Fall / Winter 2012 - Rochester Institute of Technology

A Community of Scholars and
Educators: Students, staff, and
faculty at RIT come together
to promote cutting-edge
research and help create our
next generation of scientists
and engineers. Through a
multitude of projects in
numerous disciplines these
teams are creating technologies
and making discoveries
that will improve society.
College of Science. “The result has been the creation of an exciting
and dynamic environment that is moving RIT toward being the
first university synonymous with undergraduate research.”
Embryo
Sea Urchins Brittle Stars Sea Stars
Discovering How Species Evolve
Like the relationship between humans and
apes, the Esmark serpent star and the spiny
brittle star are genetically very similar animals.
Both are brittle stars, similar to a starfish,
are members of the echinoderm phylum, and
Barbara Spieker
evolved from the same common ancestor.
However, we still know very little about how the species
diverged from each other approximately 450 million years
ago and the impact different genes had on that divergence.
Barbara Spiecker was part of a team of scientists, led by
Hyla Sweet, an associate professor of biological sciences,
that is attempting to solve this puzzle through the use
of comparative gene expression and function.
“By comparing how similar genes function differently in
the two species we can learn more about how development
Larva
Adult
Genes and Evolution: An RIT team is seeking to uncover how genetically
similar species such as sea urchins, brittle stars, and sea stars evolved
into the animals we now see today. By analyzing gene expressions the
team hopes to shed new light on the impact central developmental
genes have on species evolution.
of serpent stars and spiny brittle stars evolved to lead to the
animals we now have today,” says Spiecker, a 2011 biology
graduate who spent four years working in Sweet’s lab.
Primus, 2005
Research at RIT
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