Curriculum Vitae: Arne K. Christensen
Postdoctoral Fellow
Education
2008: Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Molecular and
Cellular Biology)
2000: B.S. University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Biology)
Research Interests
Anadromous fish spend most of their adult lives in the ocean,
but spawn, hatch and mature in the relative security of freshwater
streams. Thus, these organisms can cope with, and indeed thrive in, a
broad range of salinities that lie outside normal internal
concentrations. In order to maintain body fluid homeostasis, organisms
in fresh water must actively import ions to compensate for the passive
diffusion of ions into their surroundings. Conversely, in the marine
environment, organisms must actively excrete excess ions by
transporting them against their electrochemical gradient
Broadly, I am interested in molecular and biochemical mechanisms that maintain internal ionic homeostasis in anadromous fish preparing for, or presented with, changes in salinity.
Specifically, I am focused on:
- The regulation and functional relevance of three ion transporters in the gill; the Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA), Na2+/K+/2Cl- cotransporter (NKCC), and the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Receptor (CFTR).
- The broad transcriptional and proteomic changes that osmoregulatory tissues, such as the gill, undergo in response to changes in salinity, and how these changes influence growth.
Publications
Christensen, A.K. and Jensen, A.M. 2008. Tissue-specific requirements for
specific
domains within Epb4.1l5 isoforms during early zebrafish development.
BMC Dev Biol 8:3 [pdf]
Hsu, Y.C., Willoughby, J.J., Christensen, A.K. and Jensen, A.M. 2006. Mosaic Eyes is a novel component of the Crumbs complex and negatively regulates photoreceptor apical size. Development 133(24):4849-4859 [pdf]
Newmyer S.L., Christensen A. and Sever S. 2003. Auxilin-dynamin interactions link the uncoating ATPase chaperone machinery with vesicle formation. Dev Cell 4(6):929-40
