publications

 

We are very excited to announce a new publication, hot off the presses at the Journal of Comparative Neurology! The full citation is below:

Auletta A, Rue MCP, Harley CM, & Mesce KA. 2019. Tyrosine hydroxylase immunolabeling reveals the distribution of catecholaminergic neurons in the central nervous systems of the spiders Hogna lenta (Araneae: Lycosidae) and Phidippus regius (Araneae: Salticidae). Journal of Comparative Neurology 2019: 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24748

Congratulations to lead author, Ph.D. candidate Anthony Auletta, as well as his co-authors: former lab manager Mara C.P. Rue, former postdoc Cindy Harley, and PI Karen Mesce! They have been working on this one for a long time, and are all very excited to share the results with you. This paper is the first description of catecholaminergic (e.g. dopaminergic and adrenergic) neurons in the central nervous system of any arachnid species, and forms a core component of Anthony's doctoral dissertation.

The full text of the article is available online now, via JCN's "Early View." Please go check it out!

We're excited announce that former Postdoctoral Researcher Joshua Puhl and PI Karen Mesce are co-authors on a paper that was just published in PLoS ONE! This study characterizes the transcriptome of our beloved medicinal leech (Hirudo verbana), and is the result of a collaboration led by the Schulz lab at the University of Missouri. Congratulations to Joshua and Karen, as well as their fellow co-authors: Adam Northcutt, Eva Fischer, and David Schulz!

The full citation is below-- be sure to check it out!:

Northcutt AJ, Fischer EK, Puhl JG, Mesce KA, Schulz DJ. 2018. An annotated CNS transcriptome of the medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana: De novo sequencing to characterize genes associated with nervous system activity. PLoS ONE 13: e0201206. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201206

Former Lab Technician Tony Bigelow and former Postdoctoral Researcher Joshua Puhl are co-first authors on an exciting new paper that was just published in eNeuro earlier this month! The paper, written with PI Karen Mesce and former Lab Technician Mara CP Rue, is the culmination of several years of work on the recovery of locomotor abilities and associated reorganization of the nervous system following traumatic injury in the medicinal leech. Be sure to check it out!

The full paper citation is below:

Puhl JG*, Bigelow AW*, Rue MCP, Mesce KA. 2018. Functional recovery of a locomotor network after injury: plasticity beyond the central nervous system. eNeuro 2018: 10.1523/ENEURO.0195-18.2018. eNeuro Link

*co-first authors; please cite as Puhl, Bigelow, et al. 2018.

We’re very happy to announce that our latest paper has been published as the cover story in the new issue of Journal of Experimental Biology! Congratulations to PI Dr. Karen Mesce (lead author), as well as co-authors Magda Alania (former postdoctoral researcher), Quentin Gaudry, and Joshua Puhl (current postdoctoral researcher)!

The full citation for the paper is below: 

Mesce KA, Alania M, Gaudry Q, Puhl JG. 2018. The stomatogastric nervous system of the medicinal leech: its anatomy, physiology and associated aminergic neurons. Journal of Experimental Biology 221:jeb175687. PubMed Link

The cover photo was taken by PhD Candidate Morgan Newhoff, with assistance from Joshua Puhl, PhD Candidate Anthony Auletta, and Karen Mesce.

 

Behind the scenes of our leech photo shoot.

We have a new publication to report! PI Dr. Karen Mesce is a co-author on a new paper that was published in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience earlier this month. The paper, A tyrosine-hydroxylase characterization of dopaminergic neurons in the honey bee brain, was written in collaboration with Dr. Martin Giurfa and colleagues at Université de Toulouse in France.

Karen has been busy as a bee (ha— get it?) working on this paper over the last few months, so we are very excited that it is now published and available for reading! Congratulations, Karen! The full citation is below— please take a look:

Tedjakumala SR, Rouquette J, Boizeau ML, Mesce KA, Hotier L, Massou I, Giurfa M. 2017. A tyrosine-hydroxylase characterization of dopaminergic neurons in the honey bee brain. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 11:47. PubMed Link

We are very pleased to announce that our most recent paper, Plasmon resonance and the imaging of metal-impregnated neurons with the laser scanning confocal microscope, was published in eLife today! You can check it out by clicking here!

Congratulations to recent lab alumna Cindy Harley (co-first author) and PI Karen Mesce, as well as our collaborators Karen Thompson (Agnes Scott College), Grant Barthel (University of Minnesota Imaging Center), and Mark Sanders (University of Minnesota Imaging Center)!

The full citation is below:

Thompson KT, Harley CM, Barthel GM, Sanders MA, Mesce KA. 2015. Plasmon resonance and the imaging of metal-impregnated neurons with the laser scanning confocal microscope. eLIFE 4:e09388.