@article{SchartlShenMaurusetal.2015,
  author    = {Schartl, Manfred and Shen, Yingjia and Maurus, Katja and Walter, Ron and Tomlinson, Chad and Wilson, Richard K. and Postlethwait, John and Warren, Wesley C.},
  title     = {Whole body melanoma transcriptome response in medaka},
  series = {PLoS ONE},
  volume    = {10},
  journal   = {PLoS ONE},
  number    = {12},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0143057},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-144714},
  pages     = {e0143057},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The incidence of malignant melanoma continues to increase each year with poor prognosis for survival in many relapse cases. To reverse this trend, whole body response measures are needed to discover collaborative paths to primary and secondary malignancy. Several species of fish provide excellent melanoma models because fish and human melanocytes both appear in the epidermis, and fish and human pigment cell tumors share conserved gene expression signatures. For the first time, we have examined the whole body transcriptome response to invasive melanoma as a prelude to using transcriptome profiling to screen for drugs in a medaka (Oryzias latipes) model. We generated RNA-seq data from whole body RNA isolates for controls and melanoma fish. After testing for differential expression, 396 genes had significantly different expression (adjusted p-value <0.02) in the whole body transcriptome between melanoma and control fish; 379 of these genes were matched to human orthologs with 233 having annotated human gene symbols and 14 matched genes that contain putative deleterious variants in human melanoma at varying levels of recurrence. A detailed canonical pathway evaluation for significant enrichment showed the top scoring pathway to be antigen presentation but also included the expected melanocyte development and pigmentation signaling pathway. Results revealed a profound down-regulation of genes involved in the immune response, especially the innate immune system. We hypothesize that the developing melanoma actively suppresses the immune system responses of the body in reacting to the invasive malignancy, and that this mal-adaptive response contributes to disease progression, a result that suggests our whole-body transcriptomic approach merits further use. In these findings, we also observed novel genes not yet identified in human melanoma expression studies and uncovered known and new candidate drug targets for further testing in this malignant melanoma medaka model.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SchartlKneitzVolkoffetal.2019,
  author    = {Schartl, Manfred and Kneitz, Susanne and Volkoff, Helene and Adolfi, Mateus and Schmidt, Cornelia and Fischer, Petra and Minx, Patrick and Tomlinson, Chad and Meyer, Axel and Warren, Wesley C.},
  title     = {The piranha genome provides molecular insight associated to its unique feeding behavior},
  series = {Genome Biology and Evolution},
  volume    = {11},
  journal   = {Genome Biology and Evolution},
  number    = {8},
  doi       = {10.1093/gbe/evz139},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202218},
  pages     = {2099-2106},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {The piranha enjoys notoriety due to its infamous predatory behavior but much is still not understood about its evolutionary origins and the underlying molecular mechanisms for its unusual feeding biology. We sequenced and assembled the red-bellied piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri) genome to aid future phenotypic and genetic investigations. The assembled draft genome is similar to other related fishes in repeat composition and gene count. Our evaluation of genes under positive selection suggests candidates for adaptations of piranhas' feeding behavior in neural functions, behavior, and regulation of energy metabolism. In the fasted brain, we find genes differentially expressed that are involved in lipid metabolism and appetite regulation as well as genes that may control the aggression/boldness behavior of hungry piranhas. Our first analysis of the piranha genome offers new insight and resources for the study of piranha biology and for feeding motivation and starvation in other organisms.},
  language  = {en}
}