University of Calgary

Peter Vize

  • Faculty Professor
  • Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences
  • Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Currently Teaching

Not currently teaching any courses.

Research Interests

Once per year, eight evenings after the August full moon, reef building corals in the Caribbean undergo a highly coordinated mass spawning event. Corals spawn at the same time every year, and each species has a unique time window it which it but none of the other species on the reef spawn. This timing is quite amazing, and for some species is predicable to within 5 minutes from year to year. How do corals know it is time to spawn? Our working hypothesis is that corals respond to lunar and solar light (but how?) and release both gametes and a chemical signal that tells other nearby individuals to also release. We are investigating behavioral, chemical, molecular and cellular components of this synchronized spawning event. Field work is performed in the Gulf of Mexico (Flower Garden Banks), in the Dutch Antilles(Bonaire/Curacao) and on the Great Barrier Reef (Australia). In the Gulf our favorite species are the blushing star coral S. intersepta and the great star coral Montastraea cavernosa while over in Australia it is Acropora millepora.

Work in our lab has demonstrated that light receptors regulate the time at which corals spawn and that this is a direct response to light perception- biological clocks are not involved. We are currently exploring the role of entrained circadian / circalunar rhythms in selecting the date of spawning. Lab techniques include microarrays, proteomics, gene cloning, cell biology, and bioinformatics. Field techniques involve manipulating coral culture conditions using lunar and solar light and various pharmacological compounds to alter signal transduction pathways. A variety of field techniques are utilized including SCUBA (hot mixes, tri), rebreathers, ROVs and submarines. All field workers have advanced dive training.

We also have projects exploring coral ecology and the interaction between newly recruited corals (babies!), algae, and hervirorous vertebrates and invertebrates. This project utilizes a unique research platform that we built at a depth of 80' in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sancuary. The platform allows us to set up long term coral recruitment experiments under controlled conditions.

