Mark Q. Martindale: shedding new light on developmental diversity

Abstract

Martindale has worked on a wide range of animals, mostly marine species, in contrast to many evo-devo researchers who often use a single "well-established" model organism. His work demonstrates how the insights gained by studying less "popular" animal taxa not only complement, but also significantly enrich our knowledge of the evolution of metazoan body plans and of the events that have led to the current animal diversity. KEY WORDS: Mark Q. Martindale, Kowalevsky Medal, evolutionary developmental biology Mark Q. Martindale -a life fueled by curiosity for marine animalsThe awarding of the Kowalevsky Medal to Mark Q. Martindale is a perfect fit given that -similarly to Kowalevsky -Martindale has dedicated his professional life to studying the embryology of marine invertebrates. Both of these scientists have worked at various marine stations to gain access to a tremendous diversity of embryos; both have worked on many species of the same animal taxa (leech, phoronids, hemichordates, brachiopods, cephalopods, ctenophores) (Kowalevsky, 1866(Kowalevsky, , 1867(Kowalevsky, , 1871(Kowalevsky, , 1883(Kowalevsky, , 1897. Therefore, it is not surprising that both Kowalevsky and Martindale, each in his own way, have contributed greatly to our understanding of the evolution of animal organ systems and germ layers (e.g., mesoderm).Mark Q. Martindale grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where, even as a child, he was fascinated with marine animals. Working at a local pet store, he was able to expand his interests and maintained marine aquaria in his family home. He also learned SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving and was able to observe these animals in their natural setting. As an undergraduate student, he studied biology under the influential mentorship of John B. Morrill at the New College of the University of South Florida. Among colleagues of Mark, who worked in John Morrill's lab at that time, were such developmental biologists as Int. J. Dev. Biol. 55: 237-242 (2011) Understanding developmental mechanismsMark has been an experimental embryologist from the beginning. His initial work was done on the spiralian freshwater gastropod Lymnaea, in which he investigated the role of the D-quadrant during determination of the body axis in relation to the animalvegetal axis of the embryo Martindale, 1986b). During his PhD work, he switched organisms and began working on marine invertebrates. The results of his PhD thesis ("The role of ontogeny on the expression of adult symmetry properties in the ctenophore, Mnemiopsis mccradyi") stemmed from his experimental manipulations on embryos and adults greatly improved our understanding of the developmental biology of these enigmatic animals.Following the tradition of experimental embryology, Mark applied new methods during his PhD, such as laser cell ablation, to find developmental mechanisms that can play a role in the establishment of the body axes of the adult. From his PhD thesis, he published a series of experiments on ctenophore development before he t...