Paige Maroni

Affiliation with Antarctic Science Foundation

ASF Ambassador on Antarctica Flights 2022/23

“Traversing The Covid Gap” Grant Recipient 2020

PhD Thesis

The diversification, evolution and chemical ecology of marine radiation of Antarctic sea slugs.

More about Paige

I study the incredible diversification, evolution and chemical ecology of a marine mollusc using phylogenomics. The Southern Ocean benthic sea slug, Doris kerguelenensis, was originally described to be a single species that showed reduced dispersal potential. This slug lacks a free-swimming larval stage and can only crawl along the benthos as an adult. More recently, however, mitochondrial DNA sequencing has revealed a multitude of highly divergent lineages within that species, representing a species flock comprising over 32 species. I will be using a transcriptome-based exon capture approach to resolve this Antarctic radiation. I’m also examining the link between their chemical defence mechanisms and the cryptic species lineages by filling geographic sampling gaps as well as investigating the relationship between secondary metabolites and gut content. I aim to conduct this research in order to provide information about whether these animals are specialists or generalists. This should help us understand if their diet affects which secondary metabolites are expressed.

Selected Publication

Paige J. Maroni; Bill J. Baker; Amy L. Moran; H. Arthur Woods; Conxita Avila; Glenn J. Johnstone; Jonathan S. Stark; Kevin M. Kocot; Susanne Lockhart; Thomas Saucède et al., Invertebrate Systematics: One Antarctic slug to confuse them all: the underestimated diversity of Doris kerguelenensis