Deep-water corals survive in some of the darkest and coldest environments on Earth. Sometimes they also glow.
The evolutionary history of this bioluminescence is the subject of years of research from a team of collaborators that include Harvey Mudd College’s Vivian and D. Kenneth Baker Professor in the Life Sciences, Catherine McFadden.
Along with collaborators Danielle M. DeLeo, Manabu Bessho-Uehara, HMC alum Steven H.D. Haddock, and Andrea M. Quattrini, Dr. McFadden has contributed to a deeper understanding of how the bioluminescent traits evolved over hundreds of millions of years. The results of this research were published in 2024 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The supporting datasets were also uploaded to the data repository Dryad, where they have been viewed and cited over 100 times by other researchers around the world.
Dryad is a multidisciplinary data repository where researchers can easily deposit their data in full compliance with major funder requirements for open data sharing. Dryad also provides curation support and consultations to help ensure datasets are shared in the appropriate way for long-term storage and usability. Collaboration between researchers now and in the future is at the core of the open science mission.
The Claremont Colleges Library is celebrating the renewal of its Dryad membership and our commitment to collaborative open science. Since 2020, Claremont Colleges researchers have been able to share datasets to Dryad free of additional costs (depending on size).
If you have a story of how your research has been positively impacted by Dryad, let us know!