Graduate Students

OLDACH, Matthew

MSc

Selected Publications

  • Google Scholar Link
  • Session, A.M., Uno. Y., Kwon, T., Chapman, J.A., Toyoda, A., Takahashi, S., Fukui, A., Hikosaka, A., Suzuki, A., Kondo, M., van Heeringen, S.J., Quigley, I., Heinz, S., Ogino, H., Ochi, H., Hellsten, U., Lyons, J.B., Simakov, O., Putnam, N., Stites, J., Kuroki, Y., Tanaka, T., Michiue, T., Watanabe, M., Bogdanovic, O., Lister, R., Georgiou, G., Paranjpe, S.S., van Kruijsbergen, I., Shu, S., Carlson, J., Kinoshita, T., Ohta, Y., Mawaribuchi, S., Jenkins, J., Grimwood, J., Schmutz, J., Mitros, T., Mozaffari, S.V., Suzuki, Y., Haramoto, Y., Yamamoto, T.S., Takagi, C., Heald, R., Miller, K., Haudenschild, C., Kitzman, J., Nakayama, T., Izutsu, Y., Robert, J., Fortriede, J., Burns, K., Lotay, V., Karimi, K., Yasuoka, Y., Dichmann, D.S., Flajnik, M.F., Houston, D.W., Shendure, J., DuPasquier, L., Vize, P.D., Zorn, A.M., Ito, M., Marcotte EM, Wallingford JB, Ito Y, Asashima M, Ueno N, Matsuda Y, Veenstra GJ, Fujiyama A, Harland RM, Taira M, Rokhsar DS. (2016) Genome evolution in the allotetraploid frog Xenopus laevis. Nature 538(7625): 336-343.
  • A.R.Deans et al. (inc. P.D. Vize), the Phenoscape Consortium. (2014) Finding our way through phenotypes. PLoS Biology, in press.
  • Karpinka, J.B., Fortreide, J.D., Burns, K.A., James-Zorn, C., Ponferrada, V.G., Lee, Jacqueline, Karimi, K., Zorn, A.M. and Vize, P.D. (2014). Xenbase, the Xenopus model organism database; new virtualized system, data types and genomes. Nucleic Acids Res. 43: doi:10.1093/nar/gku956
  • Karimi, K. and Vize, P.D. (2014). The virtual Xenbase. Databases doi: 10.1093/database/bau108
    Bhalla, N., Bentley, P.J., Vize, P.D. and Jacob, C. (2014). Staging the self-assembly process: inspiration from biological development. Artif. Life 20: 29-59.
  • Reichman, J.R. and Vize, P.D. (2014). Separate introns gained within short and long soluble peridinin-chlorophyll a-protein genes during radiation of Symbiodinium (Dinophyceae) clade A and B lineages. PLoS One 9(10); e110608
  • Davies, S.W., Matz, M.V. and Vize, P.D. (2013). Ecological complexity of coral recruitment processes: effect of herbivores on coral recruitment and growth depends upon substrate properties and coral species. PLoS One 8 (9): e72830
  • Segerdell, E., Ponferrada V.G., James-Zorn C., Burns, K., Fortriede J., Dahdul W., Vize, P.D. and Zorn, A.M. (2013) XAO: an enhanced ontology of Xenopus anatomy and development.  Journal of Biological Semantics 4:31 doi:10.1186/2041-1480-4-31
  • Neufeld, S.J., Zhou, X, Vize, P.D. and Cobb, J. (2013). mRNA fluorescence in situ hybridization to determine overlapping gene expression in whole-mount mouse embryos. Dev. Dyn. doi 10.1002/dvdy.23993
  • James-Zorn C , Ponferrada VG, Jarabek CJ, Segerdell EJ, Lee J, Snyder K, Bhattacharyya B, Karpinka JB, Bowes JB, Zorn AM and Vize PD. (2013) Xenbase; expansion and updates of the Xenopus model organism database. Nucleic Acids Res. 41: D865-870. DOI 10.1093/nar/gks1025
  • Bowes, J., Snyder, K., James-Zorn, C., Ponferrada, V.G., Jarabek, C.J., Burns, K.A., Bhattacharyya, B., Zorn, A.M. and Vize, P.D. (2013). The Xenbase literature curation process. Database 2013: bas046 doi:10.1093/database/bas046
  • Hilton, J.D., Brady, A.K., Spaho, S.A. and Vize, P.D. (2012). Photoreception and signal transduction in corals; proteomic and behavioral evidence for cytoplasmic calcium as a mediator of light responsivity. Biological Bulletin 223: 291-299.
  • Vize, P.D., Hilton, J.D. and Brady, A.K. (2012). Biological clock driven circadian transcriptional cycles in Acropora milleporaProc. 12th ICRS. 12A-5; 1-5.
  • Brady, A.K., Snyder, K. and Vize, P.D. (2011). Circadian cycles of gene expression in the coral, Acropora milleporaPLoS One 6(9): e25072
  • Davies, S.W., Matz, M.V. and Vize, P.D. (2013). Ecological complexity of coral recruitment processes: effect of herbivores on coral recruitment and growth depends upon substrate properties and coral species. PLoS One 8 (9): e72830
  • Vize, P.D., Hilton, J.D. and Brady, A.K. (2012). Biological clock driven circadian transcriptional cycles in Acropora millepora. Proc. 12th ICRS. 12A-5; 1-5. 
  • Hilton, J.D., Brady, A.K., Spaho, S.A. and Vize, P.D. (2012) Photoreception and signal transduction in corals; proteomic and behavioral evidence for cytoplasmic calcium as a mediator of light responsivity. Biological Bulletin 223: 291-299. 
  • Brady. A.K., Snyder, K. and Vize, P.D. (2011). Circadian cycles of gene expression in the coral, Acropora millepora. PLoS One 6(9): e25072 
  • Hellsten, U, Harland, R.M., Gilchrist, M.J., Hendrix, D., Jurka, J., Kapitonov, V., Ovcharenko, I., Putnam, N.H., Shu, S., Taher, L, Blitz, I.L., Blumberg, B., Dichmann, D.S., Dubchak, I., Amaya, E., Detter, J.C., Fletcher, R., Gerhard, D.S., Goodstein, D., Graves, T., Grigoriev, I.V., Grimwood, .J, Kawashima, T., Lindquist, E., Lucas, S.M., Mead, P.E., Mitros, T., Ogino, H., Ohta, Y., Poliakov, A.V., Pollet, N., Robert, J., Salamov, A., Sater, A.K., Schmutz, J., Terry, A., Vize, P.D., Warren, W.C., Wells, D., Wills, A., Wilson, R.K., Zimmerman, L.B., Zorn, A.M., Grainger, R., Grammer, T., Khokha, M.K., Richardson, P.M. and Rokhsar, D.S. (2010) The genome of the western clawed frog Xenopus tropicalis. Science 328: 633-636. 
  • A.K.Brady, J.D. Hilton and Peter D. Vize (2009). Coral spawn timing is a direct response to solar light cycles and is not an entrained circadian response. Coral Reefs,28: 677-680 
  • Vize, P.D. (2009) Transcriptome analysis of the circadian regulatory network in the coral, Acropora millepora. Biological Bulletin 216; 131-137. (Editors pick- free full content)

Degrees

  • BSc
    Monash University
  • PhD
    University of Adelaide
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