Chercheurs

Sciences de la Vie / PALENIK, BRIAN

bpalenik

Position

Professor of Marine Biology
Marine Biology Research Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
La Jolla CA, U.S.A.

Thèmes de recherche

- Adaptations of phytoplankton to their physical and chemical environments, especially nutrient limitation and metal toxicity
- Phytoplankton diversity and evolution
- Marine genomics

The Palenik Laboratory uses molecular and biochemical approaches to characterize the response of photosynthetic microorganisms such as diatoms and cyanobacteria to changes in their environment, such as how they respond to toxic copper levels or how they respond to nutrient depletion. They are developing biomarkers for these responses (unique proteins induced by a particular physiological stress) and examining environmental samples for these biomarkers. Since physiological stresses may affect the biodiversity of photosynthetic microorganisms in marine environments, they are also characterizing this diversity using molecular approaches such as sequence data from the gene for RNA polymerase. They have found that different cyanobacterial genotypes occupy specific niches in marine waters. They are currently using whole genome approaches to understand the processes of adaptation and diversification in marine photosynthetic microorganisms.

Prix et récompenses

1989-1991 : NSF Research Fellowship in Marine Biotechnology

1987 : Young Botanist Awards, XIV International Botanical Congress Berlin

Publications

X. Chen, Z. Su, P. Dam, B. Palenik, Y. Xu, and T. Jiang. 2004. Operon prediction by comparative genomics: an application to the Synechococcus sp. WH8102 genome Nucleic Acids Research. 32:2147-2157.

Worden, A. Z.,J. K.Nolan and B. Palenik. 2004. Assessing the dynamics and ecology of marine picophytoplankton: The importance of the eukaryotic component. Limnol. Oceanogr. 49(1): 168-179.

Toledo, G. and B. Palenik. 2003. A Synechococcus serotype is found preferentially in surface marine waters. Limnol. Oceanogr. 48: 1744-1755.

S.T. Dyhrman and B. Palenik. 2003. Characterization of ectoenzyme activity and phosphate-regulated proteins in the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi . 2003. J. Plankton Res. 25: 1215-1225.

S. T. Dyhrman and B. Palenik, 2001. A single-cell immunoassay for phosphate stress in the dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum (Dinophyceae). J. Phycol. 37:400-410.

Palenik, B., 2001. Chromatic adaptation in marine Synechococcus strains. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 67: 991-994.

J. L. Collier and B. Palenik, 2003. Phycoerythrin-containing picoplankton in the Southern California Bight. Deep Sea Res. Pt II 50:2405-2422.

Ferris and B. Palenik, 1998. Niche adaptation in ocean cyanobacteria. Nature. 396:226-228.

B. Palenik, B. Brahamsha, F.W. Larimer, M. Land, L. Hauser, P. Chain, J. Lamerdin, W. Regala, E. E. Allen, J. McCarren, I. Paulsen, A. Dufresne, F. Partensky, E. A. Webb, J. Waterbury. 2003. The genome of a motile marine Synechococcus. Nature. 424:1037-1042.

B. Palenik and R. Haselkorn, 1992. Multiple evolutionary origins of prochlorophytes, the chlorophyll b-containing prokaryotes. Nature 355:265-267.

Armbrust EV, Berges JA, Bowler C, et al. (Palenik).2004. The genome of the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana: Ecology, evolution, and metabolism Science 306: 79-86.