Dr Jan Strugnell
Stream Leader: Marine ecosystem change and Protecting marine biodiversity
Lecturer, Latrobe University
Phone: +61 3 94793663
email: j.strugnell@latrobe.edu.au
Research interests
I completed my BSc (Hons) in 1999, graduating with 1st class honours from James Cook University. I competed successfully for a Rhodes Scholarship enabling me to undertake a D.Phil. at Oxford University, UK, where I published the first study to use molecular and fossil evidence to estimate divergence times within cephalopods (octopus, squids and cuttlefish).
In 2004 I worked as an Antarctic Funding Initiative (AFI)-funded post doctoral research fellow at Queen’s University, Belfast, and the British Antarctic Survey, investigating evolutionary relationships between Antarctic and deep-sea octopods. I reported the first dated molecular evidence that deep sea fauna from other ocean basins originated from Southern Ocean taxa. These findings were highlighted in Nature News, BBC Science, National Geographic and over 600 media websites worldwide.
In 2008 I obtained a competitive Lloyd’s Tercentenary fellowship and was based at the Zoology Department of the University of Cambridge, UK. Here I investigated microevolutionary processes in Antarctic octopus using microsatellite loci and also showed that a sea butterfly species (Limacina helicina) with a reported ‘bipolar’ distribution (occurring in Antarctica and the Arctic) was in fact two distinct species at each pole.
I joined the Department of Genetics at Latrobe University in 2010 and have a broad research agenda. I obtained an ARC Discovery project grant to use transcriptomics to investigate the molecular basis of stress and disease in abalone, a commercially important shellfish. I also continue my research investigating population and species level molecular evolution in Antarctic and deep sea taxa in the context of past climatic and geological change. I'm also interested in many aspects of cephalopod and molluscan evolution. Some of my current research areas include understanding the evolution of toxicity across octopus and squid taxa and investigating the phylogenetic utility of mitochondrial gene order in the molluscs.
International representation/collaboration:
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Leader of the international ‘Palaeo-reconstruction and Evolution’ subgroup of Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) Life Sciences programme
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Elected fellow of the Linnean Society
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Elected member of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC)
Awards
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Outstanding Alumni Award, James Cook University, 2011
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Best scientific paper on cephalopod research published in the last 3 years, 2009.
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Best presentation (early career researcher) 10th SCAR International Biology Conference, Sapporo, Japan, 2009.
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Best presentation (early career researcher) SCAR Open Science conference in St Petersburg, 2008.
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Merton Prize scholarship (Oxford University, UK) for graduate students of the highest distinction.
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Rhodes Scholarship – Oxford University
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University Medal, James Cook University, 2000.
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Dr R. Palmerston-Rundle Prize for Biological Sciences (best overall performance and ability in the School of Biological Sciences), James Cook University, 2000.
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The Convocation Medal, James Cook University, 1998.
Related links:
- Octopuses share 'living ancestor' (BBC News 2008)
- Deep-sea octopuses' origin traced back to Antarctica (Planet Earth online 2008)
- "Smile" Octopus spawned many species (National Geographic 2010)
Selected publications
Strugnell, J., Cherel, Y., Cooke, I.R., Gleadall, I.G., Hochberg, F.G., Ibáñez, C.M., Jorgensen, E., Laptikhovsky, V.V., Linse, K., Norman, M., Vecchione, M., Voight, J.R. & Allcock, A.L. (2011) The Southern Ocean: Source and sink? Deep-Sea Research II. 58: 196-204.
Allcock, A.L., Barratt, I., Eléaume, M., Linse, K., Norman, M.D., Smith, P.J., Steinke, D., Stevens, D.W., Strugnell, J.M. (2011) Cryptic speciation and the circumpolarity debate: a case study on endemic Southern Ocean octopuses using the coxI barcode of life. Deep-Sea Research II. 58: 242-248.
Hunt, B., Strugnell, J., Bednarsek, N., Linse, K., Nelson, R.J., Pakhomov, E., Seibel, B.J., Steinke, D. & Würzberg, L. Poles Apart: The "Bipolar" Pteropod Species Limacina helicina is Genetically Distinct Between the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. PLoS One. 5(3): e9835.
Jorgensen, E.M., Strugnell, J.M. & Allcock, A.L. (2010) Description and phylogenetic relationshis of a new genus of octopus, Sasakiopus (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae), from the Bering Sea, with a redescription of Sasakiopus salebrosus (Sasaki, 1920) nov. comb. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 76:57-66.
Strugnell, J., Rogers, A.D., Prodöhl, P.A., Collins, M.A. & Allcock, A.L. (2008) The thermohaline expressway: the Southern Ocean as a centre of origin for deep-sea octopuses. Cladistics. 24: 853-860.
Vecchione, M., Allcock, L., Piatkowski, U. & Strugnell, J. (2008) Benthoctopus rigbyae n. sp., a new species of cephalopod (Octopoda; Incirrata) from near the Antarctic Peninsula. Malacologia. 51(1): 13-28.
Allcock, A.L., Strugnell J., & Johnson, M (2008) How useful are the recommended counts and indices in the systematics of the Octopodidae? (Mollusca: Cephalopoda). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 95: 205-218.
Strugnell, J., Allcock, A., & Collins, M.A. (2008) Molecular evolutionary relationships of the octopodid genus Thaumeledone (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae) from the Southern Ocean. Antarctic Science. 20(3) 245-251.
Allcock, A., Strugnell, J., Prodöhl, P., Piatkowski, U. & Vecchione, M. (2007) A new species of Pareledone (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae) from the Antarctic Peninsula. Polar Biology. DOI 10.1007/s00300-006-0248-9.
Strugnell J, Jackson, J., Drummond A.J. & Cooper, A. (2006) Divergence time estimates for major cephalopod groups: evidence from multiple genes. Cladistics. 22:89-96.
Strugnell J., Norman M., Jackson J., Drummond A.J. & Cooper A. (2005) Molecular phylogeny of coleoid cephalopods (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) using a multigene approach; the effect of data partitioning on resolving phylogenies in a Bayesian framework. Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution 37(2) 426-441.
Strugnell, J. Norman, M., Drummond, A. & Cooper, A. (2004) The octopuses that never came back to earth: neoteny and pelagic octopuses. Current Biology 14: R300-R301.
