Glass sponge physiology

Sponges lack nerves, however glass sponges, the most primitive living animals, propagate action potentials through their unique syncytial tissue causing the entire feeding current to arrest.

I am interested in the environmental stimuli that cause glass sponges to stop pumping as well as the molecular basis of the glass sponge action potential. Research carried out in the Leys lab and at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Center is significant to the origin of electrical conduction systems within the Metazoa and has implications for the sensitivity of glass sponge reefs unique to Canada’s West coast.

Ph.D. student Gabrielle Tompkins is investigating the molecular basis of the action potential by studying ion channels and their physiology in the sponge membrane.

Gabrielle is an Alberta Ingenuity Young Scholar

Email: gjt1@ualberta.ca