Sally Leys

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Sally Leys (Sally Penelope Leys) is a Canadian spongiologist. She is a professor of biology at the University of Alberta [1] where she and her colleagues study sponges in all their aspects [2] including ecology, [3] physiology, [4] [5] [6] their adaptations to a fluid environment [2] and the evolution of sensory systems using sponges as their model organism. [1] A current project is Evaluating ecosystem function, vulnerability, resilience, and ability to recover from multiple stressors. [7]

She earned a B.Sc. in 1990 from the University of British Columbia and a Ph.D from University of Victoria in 1996, entitled Cytoskeletal architecture, organelle transport, and impulse conduction in hexactinellid sponge syncytia, [8] followed by post-doctoral work in Barbados, in Marseille, and at the University of Queensland. [1]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sympagic ecology</span> Ecology of ice and snow

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<i>Eledone</i> Genus of molluscs

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<i>Paragorgia arborea</i> Species of coral

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George Owen Mackie was a British–Canadian zoologist who was a professor emeritus of biology at the University of Victoria. Prior to this, he worked at the University of Alberta Department of Zoology, which he left in 1968. Much of his research focused on invertebrate behavioural physiology. He was born in Lincolnshire, England, on October 20, 1929, the youngest son of Frederick Percival Mackie. After obtaining a B.A. from the University of Oxford in 1953, he obtained an M.A. and a D. Phil from Oxford in 1957. In 1982, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1991, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of London. Mackie died on August 25, 2023, at the age of 93.

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Colleen Beckmann Mouw is an associate professor at the University of Rhode Island known for her work on phytoplankton ecology and increasing retention of women in oceanography.

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Michelle Kelly, also known as Michelle Kelly-Borges, is a New Zealand scientist who specialises in sponges, their chemistry, their evolution, taxonomy, systematics, and ecology.

Oopsacas minuta is a glass sponge that is a member of the Hexactinellida. Oopsacas minuta is found in submarine caves in the Mediterranean. It is reproductive year-round. This species is a part of a class that are usually bathyal and abyssal. Meaning they grow at a depth over 200 meters. At this depth the temperature is low and constant, so silica metabolism is optimized. However, this species has been observed in shallow water. O. minuta have only been observed by exploring caves that trap cold water. The shape of the sponge is elongated, cylindrical and a little flared. It is between a few millimeters and 3.5 centimeters. O. minuta are white are held up with a siliceous skeleton. The spicules of the skeleton intersect in an intricate network. These spindles partially block the top of the sponge. There are no obvious oscules. The sponge is anchored or suspended from the cave by silica fibers. This class of sponge is different from the three other classes of Porifera. It differs in tissue organization, ecology, development and physiology. O. minuta belongs to the order Lyssacinosida. Lyssacinosida are characterized by the parenchymal spicules mostly being unconnected; this is unlike other sponges in the subclass where the spicules form a connected skeleton. The genome of O. minuta are one of the smallest of all the animal genomes that have been sequenced so far. Its genome contains 24 noncoding genes and 14 protein-encoding genes. The spindles of O. minuta have three axes and six points. This species does not have pinacocytes, which are the cells that form the outer layer in other sponges. Instead of true choanocytes it has frill structures that bud from the syncytium.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Sally Leys". Canadian Healthy Oceans Network. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Home: Leys Lab". Leys Lab, University of Alberta. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  3. Stephanie K. Archer; Amanda S. Kahn; Mary Thiess; et al. (24 September 2020). "Foundation Species Abundance Influences Food Web Topology on Glass Sponge Reefs". Frontiers in Marine Science. 7. doi: 10.3389/FMARS.2020.549478 . ISSN   2296-7745. Wikidata   Q111384426.
  4. Sally P. Leys; Bernard M. Degnan (1 December 2001). "Cytological basis of photoresponsive behavior in a sponge larva". The Biological Bulletin . 201 (3): 323–338. doi:10.2307/1543611. ISSN   0006-3185. JSTOR   1543611. PMID   11751245. Wikidata   Q56188960.
  5. Anna de Kluijver; Martijn C. Bart; Dick van Oevelen; et al. (18 January 2021). "An Integrative Model of Carbon and Nitrogen Metabolism in a Common Deep-Sea Sponge (Geodia barretti)". Frontiers in Marine Science. 7. doi: 10.3389/FMARS.2020.596251 . ISSN   2296-7745. Wikidata   Q111384423.
  6. Sally P Leys; Amanda S Kahn (1 October 2018). "Oxygen and the Energetic Requirements of the First Multicellular Animals". Integrative and Comparative Biology . 58 (4): 666–676. doi:10.1093/ICB/ICY051. ISSN   1540-7063. PMID   29889237. Wikidata   Q57211795.
  7. "Evaluating ecosystem function, vulnerability, resilience, and ability to recover from multiple stressors". Canadian Healthy Oceans Network. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  8. Leys, S.P. (1996). Cytoskeletal architecture, organelle transport, and impulse conduction in hexactinellid sponge syncytia (PDF). University of Victoria.