Dept. of Biological Sciences

Sean Place

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences & the School of the Environment
Ph.D., 2005, University of California Santa Barbara
803-777-6597
splace@biol.sc.edu


Place Lab website
Bravo 199
School of the Environment

Environmental Genomics

Research in my lab is grounded in the field of environmental and ecological physiology of marine organisms. Our research questions specifically address the physiological responses of marine organisms that inhabit near shore environments when subjected to significant variation of one or more abiotic factors. Through the integration of experimental approaches at the molecular, cellular, and biochemical level, we address how organisms have adapted to cope with both acute perturbations, which can often be measured through the genomic response of the organism, and persistent environmental changes, frequently marked by changes at the level of protein function. My lab is currently focusing on the genomic responses of marine invertebrates to environmental perturbations and seasonal changes in habitat temperature, oxygen levels and environmental pH. We have been developing microarrays from adult stage libraries for two separate projects - one looking at sea urchins and the other at intertidal mussels. In collaboration with colleagues in the Partnership for the Interdisciplinary Studies of Costal Oceans (PISCO) we are applying microarray technologies to track gene expression and correlate these expression events with the models developed to predict environmental and geographic patterning both intertidal and subtidal species. Analysis of these populations at the genomic level will allow us to better asses the response of these organisms across large spatial scales. As opposed to single bio-indicators, these experiments will potentially highlight multiple cell signaling pathways and potentially provide a transcriptome "fingerprint" for organismal responses to abiotic stressors. By analysis of these pathways, my lab aims to better understand the integration of stress-response and cell-cycle control and the role they play in determining an organisms' physiological plasticity.

Selected Publications:

Peer Reviewed Journals

Place, S. P., M. J. O'Donnell and G. E. Hofmann (2008). Gene expression in the intertidal mussel, Mytilus californianus: physiological response to environmental factors on a biogeographic scale. Feature Article MEPS 356:1-14 doi: 10.3354/meps07354.

Hofmann, G.E. and S.P. Place (2007). Genomics-Enabled Research in Marine Ecology: Challenges, Risks & Pay-Offs. Invited review: MEPS 332: 249-255.

Place, S. P. and G. E. Hofmann (2005). Temperature differentially affects adenosine triphosphatase activity in Hsc70 orthologues from Antarctic and New Zealand notothenioid fishes. Cell Stress Chaperones 10(2): 104-113.

Place, S. P. and G. E. Hofmann (2005). Comparison of Hsc70 orthologues from polar and temperate notothenioid fishes: differences in prevention of aggregation and refolding of denatured proteins. Amer. J. Physiol. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. 288: R1195-R1202.

Place, S. P. and G. E. Hofmann (2005). Constitutive expression of a stress-inducible heat shock protein gene, hsp70, in phylogenetically distant Antarctic fish. Polar Biol. 28: 262-267.

Hofmann, G. E., S. G. Lund, S. P. Place, and A. C. Whitmer (2005). Some like it hot, some like it cold: The heat shock response is found in New Zealand but not Antarctic notothenioid fishes. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 316: 79-89.

Place, S. P., M. L. Zippay, and G. E. Hofmann (2004). Constitutive roles for inducible genes: Differential expression of hsp70 mRNA in Antarctic notothenioid fishes. Amer. J. Phys. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. 287: R429-R436.

Buckley, B. A., S. P. Place, and G. E. Hofmann (2004). Regulation of heat shock genes in isolated hepatocytes from an Antarctic fish (Sub-order Notothenioidei) Trematomus bernacchii. J. Exp. Biol. 207: 3649-3656.

Zippay, M. L., S. P. Place and G. E. Hofmann (2004). The molecular chaperone Hsc70 from a eurythermal marine goby exhibits temperature insensitivity during luciferase refolding assays. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 138: 1-7.

Hofmann, G. E., B. A. Buckley, S. P. Place and M. L. Zippay (2002). Molecular chaperones in ectothermic intertidal animals: biochemical function and gene expression. Integr. Comp. Biol. 42: 808-814.

Place, S. P. and G. E. Hofmann (2001) Temperature interactions of the molecular chaperone Hsc70 from the eurythermal marine goby, Gillichthys mirabilis. J. Exp. Biol. 204: 2675-2682.

Book Chapters

Cheung-Flynn, J., S. P. Place, M. B. Cox, V. Prapapanich and D. F. Smith (2007). FKBP Cochaperones in Steroid Receptor Complexes. In: Protein Reviews (vol. 7) - Cell Stress Proteins. Calderwood, S. K (ed.). Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers, New York.

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