Jan A. Pechenik
Professor
Invertebrate Zoology and Marine Biology

Current Lab Activities

All of my students are currently working with the marine gastropod Crepidula fornicata, and not just because the animal has such a great name. We can get larvae pretty much the entire year and rear them to metamorphosis with very low mortality (typically less than 5%). The larvae are large at hatching (about 450 µm) and grow as fast as 100 µm per day. Also, we can now control when the larvae metamorphose and can rear the juveniles to reproductive maturity within 1-2 months. The snail is native to New England but has now become an important invasive species in many other parts of the world. Much of our work also includes the related species, C. convexa, a species that has apparently lost the larval stage during its evolution.

Graduate student Wei Li is studying the relationship between reproductive pattern, degree of inbreeding, and mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance in Crepidula fornicata and C. convexa. Wei and I have also been collaborating on a project with Professor David Cochrane on the role that nitric oxide plays in the metamorphosis of C. fornicata larvae.

Graduate student Steve Untersee is studying the relationship between reproductive pattern and the ability to evolve increased tolerance to copper pollution in Crepidula fornicata and C. convexa.

Graduate student Olivia Ambrogio is working with the same two Crepidula species, hoping to discover how potential mates find each other. She is particularly interested in knowing whether chemical cues are involved and if so, whether these are the same chemicals that control the transformation from male to female in this species.

Download the Larval Mortality Model.

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