Because I Said So: Ten Tips for Finding Volunteers and Keeping Them Happy

Volunteers, interns and student workers are indispensable at local museums and archives in achieving their yearly goals. Teaching and managing the occasional quirks of this important group of people is as important as knowing how to sew a tag on an artifact. “Because I Said So” will provide ideas for how to work with volunteers of all ages doing collections management and archival tasks without tearing out your hair, or ruining any artifacts

Making Do With What You\u27ve Got: Improving Your Collections Storage Now

Don’t wait until that inventory grant money comes through, get started improving your collection storage today using things you have right now or can get without breaking the bank or begging the board! Come ready to share your ideas as well as learn from your presenters and colleagues in this informal discussion-style session. Attendees will leave the session with easily implemented and inexpensive ideas for storing, displaying, and rehousing objects of all shapes, sizes and materials

A Spinal Opsin Controls Early Neural Activity and Drives a Behavioral Light Response

SummaryNonvisual detection of light by the vertebrate hypothalamus, pineal, and retina is known to govern seasonal and circadian behaviors [1]. However, the expression of opsins in multiple other brain structures [2–4] suggests a more expansive repertoire for light regulation of physiology, behavior, and development. Translucent zebrafish embryos express extraretinal opsins early on [5, 6], at a time when spontaneous activity in the developing CNS plays a role in neuronal maturation and circuit formation [7]. Though the presence of extraretinal opsins is well documented, the function of direct photoreception by the CNS remains largely unknown. Here, we show that early activity in the zebrafish spinal central pattern generator (CPG) and the earliest locomotory behavior are dramatically inhibited by physiological levels of environmental light. We find that the photosensitivity of this circuit is conferred by vertebrate ancient long opsin A (VALopA), which we show to be a Gαi-coupled receptor that is expressed in the neurons of the spinal network. Sustained photoactivation of VALopA not only suppresses spontaneous activity but also alters the maturation of time-locked correlated network patterns. These results uncover a novel role for nonvisual opsins and a mechanism for environmental regulation of spontaneous motor behavior and neural activity in a circuit previously thought to be governed only by intrinsic developmental programs

Species-specific difference in expression and splice-site choice in Inpp5b, an inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatase paralogous to the enzyme deficient in Lowe Syndrome

The oculocerebrorenal syndrome of Lowe (OCRL; MIM #309000) is an X-linked human disorder characterized by congenital cataracts, mental retardation, and renal proximal tubular dysfunction caused by loss-of-function mutations in the OCRL gene that encodes Ocrl, a type II phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate (PtdIns4,5P2) 5-phosphatase. In contrast, mice with complete loss-of-function of the highly homologous ortholog Ocrl have no detectable renal, ophthalmological, or central nervous system abnormalities. We inferred that the disparate phenotype between Ocrl-deficient humans and mice was likely due to differences in how the two species compensate for loss of the Ocrl enzyme. We therefore turned our attention to Inpp5b, another type II PtdIns4,5P2 5-phosphatase encoded by Inpp5b in mice and INPP5B in humans, as potential compensating genes in the two species, because Inpp5b/INPP5B are the most highly conserved paralogs to Ocrl/OCRL in the respective genomes of both species and Inpp5b demonstrates functional overlap with Ocrl in mice in vivo. We used in silico sequence analysis, reverse-transcription PCR, quantitative PCR, and transient transfection assays of promoter function to define splice-site usage and the function of an internal promoter in mouse Inpp5b versus human INPP5B. We found mouse Inpp5b and human INPP5B differ in their transcription, splicing, and primary amino acid sequence. These observations form the foundation for analyzing the functional basis for the difference in how Inpp5b and INPP5B compensate for loss of Ocrl function and, by providing insight into the cellular roles of Ocrl and Inpp5b, aid in the development of a model system in which to study Lowe syndrome

Hampton Roads Intergovernmental Pilot Project: Memo and Legal Primer

The Hampton Roads area is experiencing the highest rates of sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast. It is second only to New Orleans, Louisiana as the largest population center at risk from sea level rise in the country. And it is anticipated that Virginia will experience between 2.3 to 5.2 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century. This unprecedented challenge requires a comprehensive and effective planning response. The mission of the Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Pilot Project (“Pilot Project”) is to develop a regional whole of government and whole of community approach to sea level rise preparedness and resilience planning for the Hampton Roads community. This is a two-year project with the goal of establishing arrangements and procedures that can effectively coordinate the sea level rise preparedness and resilience planning of federal, state, and local government agencies, citizens groups, and the private sector. Ideally, this Pilot Project will generate a template for use by other regions of the United States also working with similar issues of sea level rise preparedness and this Legal Primer is an important part of this effort. It provides an overview of the myriad legal and policy concerns that the Pilot Project will face in developing practical and whole of government solutions. This abstract has been taken from the authors\u27 executive summary

