Department of Biological Sciences > Faculty & Staff > Ecology and Evolution > Neil W. Blackstone

Recent Publications

Blackstone NW. 2008. Metabolic gradients: a new system for old questions.  Curr Biol 18:R351-R353.

Cherry Vogt KS, Geddes GC, Bross LS, Blackstone NW. 2008. Physiological characterization of stolon regression in a colonial hydroid. J Exp Biol 211:731-740.

Blackstone NW. 2007. A food’s-eye view of the transition from basal metazoans to bilaterians.  Integr Comp Biol 47:724-733.

Doolen JF, Geddes GC, Blackstone NW. 2007. Multicellular redox regulation in an early-evolving animal treated with glutathione. Physiol Biochem Zool 80(3):317-325.

Berg AT, Blackstone NW. 2006. Concepts in classification and their relevance to epilepsy. Epilepsy Research 70S:S11-S19.

Blackstone NW. 2006. Multicellular redox regulation: integrating organismal biology and redox chemistry. BioEssays 28:72-77.

Blackstone NW.  2006. Charles Manning Child (1869-1954): the past, present, and future of metabolic signaling. J Exp Zool (MDE) 306B:1-7.

Blackstone NW, Bridge DM. 2005. Model systems for environmental signaling. Integr Comp Biol 45:605-614.

Blackstone NW, Steele RE. 2005. Introduction to the symposium. Integr Comp Biol 45:583-584.

Blackstone NW, Bivins MJ, Cherry KS, Fletcher RE, Geddes GC. 2005. Redox signaling in colonial hydroids: many pathways for peroxide. J Exp Biol 208:383-390.

Blackstone NW, Kelly MM, Haridas V, Gutterman JU. 2005. Mitochondria as integrators of information in an early-evolving animal: insights from a triterpenoid metabolite. Proc Roy Soc Lond B 272:527-531.

Blackstone NW. 2005. Arthropoda (version 2.0). Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, Nature Publishing Group, London.

Blackstone NW. 2005. Crustacea (version 2.0). Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, Nature Publishing Group, London.

Blackstone NW, Cherry KS, Van Winkle DH. 2004. The role of polyp-stolon junctions in the redox signaling of colonial hydroids. Hydrobiologia 530/531:291-298.

Blackstone NW, Cherry KS, Glockling SL. 2004. Structure and signaling in polyps of a colonial hydroid. Invert Biol 123:43-53.

Blackstone NW, Jasker BD. 2003. Phylogenetic considerations of clonality, coloniality, and mode of germline development in animals. J Exp Zool (MDE) 297B:35-47.

Berg AT, Blackstone NW. 2003. Of cabbages and kings: perspectives on classification from the field of systematics. Epilepsia 44:8-12.

Blackstone NW. 2003. Redox signaling in the growth and development of colonial hydroids.  J Exp Biol 206:651-658

Blackstone NW, Kirkwood TBL. 2003. Mitochondria and programmed cell death: “slave revolt” or community homeostasis? In Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation (P. Hammerstein, ed.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 309-325.

Lachmann M, Blackstone NW, Haig D, Kowald A, Michod RE, Szathmáry E, Werren JH, Wolpert L. 2003. Group 3: Cooperation and conflict in the evolution of genomes, cells, and multicellular organisms. In Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation (P. Hammerstein, ed.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 327-356.

Blackstone NW. 2003. Des genes sous influence. Hors-Serie Sciences et Avenir, October-November:64-68

Recent Book Reviews

Research Interests

The history of life is a history of the elaboration of levels or units of evolution--molecules within cells, cells within cells, cells within organisms. At each transition, conflicts between the lower level units had to be mediated in order for the higher level unit to emerge. These mechanisms of conflict mediation may themselves have been innovations that subsequently provided the raw material for further evolution. For instance, mechanisms for mediating conflicts between mitochondria and host cells (e.g., within-cell signaling with calcium, redox state, and reactive oxygen species) were likely co-opted into mechanisms of development and conflict resolution in multicellular organisms (e.g., "second messenger" systems, between-cell redox signaling, and programmed cell death).

Thus events in the history of life that are not directly related to the major evolutionary transitions may nevertheless derive from the raw material provided by these transitions. Consider the evolution of the metazoan mouth. In deriving the cnidarian-grade body plan from the poriferan-grade body plan, the body axis and mouth were principal innovations. Arguably, such pattern formation evolved to allow more efficient sequestration of resources. Nevertheless, since colonial cnidarians often encrust surfaces over which the food supply varies in time or space, such innovations could only be effectively employed if they were responsive to food-related signals. Evolution of a body axis may thus have been concomitant with the evolution of appropriate signal transduction systems. Redox signaling, implicated in the transition from cells to "cells within cells," can provide such a system if coupled to pattern-forming genes.