons) and sense organs and because we have produced multiple laboratory generations in our laboratory. Our objectives are to develop reliable and reproducible methods by which these cephalopods may be cultured from eggs through their life cycle under controlled conditions. These projects enable investigators to conduct ontogenetic and in vivo experiments on cephalopods of known age, parentage and background. This unique opportunity to use cephalopods has never before been available to the research community. Recently, interest in the molecular biology of the nervous system and physiology of a variety of other organ systems has increased significantly.
Our first major success in squid mariculture was realized in 1981 with the squid Loligo opalescens. Since that time we have successfully cultured two other species of Loligo through the life cycle. However, for the past six years we have focused our efforts on developing the potential of the squid, Sepioteuthis lessoniana. This warm-water squid shows extraordinary growth to 2.2 kg in 6 months and is hardier than Loligo spp. squids. We consistently have adult squids in the laboratory and have cultured these squid through six laboratory generations. Squids 4 months old have giant axons larger than 450µm in diameter. We are now concentrating upon refining our culture methodology so that we can produce squids on a commercial scale. Our cuttlefish culture program has progressed rapidly over the last 7 years. After assessing the culture potential of Sepia officinalis, we have now turned our attention to their feeding behavior and nutrition. The research is organized into four areas: (1) feeding behavior, (2) chemical attractants, (3) palatability and digestibility and (4) growth trials. A major success in the research has been reached since we now have a diet formulation that not only functions as an acceptable maintenance diet, but promotes modest growth in juvenile and adult cuttlefish.
These research projects have been funded by the NIH's National Center for Research Resources and the Texas Institute of Oceanography.
Bioengineering. The NRCC is one of the most successful intensive mariculture laboratories in the world, and much of this success can be attributed to the advances made in closed, recirculating seawater systems. Cephalopods require high standards of water quality while feeding at high rates and producing copious quantities of ammonia and ink. In order to reduce the costs of operation and labor required to maintain recirculating systems, the NRCC has initiated a research program to develop automated control and expert systems for aquaculture. A computer automated control system has been installed and utilized to manage closed, recirculating seawater systems and associated filtration. Eventually, temperature, salinity, photoperiod, pH, dissolved oxygen, water flow, water level and nitrate concentration in all culture systems will be monitored and controlled. The system includes a patented denitrifying bioreactor for the control of nitrate levels in sea water. In addition, an expert system shell, using both rule-based and fuzzy logic, is currently under development in collaboration with UTMB's Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (Drs. Louis Sheppard and Hao Ying) and ORTECH Engineering, Inc., Houston, TX; this expert system will remotely control the aquaculture systems. Finally, a machine vision system to measure animal growth and activity has been developed and patented. These research projects have been funded by the Texas A&M National Sea Grant College Program and the Department of Commerce's Small Business Innovative Research Program.
BIOINFORMATICS/CEPHBASE
James B. Wood, Ph.D., John W. Forsythe, M.S. and Phillip G. Lee, Ph.D.
Scientists worldwide have a wealth of information, some published but much not and what value can it be to your research if you can't access it? The NRCC is the home of CephBase, an online relational database covering all species of Cephalopods. CephBase is designed to be used as a tool by researchers, fisheries managers, students or anyone interested in this diverse and dynamic class of invertebrate mollusks. Currently, the databases in CephBase can be accessed via the major sub-pages: [Species Search], [Image Database], [Video Database], [Reference Database], [Researcher Directory], [Predators Database] and [Prey Database]. The CephBase team is also working on projects to incorporate massive cephalopod fisheries catch databases worldwide and to create links to the large FishBase database. The CephBase project is supported by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program and is part of the Census of Marine Life, an international program to explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life.