Optical Control of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest family of membrane signaling proteins, respond to neurotransmitters, hormones and small environmental molecules. The neuronal function of many GPCRs has been difficult to resolve because of an inability to gate them with subtype-specificity, spatial precision, speed and reversibility. To address this, we developed an approach for opto-chemical engineering native GPCRs. We applied this to the metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) to generate light-agonized and light-antagonized “LimGluRs”. The light-agonized “LimGluR2”, on which we focused, is fast, bistable, and supports multiple rounds of on/off switching. Light gates two of the primary neuronal functions of mGluR2: suppression of excitability and inhibition of neurotransmitter release. The light-antagonized “LimGluR2block” can be used to manipulate negative feedback of synaptically released glutamate on transmitter release. We generalize the optical control to two additional family members: mGluR3 and 6. The system works in rodent brain slice and in zebrafish in vivo, where we find that mGluR2 modulates the threshold for escape behavior. These light-gated mGluRs pave the way for determining the roles of mGluRs in synaptic plasticity, memory and disease

Phenotypic Diversity and Altered Environmental Plasticity in Arabidopsis thaliana with Reduced Hsp90 Levels

The molecular chaperone HSP90 aids the maturation of a diverse but select set of metastable protein clients, many of which are key to a variety of signal transduction pathways. HSP90 function has been best investigated in animal and fungal systems, where inhibition of the chaperone has exceptionally diverse effects, ranging from reversing oncogenic transformation to preventing the acquisition of drug resistance. Inhibition of HSP90 in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana uncovers novel morphologies dependent on normally cryptic genetic variation and increases stochastic variation inherent to developmental processes. The biochemical activity of HSP90 is strictly conserved between animals and plants. However, the substrates and pathways dependent on HSP90 in plants are poorly understood. Progress has been impeded by the necessity of reliance on light-sensitive HSP90 inhibitors due to redundancy in the A. thaliana HSP90 gene family. Here we present phenotypic and genome-wide expression analyses of A. thaliana with constitutively reduced HSP90 levels achieved by RNAi targeting. HSP90 reduction affects a variety of quantitative life-history traits, including flowering time and total seed set, increases morphological diversity, and decreases the developmental stability of repeated characters. Several morphologies are synergistically affected by HSP90 and growth temperature. Genome-wide expression analyses also suggest a central role for HSP90 in the genesis and maintenance of plastic responses. The expression results are substantiated by examination of the response of HSP90-reduced plants to attack by caterpillars of the generalist herbivore Trichoplusia ni. HSP90 reduction potentiates a more robust herbivore defense response. In sum, we propose that HSP90 exerts global effects on the environmental responsiveness of plants to many different stimuli. The comprehensive set of HSP90-reduced lines described here is a vital instrument to further examine the role of HSP90 as a central interface between organism, development, and environment

Generating Diversity and Maintaining Stability in the Nervous System, From Synapses to Behavior

A central question in neuroscience is how synapses are assembled within neuronal circuits to regulate and maintain complex behaviors. These fundamental nodes of information transfer must be malleable yet maintain stability, all within a nervous system of a developing, learning, and behaving animal. In my thesis work, I have sought to help bridge some of these divides between the many scales of the nervous system and disentangle the overwhelming intricacy that lies between molecules at the synapse and emergent behavior. Behavioral variability in animal populations is thought to increase fitness and aid adaptation to environmental change, yet the underlying neural mechanisms are poorly understood. We found that variation between individuals in neuromodulatory input contributes to individuality in short-term habituation of the zebrafish (Danio Rerio) acoustic startle response (ASR). From here, I studied heterogeneity on a different scale and began researching the synaptic diversity of the model system, the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Most electrophysiological studies of the NMJ have ignored the functional differences between its two distinct motor neuron inputs, the Ib and Is, both of which are comprised of hundreds of synapses of varying vesicular release properties. We found that the Ib and Is inputs generate distinct forms of excitatory drive during crawling and differ in key transmission properties. Finally, after a desire to connect the synaptic level of the NMJ to the behavioral level of the larval zebrafish, my most recent work investigates how circuits increase motor neuron output to maintain normal behavior in response to a reduction in synaptic strength at the NMJ. Although diverse in nature, these model systems provide a unique insight into the complex interplay between generating diversity and maintaining stability in the nervous system