Overview Academic/Research Interest Areas

Physiological mechanisms of environmental adaptation and stress tolerance in marine poikilotherms

Recent Projects and Results

Effects of heavy metals and temperature on bioenergetics of marine poikilotherms

Molecular mechanisms of proton leak

Evolution of mitochondrial involvement in apoptosis

Mitochondrial function in exercise: Fitness Freaks versus Couch Potatoes

In today's world, geological forces have combined with past and present human activities to cause an extremely rapid environmental change, one that is often too strong and too fast to permit the long process of evolutionary adaptation that can require many generations to complete. The population survival and distribution of many species in this rapidly changing environment will depend on their abilities to cope with stress and to quickly adjust their physiology to environmental change.

We use experimental and comparative approaches in order to understand how environmental stressors such as temperature and heavy metal pollution may limit survival and distribution of marine invertebrates. Understanding of the physiological mechanisms and limitations of stress tolerance is crucial for the understanding of the fate of populations of poikilotherms, which comprise >95% of marine animal biodiversity, in the face of the global environmental change.

Recent Publications

Sokolova I.M., Lannig G. (2008). Interactive effects of metal pollution and temperature on ectotherm metabolism and their implications for the global climate change in aquatic ecosystems. Climate Research (in press).

Ivanina A.V.*, Habinck E.*, Sokolova I.M. (2008). Differential sensitivity to cadmium of key mitochondrial enzymes in the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica Gmelin (Bivalvia: Ostreidae). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology C (in press). doi:10.1016/j.cbpc.2008.03.009.

Ivanina A.V.*, Sokolova I.M. (2008). Effects of cadmium exposure on expression and activity of P-glycoprotein in eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica Gmelin. Aquatic Toxicology 88:19-28.

Ivanina A.V.*, Sokolova I.M., Sukhotin A.A. (2008). Oxidative stress and expression of chaperones in aging mollusks. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 150: 53-61.

Lannig G., Bock C., Cherkasov A.*, P?er H.O., Sokolova I.M. (2008). Cadmium-dependent oxygen limitation affects temperature tolerance in eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica Gmelin). American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 294:1338-1346.

Research Grants

National Science Foundation, "CAREER: Physiological and cellular mechanisms of action of temperature and trace metals on mitochondrial bioenergetics in marine mollusks," PI, $722,587; 07/01/03-06/30/08

NOAA/Sea Grant, "Molecular mechanisms controlling Dermo proliferation and spread in Crassostrea virginica: Parasite-induced inhibition of apoptosis as a target for anti-parasite therapy," co-PI with Dr. F.M.Hughes, $102,000; 02/01/2006-01/31/2008

National Institutes of Health, "R01 Genetic factors responsible for exercise endurance," co-PI, $1,604,930; 07/01/05-06/30/10

United Negro College Fund, "Strategies for Ecology Education, Development and Sustainability," Charlotte Chapter (educational grant), co-PI with Dr. J. Fail, $30,000; 08/01/05-07/31/07

Educational Background

B.S., Biology, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1991

Ph.D., Zoology, Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1997