Associate Professor
Department of
Animal Biology
School of Integrative Biology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
515 Morrill Hall
505 South Goodwin Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
Office phone: 217/ 333-4245
Fax: 217/ 333-1133
email: c-cheng@uiuc.edu
Positions Available:
For individuals interested in the studies of genomics, evolution, adaptation, protein structure-function, or any aspects related to fish antifreeze proteins I accept graduate students through the Department of Animal Biology and the Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Application instructions are available through these program's websites.
Teaching: IB 426 Environmental and Evolutionary Physiology of Animals
Research Interests:
My interests are in the broad field of environmental, adaptational and evolutionary physiology of animals. The biological system of my research pertains to freezing avoidance by means of antifreeze (AF) proteins in polar bony fishes, as well as other cold adaptive physiological processes and their responsible protein molecules in these fish. I use approaches that span and integrate past and present environmental thermal histories, organismal physiology, protein structure-function, molecular evolution and genomic scale analyses of environmentally driven evolutionary change in protein genes and function.
More specifically, my laboratory studies the evolution of the diverse antifreeze proteins in marine bony fishes that inhabit frigid Arctic and Antarctic waters. We investigate where these novel protein genes came from (evolutionary ancestry), how they evolved (molecular mechanisms of new gene genesis), and the evolution of the antifreeze gene families. Since the creation of the antifreeze function was directly driven by polar glaciation, we also attempt to determine the time of evolution of the antifreeze genes to infer or corroborate the time of onset of freezing conditions in the polar or subpolar seas. In addition, we examine how the evolution of antifreeze function relates to speciation and organismal diversification, and how variable complexities of different antifreeze gene families relate to the ability to survive in environments of differing severity. The evolutionary dynamics of entire antifreeze gene families (i.e., gain versus loss as related to freezing selection versus absence of selection in closely related taxa) are examined by characterizing large genomic regions housing these genes that we isolate from BAC libraries.
Related interests in cold adaptation encompass other functional proteins and physiological systems. We examine adaptive changes in the retinal visual system (cone and rod opsins) of Antarctic fish associated with their freezing environment, and potential ontogenic changes of expression associated habitat change during development. In addition, we examine the biochemical and structural bases of the protein stability and transparency of the Antarctic fish lens at freezing temperatures (-2oC) where other vertebrate lens would have sustained cold-cataract (at 0oC and above). The molecular diversity and evolution of cold-stable lens crystallin protein isoformers that are integral to whole lens cold stability are being characterized.
Selected Research Publications:
Cheng, C.-H.C., Cziko, P.A., and Evans, C.W. (2006) Non-Hepatic origin of notothenioid antifreeze reveals pancreatic synthesis as common mechanism in polar fish freezing avoidance. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103:10491-10496.
Cziko, P.A., Evans, C.W., Cheng, C.-H.C. and DeVries, A.L. (2006) Freezing resistance of antifreeze-deficient larval Antarctic fish. J. Exp. Biol. 209:407-420.
Evans, C.L., Pace, L., Cziko, P., Marsh, A.G., Cheng, C.-H.C. and DeVries, A.L. (2006) Metabolic energy utilization during development of Antarctic naked dragonfish (Gymnodraco acuticeps). Polar Biol. 29:519-525.
DeVries, A.L. and Cheng, C.-H.C. (2005) Antifreeze proteins in polar fishes. In Fish Physiology, Vol.22. (Eds. A.P. Farrell and J.F. Steffensen), pp. 155-201, Academic Press, San Diego.
Evans, C.W., Cziko, P., Cheng, C.-H.C. and DeVries, A.L. (2005) Spawning behaviour and early development in the naked dragonfish Gymnodraco acuticeps. Antarct. Sci. 17:319-327.
Pointer, M.A., Cheng, C.-H.C., Bowmaker, J.K., Parry, Soto, N., J.W.L., Jeffery, G., Cowing, J.A, and Hunt, D.M. (2005) Adaptations to an extreme environment: retinal organisation and spectral properties of photoreceptors in Antarctic notothenioid fish. J. Exp. Biol. 208:2363-2376.
Kiss, A.J., Mirarefi, A. Y., Ramakrishnan, S., Zukoski, C., DeVries, A.L., and Cheng, C.-H.C. (2004) Cold stable eye lens crystallins of the Antarctic nototheniid toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni (Norman). J. Exp. Biol. 207:4633-4649.
Near, T.J., Pesavento, J.J., and Cheng, C.-H.C. (2004) Phylogenetic investigations of Antarctic notothenioid fishes (Perciformes: Notothenioidei) using complete gene sequences of the mitochondrial encoded 16S rRNA. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 32:881-891.
Cheng, C.-H.C. (2003) Freezing avoidance in polar fishes. In Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) - Theme 6.73 Extremophiles (Ed. C. Gerday), developed under the auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, U.K.
Romisch, K., Collie, N., Soto, N., Logue, J., Lindsay, M. Scheper, W., and Cheng, C.-H.C. (2003) Protein translocation across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane in cold-adapted organisms. J Cell Sci. 116:2875-2883.
