Vassar College Biology : Jodi Schwarz

Jodi Schwarz

Assistant Professor of Biology

Olmsted Hall 313
Phone: 845-437-5266
Fax: 845-437-7315

B.A. 1989 Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
B.A. 1994 University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
M. S. 1996 University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
Ph. D. 2002 Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

Research Interests

I am interested in coral symbiosis, which is arguably one of the most powerful collaborations in the biological world. Corals are animals that host unicellular photosynthetic algal symbionts. The symbionts produce and transfer food to the coral and they stimulate the production of coral skeleton. The cumulative effect is profound: corals grow at rates sufficient to form both the actual rock and the ecological foundation to support the hundreds of species that comprise coral reef ecosystems.

How is this symbiosis regulated? How do host and symbiont co-exist in a stable state? Currently I am working to identify the "transcriptome" of the early stages of the symbiosis using DNA microarrays to identify genes that are induced or repressed during the onset of the symbiotic union. Because corals are difficult to rear in the lab, I am using a more tractable model system (the sea anemone Aiptasia pallida), which can be reared quite happily in seawater tanks in the lab. Together with collaborators, we have sequenced 13,000 ESTs from a large insert cDNA library, and I am designing gene expression microarrays from these sequences.

Since coming to Vassar, my students have expressed great interest in studying how different environmental stressors produce a coral bleaching response. Stephen Evans designed and implemented a behavioral assay to assess the large-scale response to environmental stressors. He and Annika O'Dea are examining physiological responses to two different environmental stressors: heavy metals and thermal stress. They are assessing photosynthetic rates of the symbionts, and extent of the bleaching response. Lisl Esherick is examining the underlying gene expression patterns in these same anemones, to determine whether the stressors elicit the same, or distinct, transcriptomic responses. Nick Hebert and Shirley Shangguan are getting my lab up to speed on genotyping the symbionts living inside the hosts. We just ordered 18S primers for PCR.

Teaching Interests

My teaching goals include working with students to become integrative thinkers of biology. This includes not only integration between molecular to evolutionary scales, but also integration between biological and computational knowledge. Currently my primary courses include BIOL 106 Introduction to Biological Investigation, BIOL 282 Genomics, and BIOL 353 Bioinformatics.

In BIOL 282 Genomics, students consider genomic biology from microbes to humans, learn how to employ bioinformatic tools to address biological questions, and engage in original research that contributes to the body of scientific knowledge.

In advanced BIOL/CMPU Bioinformatics, which I teach with Marc Smith from Computer Science, we aim to bring biology and computer science students together to teach and collaborate with each other and to develop challenging projects that utilize existing and self-created bioinformatic research tools. Student research in both of these classes has motivated summer URSI projects.

Selected Publications

Schwarz JA, Brokstein PB, Voolstra CR, Terry AY, Miller DJ, Szmant AM, Coffroth MA, Medina M. 2008. Coral Life History and Symbiosis: functional genomic resources for two reef building Caribbean corals, Acropora palmata and Montastraea faveolata. BMC Genomics, 9:97. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/9/97
Schwarz, J.A., Brokstein, P., Manohar, C., Szmant, A., Coffroth, M.A., and M. Medina. 2006. Coral Reef Genomics: Developing tools for functional genomics of coral symbiosis. Proc 10th International Coral Reef Symp.
Schwarz, J.A., Fouts, A.E., Cummings, C., Ferguson, D. and J.C. Boothroyd. 2005. A novel rhoptry protein in Toxoplasma gondii bradyzoites and merozoites. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 44:159-66.
Schwarz, J.A. and V.M. Weis. 2003. Localization of a symbiosis-related protein, sym32, in the Anthopleura elegantissima-Symbiodinium muscatinei association. Biological Bulletin 205: 339-350.
Schwarz, J.A., V.M. Weis, and D. Potts. 2002. Feeding behavior and acquisition of symbiotic dino-flagellates by larvae of the sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima. Marine Biology 140: 471-478.
Schwarz, J.A., D.A. Krupp, and V.M. Weis. 1999. Late larval development and onset of symbiosis in the scleractinian coral Fungia scutaria. Biological Bulletin 196: 70-79.