{"id":69269,"date":"2025-07-09T08:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T12:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=69269"},"modified":"2025-07-21T14:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T18:56:07","slug":"in-the-world-of-micro-life-francesca-leasis-name-looms-large","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/in-the-world-of-micro-life-francesca-leasis-name-looms-large\/","title":{"rendered":"In the world of micro life, Francesca Leasi\u2019s name looms large"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"As

As part of her National Science Foundation grant research, Dr. Francesca Leasi spent the first two weeks of June investigating monogonont rotifers with external collaborator Diego Fontaneto of the National Research Council of Italy and students Sebastian Jimenez and Jasmine Castellano. Photo courtesy of Dr. Francesca Leasi.<\/p><\/div>\n

The microscopic animals Dr. Francesca Leasi studies can\u2019t be seen with the naked eye. Yet for all their size, they may hold vital clues to how life adapts to environmental change and what traits allow organisms to survive it.<\/p>\n

In early June, Leasi, a UC Foundation associate professor in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, spent two intense weeks in the Outer Banks\u2014a series of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina\u2014searching for answers hidden beneath the surface of saltwater.<\/p>\n

Accompanied in the field by UTC students Sebastian Jimenez and Jasmine Castellano and external collaborator Diego Fontaneto of the National Research Council of Italy, Leasi was investigating how tiny aquatic creatures, known as monogonont rotifers, survive dramatic shifts in salinity.<\/p>\n

The research is supported by a four-year, $696,680 grant awarded to Leasi<\/strong><\/a> from the National Science Foundation in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.

Dr. Francesca Leasi<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe are fortunate that Dr. Leasi is engaging our students in this exciting research,\u201d said BGE Department Head and UC Foundation Professor Gretchen Potts. \u201cHer students are gaining valuable experience in the field and the lab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monogonont rotifers are crucial to ecosystem health, Leasi explained. They help break down organic material and serve as a food source for larger organisms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very passionate about these small animals,\u201d Leasi said. \u201cThey are very important and there is an entire world to discover and to describe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leasi, who joined UTC in 2018, said the scope of the current fieldwork is to explore the biodiversity of these microscopic animals in the saltwater habitats along the western Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida\u2014a previously understudied region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe began the field work in Miami back in February,\u201d she said, \u201cand this time we went to North Carolina, where the field work was more extensive, much longer and more intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

During this trip, the team collected water, algae and sediment samples near Roanoke Island, where they were based at East Carolina University\u2019s Coastal Studies Institute. She said the location was selected for its wide range of salinity gradients, a key condition in rotifer habitats.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe collected the samples by following a protocol that includes more traditional taxonomy, looking at animals under the microscope and identifying animals by morphology,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut we also collected the samples for biomonitoring using molecular techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leasi said the group spent long days extracting individual organisms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took the animals one by one. We placed the animals on a slide. We took photos and videos. Then we put each animal into a tube for DNA analysis,\u201d she said. \u201cWe used a combination of morphology and DNA barcoding to investigate what\u2019s in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results, she said, were incredible. At least 300 specimens were sorted, with 30 different species identified, and \u201cwe think at least three or four are potentially new to science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their size? None of the organisms are visible to the naked eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are less than half a millimeter,\u201d Leasi said. \u201cThey are in the order of microns. It takes a thousand microns to make a millimeter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rotifer

Rotifer under the microscope<\/p><\/div>\n

But under the microscope, a surprising level of complexity emerged. Despite their scale, she explained that these animals are fully formed, complete with brains, stomachs and\u2014in some cases\u2014appendages.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see complete animals that are of very different magnitudes in terms of size,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are capable of withstanding very different ecological conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of her favorite moments came when she observed a group of marine water bears\u2014also known as tardigrades\u2014clinging to grains of sand with tiny suction cups on their toes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey use it to anchor to a little sand grain so they\u2019re not washed away by the current,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was amazing. Microscopic world.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that adaptability\u2014surviving across vastly different salinity levels\u2014that is at the core of Leasi\u2019s research.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow they maintain this salt balance in the body,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause these animals were found across different levels of salinity from freshwater to hyper-saline conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typically, these tiny animals only live for a few weeks. Many are female and reproduce asexually by cloning themselves, but when environmental conditions shift, they adapt in extraordinary ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the condition changes, they are capable of producing males,\u201d Leasi said. \u201cMales are much, much smaller. They don\u2019t have stomachs. They carry sperm, they fertilize a female, and the product of this sexual reproduction is basically a new genotype.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerry Professor and UC Foundation Professor Hope Klug said the undergraduate students participating in Leasi\u2019s research \u201care getting this really holistic experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going out in the field, they\u2019re collecting organisms, they\u2019re coming back, they\u2019re looking at them under microscopes, they\u2019re culturing them,\u201d said Klug, whose focus is evolutionary and behavioral ecology. \u201cIn addition to that, they\u2019re doing all this genetics and genomics work, so they\u2019re learning these lab techniques. It\u2019s just an incredible opportunity for these students at this early career stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sebastian

