Whitney Lab Graduate Students Casandra Newkirk and Bailey Steinworth Contribute to New Published Paper

Whitney Lab Graduate Students Casandra Newkirk and Bailey Steinworth Contribute to New Published Paper

Published: Monday, April 16, 2018

Bailey Steinworth  Cassandra Newkirk

Congratulations to Whitney Lab Graduate Students Casandra Newkirk (IFAS, Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences program) and Bailey Steinworth (CLAS, Department of Biology) for their contribution  to a new paper, “Upside-Down but headed in the Right Direction: Review of the Highly Versatile Cassiopea xamachana System,” published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (vol 6, 35). This paper discusses the different areas of research that utilize this species as a model system that were identified at the first international Cassiopea meeting held in May 2017. Researchers attending the meeting use C. xamachana to study areas that range from understanding the symbiotic relationship between dinoflagellate algae that live in the tentacles of C. xamachana, to studying the fluid dynamics of the pulsating medusa. C. xamachana has become much more appealing as a model organism due to the relative ease at culturing these animals in a laboratory setting. This jellyfish species can be kept throughout its entire life cycle at the Whitney Lab, making this species even more appealing as a model organism. This newly published review paper not only gives more insight into the current research being carried out using C. xamachana, it also details other areas of research that could benefit from using the upside-down jellyfish as a model organism.

Read the Paper