Dr Simon Dunn

Research Fellow

Research Interests

My research interests are focused on the following areas:

Cellular pathway interactions between the cnidarian host and dinoflagellate symbiont during the onset, maintenance and breakdown of the symbiosis.
Cnidarian immunity and responses to disease and environmental stress.
Evolution of molecular pathways in cnidarians and cnidarians as a model system.
The photobiology and carbon acquisition of the holobiont.
The effects of climate change upon cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis.

My research is aimed at resolving at least in part, some of the following questions: 1) How does a potential symbiont enter a host cell? 2) How does the symbiont maintain residence within the host cell? 3) How does the symbiont evade or manipulate the host immune response? 4) What are the events that allow removal of the dinoflagellate symbiont? 5) How do changes in environmental conditions influence these processes?

Select Publications

Dunn, S.R. Schnitzler, C. E. and Weis, V. M (in press) Apoptosis and autophagy as mechanisms of dinoflagellate symbiont release during cnidarian bleaching: Every which way you lose. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 274:3079-3085
Dunn, S.R. Phillips, W.S., Green, D.R. and Weis, V.M. (2007) Knockdown of actin and caspase gene expression by RNA interference in the symbiotic sea anemone Aiptasia pallida. Biological Bulletin 212: 250-258. (Editors choice for the issue featured article)
Dunn, S.R., Phillips, W.S., Green, D.R. Spatafora, J.W. and Weis, V.M. (2006) Highly conserved caspase and Bcl-2 homologues from the sea anemone Aiptasia pallida: Lower metazoans as models for the study of apoptosis evolution. Journal of Molecular Evolution 63: (1) 95-107.
Dunn, S.R., Thomason, J.C., Le Tissier, M.D.A., and Bythell, J.C. (2004) Heat stress induces different forms of cell death in sea anemones and their endosymbiotic algae depending on temperature and duration. Cell Death and Differentiation 11: 1213-1222.
Dunn, S.R., Bythell, J.C., Le Tissier, M.D.A., Burnett, W.J. and Thomason, J.C. (2002) Programmed cell death and cell necrosis activity during hyperthermic stress-induced bleaching of the symbiotic sea anemone Aiptasia sp. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 272 (1) 29-53.
Dunn SR, Thomason JC, Le Tissier MDA, Bythell JC (2002) Detection of cell death activity during bleaching of the symbiotic sea anemone Aiptasia sp. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Coral Reef Symposium, Bali, Indonesia. Kasim Moosa MK, Soemodihardjo S, Nontji A, Soegiarto A, Romimohtarto K, Sukarno, Suharsono. (Eds) Vol 1: pp145-155.