Okay, not actually ageless, but some clam species have extremely long lifespans, with Arctica islandica holding the record as the longest-lived animal (reaching up to 500 years)! My project focuses on exploring the incredible longevity in clam species like A. islandica using a combination of transcriptomic and genetic tools. By investigating several clam species with various lifespans, I hope to uncover the underlying genetic factors that enable some to live hundreds of years.

Publications

  • Song, J., de Jong, D., Waletich, J., Baxevanis, A. D., Schnitzler, C. E. (2025). An updated and spatially validated somatic single-cell atlas of Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus. bioRxiv, 2025.06.03.657738. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.03.657738
  • Waletich, J., de Jong, D., Schnitzler, C.E. (2024). Characterization of eight new Hydractinia i-cell markers reveals underlying heterogeneity in the adult pluripotent stem cell population. bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2024.07.07.602406.
  • Schnitzler, C.E., Chang, E.S., Waletich, J, Quiroga-Artigas, G, Wong, W.Y., Nguyen, A.D., et al. (2024). The genome of the colonial hydroid Hydractinia reveals that their stem cells use a toolkit of evolutionarily shared genes with all animals. Genome Research. doi:10.1101/gr.278382.123. Quiroga-Artigas, G., Duscher, A., Lundquist, K., Waletich, J., Schnitzler, C. (2020), Gene knockdown via electroporation of short hairpin RNAs in embryos of the marine hydroid Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus. Sci Rep 10, 12806. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69489-8
  • Tao, K., Waletich, J. R., Arredondo, F., and Tyler, B. M. (2019). Manipulating endoplasmic reticulum- plasma membrane tethering in plants through fluorescent protein complementation. Front. Plant Sci. 10:635. doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.00635
  • Tao, K., Waletich, J. R., Wise, H., Arredondo, F., and Tyler, B. M. (2019). Tethering of multi-vesicular bodies and the tonoplast to the plasma membrane in plants. Front. Plant Sci. 10:636. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.00636
  • Huang, J., Chen, L., Lu, X., Peng, Q., Zhang, Y., Yang, J., Zhang, B. Y., Yang, B., Waletich, J. R., Yin, W., Zheng, X., Wang, Y. and Dong, S. (2019), Natural allelic variations provide insights into host adaptation of Phytophthora avirulence effector PsAvr3c. New Phytol, 221: 1010-1022. doi:10.1111/nph.15414
  • Xiong, Q., Zhang, Linqiao, Waletich, J., Zhang, Linlin, Zhang, C., Zheng, X., Qian, Y., Zhang, Z., Wang, Y., Cheng, Q., (2018). Characterization of the Papain-Like Protease p29 of the Hypovirus CHV1-CN280 in Its Natural Host Fungus Cryphonectria parasitica and Nonhost Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. Phytopathology 109, 736-747. doi:10.1094/PHYTO-08-18-0318-R
  • Goodbody-Gringley, G. and Waletich, J. (2018). Morphological plasticity of the depth generalist coral, Montastraea cavernosa, on mesophotic reefs in Bermuda. Ecology 99, 1688-1690.

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