Sebastian Jimenez and Jasmine Castellano working in Dr. Francesca Leasi’s lab in Holt Hall. Photos by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

Two days after returning from North Carolina, Leasi received an email that left her stunned, and it directly ties into the research she has long been conducting.<\/p>\n

The message was a congratulatory note: a newly discovered species of gastrotrich\u2014a tiny marine organism\u2014had been named in Leasi\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n

The species, Musellifer leasiae<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, was discovered in deep-sea sediments off the coast of Antarctica. At under half a millimeter long, it\u2019s the first member of its family\u2014Muselliferidae\u2014to be formally documented in the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the authors of a research paper sent me the email telling me the news,\u201d Leasi said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely an honor. I was shocked. I was grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turns out, this was the third time that a species was named after her. All three species belong to a category known as meiofauna\u2014animals smaller than one millimeter that live in the tiny spaces between sediment grains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she told me about it, I was just blown away,\u201d Klug said, \u201cand then she said, \u2018Well, it\u2019s happened two other times.\u2019 I had no idea. She receives these very impressive awards, but she\u2019s just not someone who talks about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I know anyone else who\u2019s had a species named after them. It is a really rare thing to happen and it is a really big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first species named after Leasi, Proales francescae<\/em>, was found in the Mediterranean Sea along the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, France. It belongs to the phylum Rotifera (rotifer).<\/p>\n

The second species, Typhlopolycystis leasiae<\/em>, belongs to the phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms). It was discovered along the Pacific coast of Panama.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m attached to this group of animals (Musellifer<\/em>) because it was the focal animal group of my Ph.D.,\u201d Leasi said. \u201cThey all live in the deep sea. They\u2019re pretty rare to find. So it\u2019s quite an honor to be named.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the thrill of discovery never wears off.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it is definitely amazing,\u201d Leasi said. \u201cBut in general, I get overly excited to see something that was previously discovered but I had never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leasi hopes that the recognition of Musellifer leasiae<\/em> and the finding of new species will inspire greater interest in the microscopic world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping that the new generations of scientists can have the patience and the curiosity to approach animals that might not seem so charismatic at first glance,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if they have the patience to actually look at these animals under the microscope and understand the diversity, I think it can be a very, very cool job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/h4>\n

Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

UTC Biology, Geology and Environmental Science<\/a><\/p>\n

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs<\/a><\/p>\n

How to apply<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The microscopic animals Dr. Francesca Leasi studies can\u2019t be seen with the naked eye. Yet for all their size, they may hold vital clues to how life adapts to environmental change and what traits allow organisms to survive it.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1493,"featured_media":69266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123865,70,123864,61,7712,52,8244,64,48007,661],"tags":[123827,123826,125745,122281,48011,117231,125746,123828,124776,125747,83592,123829,122637],"class_list":{"0":"post-69269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-advancement-and-alumni","9":"category-biology-geology-and-environmental-science","10":"category-college-of-arts-sciences","11":"category-faculty-and-staff","12":"category-graduate-school","13":"category-honors-and-awards","14":"category-news","15":"category-research-academics","16":"category-students","17":"tag-creating-the-mocs-experience","18":"tag-cultivating-a-culture-of-innovation","19":"tag-diego-fontaneto","20":"tag-francesca-leasi","21":"tag-hope-klug","22":"tag-innovations-in-honors","23":"tag-jasmine-castellano","24":"tag-leveraging-our-special-place-as-chattanoogas-university","25":"tag-mocs-learn-mocs-do-mocs-lead","26":"tag-musellifer-leasiae","27":"tag-national-science-foundation","28":"tag-operating-with-excellence","29":"tag-sebastian-jimenez","30":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nIn the world of micro life, Francesca Leasi\u2019s name looms large | UTC News Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The microscopic animals Dr. Francesca Leasi studies can\u2019t be seen with the naked eye. 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