Chris Beachy
Department of Biology, Minot State University

The Amphibian Growth Project at Minot State University maintains active research program in aspects of amphibian growth, especially larval Ambystoma, that overlaps core areas that will be emphasized by the ARCN.

Ecotoxicology of endocrine-disrupted development. I am funded by the INBRE program of NIH-NCRR to develop salamander (specifically Ambystoma mexicanum, A. tigrinum and A. maculatum) as an ecotoxicogenomic biomonitoring system. This research consists of laboratory growth experiments on larval Ambystoma wherein the effects of water-borne endocrine disruptors (EDs), e.g., atrazine and estrogen, on life history parameters and endocrine-mediated tissue/organ development are examined in the context of environmentally-pertinent variation (e.g., thermal regime, growth rate). The laboratory experiments are also part of a tissue-generation program to generate tissues for functional ectoxicogenomics in collaboration with Randal Voss.

Functional genomics of water-borne toxicants. I have pooled funding streams with Voss in order to develop a DNA microarray chip (Affymetrix) that will be used to characterize gene expression during ED development of tissue/organs and life history parameters.

Endocrine-disruption and scale-up impacts on demography. INBRE funding is being used to establish long-term life history monitoring sites of native amphibian populations in North Dakota, especially A. tigrinum. These drift-fenced study areas have been initiated and will provide long-term data on ED-influenced effects, and source for material for exotoxicogenomic field assays.