Susan D. Hill
Adjunct Professor
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1969
163 Giltner Hall
Office Telephone: 517-353-4528
hillss@msu.edu
Developmental Biology
I am broadly interested in development, regeneration, and reproduction and in the relationship between regenerative ability and fitness. The effects of the environment on development and regeneration and the interactions between development and evolution in the origin of segmentation, of body plans, etc. are all of interest.
Much of my work has centered on marine annelids which undergo regeneration. It involves studies to reveal the sources of cells that give rise to the new, regenerating outgrowth, the mechanisms of neural regeneration and the effects of the nervous system on the process of regeneration, the significance of endogenous currents that result from ionic changes when a tissue is injured and repair and regeneration are initiated, and gene activation during regeneration. Much of the research is carried out at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.
A second aspect of my work involves vertebrates. We have studied the effect of external, extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields on embryological development in tree swallows. Long term projects in the laboratory include investigations in capitellid polychaetes (marine annelids) into the effects of segment loss and subsequent regeneration on fitness, the effects of pesticides on larval recruitment as determined by settling and metamorphosis and the role of environmental factors on sex determination.
Representative Publications
Eckberg, W.R. and S.D. Hill. 1996. Chaetopterus - Oocyte maturation, early development and regeneration. wound healing following segment amputation in sabellid fanworms. Biol. Bull., 187: 253-254.
Hill, S.D., D.L. Beaver, P.E. Lederle and D.L. Herman. 1993. An investigation of the effect of ELF electromagnetic radiation on embryological development in free-living tree swallows, Tachycineta bicolor. In Electricity and Magnetism in Biology and Medicine. M. Blank (ed.), San Francisco Press, Inc., San Francisco, pp. 347-348.
Hill, S.D. and L. Nelson. 1992. Lindane (1,2,3,4,5,6-hexachlorocyclohexane) affects metamorphosis and settlement of larvae of Capitella species (Annelida, Polychaeta). Biol. Bull., 183: 376-377.
Hill, S.D., M.J. Ferkowicz, and J.P. Grassle. 1988. Effect of tail regeneration on early fecundity in Capitella sp. I and sp. II (Polychaeta). Biol. Bull., 175: 311-312.