ETHOLOGY & ADAPTIVE COLORATION
F. Paul DiMarco, M.S. and John W. Forsythe, M.S.
Studies of cephalopod behavior and the ecological context in which it occurs are being conducted on a variety of cephalopods. Combined field and laboratory studies are aimed at investigating species-specific behavioral traits in several species of squids, cuttlefishes and octopuses. For example, squids are highly interactive, social cephalopods, and they are continually communicating with one another through an impressive array of color patterns, postures and movements. We are now learning how these intraspecific encounters are used in aggression, in the establishment of dominance hierarchies, in mate selection, and in other ways, all of which are important to the life history of the species and to the survival and growth of these cephalopods in captivity. Special attention is being focused on reproductive behavior to improve the production of eggs for future laboratory generations. The diversified color patterns of cephalopods are species- and sex-specific, and all are closely associated with specific behavior. Ethograms are being constructed for several species to provide a basis for detailed quantitative analyses of brightness, color and pattern matching on diverse natural substrates. We are also experimenting with methods of classical conditioning to enhance the feeding response to our new pelleted diets.
For the past 2 years an intensive field study of wild squid has been underway. Five expeditions have successfully documented the daily behavior patterns of the Caribbean Reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea. Information from this field study will provide a better understanding of the behavioral needs of laboratory populations of Sepioteuthis lessoniana. Other studies have focused on foraging behavior of octopus living in reef habitats.
Related to the laboratory and field studies of cephalopods, the NRCC has an extensive archive of photographic slides and video tapes of squids, cuttlefishes and octopuses, both in nature and in the laboratory.
NUTRITION & PHYSIOLOGY
Phillip G. Lee, Ph.D and F. Paul DiMarco, M.S.
Cephalopods are the largest, most active invertebrates and there is considerable evidence for their convergent evolution with fishes. The driving forces are predation and shared food resources. Convergence with fishes is particularly evident in behavior, sensory systems and neuromuscular development; yet metabolism, ion balance and respiratory efficiency of cephalopods still share greater resemblance to bivalve molluscan relatives. Thus, cephalopods provide a transitional model for the study of bioenergetics and swimming performance in aquatic organisms. In cooperation with Dr. Ronald K. O'Dor, Dalhousie University, and Dr. Hans Otto Portner, Bremerhaven Institut for Polar and Marine Research, we have begun a survey of metabolism and energetics in cephalopods. Investigations at both the cellular and organ system level are being conducted.
Cephalopod nutrition is of great practical and scientific interest to the NRCC. The design of prepared diets will remove one of the last barriers for practical cephalopod culture by reducing costs and allowing their culture inland. In addition, cephalopods are unique because they are 85% protein by dry weight and protein is the principal metabolic reserve and fuel for their obligate aerobic metabolism. Current research centers on their feeding behavior and the use of chemical attractants. This research has resulted in (1) the first quantitative evidence of chemotaxis in cephalopods and (2) the first successful defined diet formulated specifically for cephalopods. The next step will be to utilize these nutritionally defined diets and to investigate the amino acid metabolism of cephalopods. Cephalopods utilized amino acids for energy, locomotion, support, vision, oxygen transport, pigmentation and osmoregulation. These research projects have been funded by the NIH's National Center for Research Resources, Texas A&M SeaGrant College Program and NATO's Collaborative Grant Program.
In addition to the cephalopod chemoreception studies, we have applied our testing protocol to crustaceans. This has led to the design of a feeding behavior model for aquatic organisms based on chemical stimuli. We have patented a crustacean feeding attractant AQUATTRACT™ and are currently testing its application for shrimp mariculture feeds.
NEUROBIOLOGY
Bernd U. Budelmann, Ph.D. and Yijun Tu, M.D.
Our main interest is on equilibrium orientation in cephalopods. The focus is on the receptor systems for linear (gravity) and angular accelerations and on the central nervous control of compensatory eye movements.
Our studies have shown that the ultrastructure and physiology of these systems rival the sophistication of their vertebrate counterparts, the vestibular end organs and the vestibulo-oculomotor system. In detail, many parallels exist, e.g., the dynamic response characteristics (gain and phase lag values) of the cephalopod angular acceleration receptor systems are similar to those of the vertebrate semicircular canals, the putative transmitters in the afferent and efferent fiber systems are similar, and the cephalopod brain pathways involved in oculomotor control have vertebrate-like organizations. Thus, these systems are interesting invertebrate models that can substantially contribute to our understanding of the basic principles of morphology, physiology and pathology of these systems in higher vertebrates, including man.
