Patsy Dickinson

Affiliation: Biology

Josiah Little Professor of Natural Sciences Emerita and Adjunct Professor of Biology

The goal of my research is understanding the mechanisms that underlie the ability of the nervous system to generate flexibility in patterned movements. Many activities, such as breathing and locomotion, require repeated patterns of movement. These rhythmic movements are controlled by neural circuits that are "hard-wired", but are nonetheless able to generate multiple outputs, thereby allowing the same network to control multiple versions of a behavior, for example, running and walking. My lab uses two simple neural circuits in the lobster as a model system in which to examine the physiological and molecular mechanisms that drive this flexibility. We use a range of techniques, including physiological recordings of neuronal activity, recordings of heart contractions, immunohistochemistry, and some molecular techniques.

Dickinson PS, Armstrong MK, Dickinson ES, Fernandez R, Miller A, Pong S, Powers B, Pupo Wiss A, Stanhope ME, Walsh PJ, Wiwatpanit T, Christie AE. (2018). Three members of a peptide family are differentially distributed and elicit differential state-dependent responses in a pattern generator-effector system. J Neurophysiol.119:1767-1781.

Christie AE, Miller A, Fernandez R, Dickinson ES, Jordan A, Kohn J, Youn MC, and Dickinson PS. (2018). Non-amidated and amidated members of the C-type allatostatin (AST-C) family are differentially distributed in the stomatogastric nervous system of the American lobster, Homarus americanus. Invertebrate Neuroscience 18: 2.

Christie AE, Roncalli V, Cieslak MC, Pascual MG, Yu A, Lameyer TJ, Stanhope ME, Dickinson PS. (2017). Prediction of a neuropeptidome for the eyestalk ganglia of the lobster Homarus americanus using a tissue-specific de novo assembled transcriptome. Gen Comp Endocrinol. 243:96-119.

Dickinson PS, Qu,X, Stanhope, M. (2016). Neuropeptide modulation of pattern-generating systems in crustaceans: Comparative studies and approaches. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 41:149-157.
Dickinson, ES, AS Johnson, O Ellers, PS Dickinson. (2016). Forces generated during stretch in the heart of the lobster Homarus americanus are anisotropic and are altered by neuromodulators. J Exp Biol. 219:1187-202.

Christie, AE, Chi, M, Lameyer, TJ, Pascual, MG, Shea, DN, Stanhope, ME, Schulz, DJ, Dickinson, PS (2015). Neuropeptidergic signaling in the American lobster Homarus americanus: New insights from high-throughput nucleotide sequencing. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0145964.

Dickinson PS, Kurland SC, Qu X, *Parker BO, Sreekrishnan A, Kwiatkowski MA, Williams AH, Ysasi AB, Christie AE. (2015). Distinct or shared actions of peptide family isoforms: II. Multiple pyrokinins exert similar effects in the lobster stomatogastric nervous system. J Exp Biol. 218:2905-2917

Dickinson PS, Sreekrishnan A, Kwiatkowski MA, Christie AE. (2015). Distinct or shared actions of peptide family isoforms: I. Peptide-specific actions of pyrokinins in the lobster cardiac neuromuscular system. J Exp Biol. 218:2892-2904

Dickinson PS, Calkins A and Stevens JS. (2015). Related neuropeptides use different balances of unitary mechanisms to modulate the cardiac neuromuscular system in the American lobster, Homarus americanus. J. Neurophysiology 113(3):856-70.

Williams AH, Calkins A, O'Leary T, Symonds R, Marder E, Dickinson PS. 2013. The neuromuscular transform of the lobster cardiac system explains the opposing effects of a neuromodulator on muscle output. J Neurosci 33(42):16565-75.

Stemmler EA, Barton EE, Esonu OK, Polasky DA, Onderko LL, Bergeron AB, Christie AE, Dickinson PS. (2013). C-terminal methylation of truncated neuropeptides: an enzyme-assisted extraction artifact involving methanol. Peptides 46:108-25.

Williams, AH, Kwiatkowski, MA, Mortimer, AL, Marder, E, Zeeman, ML and Dickinson, PS. (2013). Animal-to-animal variability in the phasing of the crustacean cardiac motor pattern: an experimental and computational analysis. J. Neurophysiology 109:2451-2465.

Kwiatkowski, MA, Gabranski, ER, Huber, KE, Chapline, MC, Christie, AE and Dickinson, PS. (2013). Coordination of distinct but interacting rhythmic motor programs by a modulatory projection neuron using different co-transmitters in different ganglia. Journal of Experimental Biology 216:1827-1836.

Wiwatpanit, T, Powers, B, and Dickinson, PS. (2012). Inter-animal variability in the effects of C-type allatostatin on the cardiac neuromuscular system in the lobster Homarus americanus. Journal of Experimental Biology, 215:2308-2318.

Christie AE, Stemmler EA, Dickinson PS (2010). Crustacean neuropeptides. Cell Mol Life Sci. 67(24): 4135-69.

Christie, AE, *JS Stevens, *MR Bowers, MC Chapline, DA Jensen, K Schregg, *J Goldwaser, *MA Kwiatkowski, *TK Pleasant Jr, *L Shoenfeld, *LK Tempest, *CR Williams, *T Wiwatpanit, *ER Gabranski, CM Smith, KM Beale, DW Towle, DA Schooley and PS Dickinson (2010). Identification of a calcitonin-like diuretic hormone that functions as an intrinsic modulator of the American lobster, Homarus americanus, cardiac neuromuscular system. Journal of Experimental Biology 213, 118-127.

*Stevens, JS., *CR. Cashman, CM. Smith, KM, Beale, DW. Towle, AE. Christie and PS. Dickinson (2009). The peptide hormone pQDLDHVFLRFamide (crustacean myosuppressin) modulates the Homarus americanus cardiac neuromuscular system at multiple sites. Journal of Experimental Biology. 212: 3961-76.

Stemmler, E.A., *Bruns, E.A., *Cashman, C.R., Dickinson, P.S., Christie, AE. (2009). Molecular and mass spectral identification of the broadly conserved decapod crustacean neuropeptide pQIRYHQCYFNPISCF: The first PISCF-allatostatin (Manduca sexta- or C-type allatostatin) from a non-insect. Gen Comp Endocrinol. 165(1):1-10.

Dickinson, P.S., *T. Wiwatpanit, *E.R. Gabranski, *R.J. Ackerman, *J.S. Stevens, *C.R. Cashman, E.A. Stemmler, and A.E. Christie. (2009). Identification of SYWKQCAFNAVSCFamide: a broadly conserved crustacean C-type allatostatin-like peptide with both neuromodulatory and cardioactive properties. Journal of Experimental Biology. 212:1140-52.

Dickinson, P.S. *E.E. Barton, E.A. Stemmler, *C.R. Cashman, *N.P. Gardner, *S. Rus, *H.R. Brennan, T.S. McClintock and A.E. Christie. (2009). Molecular, mass spectral, and physiological analyses of orcokinins and orcokinin precursor-related peptides in the lobster Homarus americanus and the crayfish Procambarus clarkii. Peptides: 30:297-317.

Christie, A.E., *C.R. Cashman, *J.S. Stevens, C.M. Smith, K.M. Beale, E.A. Stemmler, S.J. Greenwood, D.W. Towle, P.S. Dickinson. (2008). Identification and cardiotropic actions of brain/gut-derived tachykinin-related peptides (TRPs) from the American lobster Homarus americanus. Peptides, 29: 1909-18.

Dickinson, P.S., E.A. Stemml

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Biology

Patsy Dickinson

Recent Publications

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