Research and Professional Interests:

My laboratory’s research addresses the biochemistry, biophysics, and physiology of muscle. We are particularly interested in the adaptive and compensatory responses of muscle to environmental challenges and to disease. Our work is carried out at several levels of biological organization, and focuses on muscle as an integrated system of energy demand and supply. Past projects have addressed the responses of muscle to diabetes, adaptations to temperature in the muscle of poikilothermic vertebrates (mostly fish), and intracellular diffusion of small molecules in vertebrate striated muscle. Our present work focuses mostly on adaptations to temperature in parvalbumin (PV), a soluble, intracellular Ca++ binding protein that is especially abundant in the white (anaerobic) locomotory muscle of fish. The goal of this project is to develop a fuller understanding of the interplay between temperature and PV ion-binding function in teleost fish, and to apply this information to a broader understanding of the effects of temperature on muscle and locomotory function in this important group of animals.

Selected Publications:

Erickson, JR, Sidell, BD, Moerland TS. Temperature sensitivity of calcium binding for parvalbumins from Antarctic and temperate zone teleost fishes. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A. 2005; 140:179-185.

Grove, TJ, Puckett, KA, Brunet, NM, Mihajlovic, G, McFAdden LA, Xiong P, von Molnar S, Moerland TS, Chase PB. Packaging actomyosin-based biomolecular motor-driven devices for nanoactuator applications. IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging. 2005; 28:556-563.

Grove, TJ, McFadden LA, Chase PB, Moerland TS. In vitro motility analysis of the effects of temperature, ionic strength, and pH on the function of myosin from a eurythermal fish, Fundulus heteroclitus. Journal of Muscle Research and Cell Motility. 2005; 26:191-197.

Erickson JR, Moerland TS. A competition assay of magnesium affinity for EF-hand proteins based on the fluorescent indicator magnesium green. Analytical Biochemistry 2005; 345:343-345.

Erickson JR, Moerland TS. Functional characterization of parvalbumin from the Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida): similarity in calcium affinity among parvalbumins from polar teleosts. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A. 2006; 143:228-233.

Graduate Students:

Heffron, Jennifer
Storz, Brian L
Whittington, A. Carl