Other research includes the functional neuroanatomy of all other cephalopod brain areas that are involved in motor control, the ultrastructure of invertebrate receptor hair cells as related to their transduction process, and the structure, function and biological significance of a cephalopod receptor system that we have recently discovered to be an analogue to the mechanoreceptive lateral line system of fishes and aquatic amphibians.
WORK AT SEA & UNDERWATER ACTIVITIES
The Marine Biomedical Institute operates three small research vessels to conduct fieldwork and diving operations both locally along the Texas coast and throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The R/V Marie Hall, a 65-foot steel stern trawler equipped with modern navigational and collection equipment is used for a wide range of field studies. The ship is used primarily over the continental shelf to collect live squids with several types of trawl nets, with dipnets, and with night-light-attraction methods. The vessel is also capable of transporting the live animals back to shore in several types of shipboard containers. Many of the food organisms, such as crabs, shrimps and fishes, that are needed in the squid and cuttlefish mariculture programs are also collected. An on-board compressor allows support of off-shore diving operations. The Division of Biology and Marine Resources now supports full underwater photography and videography capabilities.
The two other vessels are 15-foot fiberglass and 21-foot aluminum boats equipped with outboard engines. They are used primarily in bays and nearshore waters to collect small food organisms, such as copepods and benthic mysids, for the squid and cuttlefish mariculture program and Aplysia for the in-house Neuroscience Program.
Research Staff of the Marine Resources and Aquatic Technology Program
Marine Biomedical Institute,
University of Texas Medical Branch
Research Staff of the Marine Resources and Aquatic Technology Program
Professor, Department of Otolaryngology
Dr. Budelmann is a native of Hamburg, Germany. He conducted his dissertation research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen, West Germany and earned his Ph.D. in Zoology in 1970 from the University of Munich. Subsequently he has been a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Max-Planck-Society. In 1972, he joined the University of Regensburg, West Germany as an Assistant and later Associate Professor. From 1979-1984 he has been a Heisenberg Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Dr. Budelmann conducted research at the Stazione Zoologica, Italy, from 1968-1985 on a regular basis twice a year, and has been a guest scientist of the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada and of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR at the Sechenov Institute in Leningrad. Since 1981, Dr. Budelmann collaborates with Professor J.Z. Young, F.R.S., F.B.A., Oxford, UK, and since 1989 T.H. Bullock, La Jolla, CA. In 1992, he became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Stazione Zoologica "Anton Dohrn" in Naples, Italy. In 1994, he has been elected Executive Secretary of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC). He joined the Marine Biomedical Institute in 1987.
Dr. Budelmann's research interests focus on cephalopod equilibrium receptor systems, their relevant brain structures, the oculomotor system, and all other sensory and motor systems that are involved in equilibrium orientation. His other research interests include the cephalopod's lateral line analogue system other mechanoreceptors and invertebrate receptor hair cells.
e-mail bubudelm@utmb.edu Direct Phone (409) 772-3661 Fax (409) 772-6993
Associate Professor, Department of Human Biological Chemistry & Genetics and Preventive Medicine and Community Health
Dr. Phillip Lee was born in Oklahoma and he graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a B.S. degree in Zoology in 1975. He received his M.S. degree in Marine Science in 1980 from the University of South Florida, where his research centered upon the digestive enzymes of fresh-water prawns. He then attended Texas A&M University in College Station, and in 1984 he earned his Ph.D. in Animal Science with emphasis on Animal Nutrition. He accepted a postdoctoral position with Texas A&M in Port Aransas and was the co-investigator on a project examining the effects of trypsin inhibitors on protease enzymes in penaeid shrimp. Upon completion, he accepted a teaching position with South Carolina State University. In 1985, he joined the MBI.
Dr. Lee's main interests are digestion and metabolism of cultured marine invertebrates, especially dietary requirements, diet palatability and chemical attractants. His current grant-supported research centers on the metabolism of squid, chemoreception and development of prepared diets for cephalopods and crustaceans. Other research projects concern the computer automated management of aquaculture systems, the modeling of these managed biological systems, design of water filtration and production of aquaculture species.
E-mail pglee@utmb.edu Direct Phone: (409) 772-3660 Fax: (409) 772-6993