Cheng, C.-H.C., Chen, L., Near, T.J., and Jin, Y. (2003) Functional antifreeze glycoprotein genes in temperate-water New Zealand nototheniid fish infer an Antarctic origin. Mol. Biol. Evol. 20:1897-1909.
Hunt, B., Hoefling, K., and Cheng, C.-H.C. (2003) Annual warming episodes in seawater temperatures in McMurdo Sound in relationship to endogenous ice in notothenioid fish. Antarct. Sci. 15:333-338.
Near, T.J., Pesavento, J.J., and Cheng, C.-H.C. (2003) Mitochondrial DNA, morphology, and the phylogenetic relationships of Antarctic icefishes (Notothenioidei: Channichthyidae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 28: 87-98.
Ko, T.P., Robinson, H., Gao, Y.-G., Cheng, C.-H.C., DeVries, A.L., and Wang, A.H.-J. (2003) The refined crystal structure of an eel pout Type III antifreeze protein RD1 at 0.62-Ĺ resolution reveals structural microheterogeneity of protein and solvation. Biophys. J. 84:1228-1237.
Cheng, C.-H.C. and DeVries, A.L. (2002) Origins and evolution of fish antifreeze proteins. In Molecular Aspects of Fish and Marine Biology Vol.1 - Monograph on Fish Antifreeze Proteins (Eds. C. Hew and V. Ewart), pp. 83-108, World Sci. Press, New Jersey.
Lavalle, P., DeVries, A.L., Cheng, C.-H.C. and Ramsden, J.J. (2000) Direct observation of the interaction between antifreeze glycoproteins and hydrated hydroxylated surfaces. Langmuir 16:5785-5789.
Cheng, C.-H.C. and L. Chen (1999) Evolution of an antifreeze glycoprotein. Nature 40: 443-444.
Cheng, C.-H.C. (1998) Origin and mechanism of evolution of antifreeze glycoproteins in polar fish. In Evolution of the Antarctic Ichthyofauna (Eds. G. di Prisco and E. Pisano), pp. 311-328, Springer-Verlag, Italy.
Cheng, C.-H.C. (1998) Evolution of the diverse antifreeze proteins. Curr. Op. Genet. Develop. 8:715-720.
Chen, L. DeVries, A.L. and Cheng, C.-H.C. (1997a) Evolution of antifreeze glycoprotein gene from a trypsinogen gene in Antarctic notothenioid fish. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:3811-3816.
Chen, L., DeVries, A.L., and Cheng, C.-H.C. (1997b) Convergent evolution of antifreeze glycoproteins in Antarctic notothenioid fish and Arctic cod. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:3817-3822.
Cheng, C.-H. C. (1996) Genomic basis for antifreeze glycopeptide heterogeneity and abundance in Antarctic notothenioid fishes. In "Gene Expression and Manipulation in Aquatic Organisms", Soc. of Expt. Biol. Seminar Series 58 (Eds. S. Ennion and G. Goldspink), pp. 1-20. Cambridge University Press, U.K.
Wang, X., DeVries, A.L. and Cheng, C.-H. C. (1995) Genomic basis of antifreeze peptide heterogeneity and abundance in an antarctic eel pout - gene structures and organization. Mol. Mar. Biol. Biotechnol. 4:135-147.
Wang, X., DeVries, A.L. and Cheng, C.-H. C. (1995) Antifreeze peptide heterogeneity in an antarctic eel pout includes an unusually large major variant comprised of two 7 kDa type III AFPs linked in tandem. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1247:163-172.
DeVries, A. L. and Cheng, C.-H. C. (1992) The role of antifreeze glycopeptides and peptides in the survival of cold water fishes. In "Water and Life: Comparative Analysis of Water relationships at the Organismic, Cellular, and Molecular Levels" (Eds. G.N. Somero, C.B. Osmond, and C.L. Bolis), pp. 303-315, Springer-Verlag.
Cheng, C.-H.C. and DeVries, A.L. (1991) The role of antifreeze glycopeptides and peptides in the freezing avoidance of cold water fishes. In “Life Under Extreme Conditions” (Ed. Guido di Prisco), Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, pp. 1-14.
Hsiao, K., Cheng, C.-H.C., Fernandes, I.E., Detrich, H.W. and DeVries, A.L. (1990) An antifreeze glycopeptide gene from the antarctic cod Notothenia coriiceps neglecta encodes a polyprotein of high peptide copy number. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 87:9265-9269.
Knight, C.A., Cheng, C.-H.C. and DeVries, A.L. (1991) Adsorption of alpha-helical antifreeze peptides on specific ice crystal planes. Biophysical J. 59:409-418.
Cheng, C.-H.C. and DeVries, A.L. (1989) Structures of antifreeze peptides from the Antarctic eel pout, Austrolycichthys brachycepahlus. Biochim. Biophy. Acta 997:55-64.
Schrag, J.D., Cheng, C.-H.-C., Panico, M., Morris, H.R., and DeVries, A.L. (1987) Primary and secondary structure of antifreeze peptides from arctic and antarctic zoarcid fishes. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 915:357-370.