Research and Teaching Interests
Animals are in many ways a product of their environment. Especially at the level of metabolism, where biology and chemistry meet and molecules are broken down and reassembled to meet the needs of cellular function.
In animals, mitochondria are central to the conversion of metabolites for use in the energy demanding processes required for survival and growth. Environmental characteristics, such as temperature, water availability and quality of food, influence how an animal must budget its available energy.
My research studies how external factors can influence the demands placed on physiological and biochemical systems. I am also interested in how the capacity to respond at the ‘small scale’, for example at the mitochondrial level, may influence whole animal responses to external challenge.
Ongoing Projects
- The balance between mitochondrial bioenergetics, reactive oxygen species production and consumption
- Strategies for non-lethal evaluation of wild fish population physiology and biochemical disruption
- Dietary sulfur amino acid (methionine) intake and oxidative metabolism
Graduate Student Opportunities
Highly motivated students interested in embarking on graduate level studies on i) comparative mitochondrial biochemistry or ii) the influence of environmental factors like temperature or food quality/quantity on metabolism are encouraged to contact me directly by email. Please include some details of your research interests and relevant experience.
Undergraduate Opportunities
I am always interested in discussing potential research opportunities with motivated undergraduate students.
Research Interests
Physiology, Comparative metabolic biochemistry, mitochondrial metabolism and function, nutritional modulation of physiology and energy balance, reactive oxygen species, envrionmental influences on metabolism, Representative experimental species include: teleost and elasmobranch fishes, rodent models of nutritional biochemistry, molluscs (freshwater, marine and terrestrial)
Publications:
- Benjamin C Kissinger, Jason Bystriansky, Nick Czehryn, Eva C Enders, Jason Treberg, James D Reist, Emily Whitmore, W Gary Anderson (2017). Environment-phenotype interactions: Influences of brackish-water rearing on lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) physiology. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 1-18.
- D Munro, JR Treberg (2017). A radical shift in perspective: mitochondria as regulators of reactive oxygen species. J. Exp. Biol. 220, 1170-1180.
- Aida Adlimoghaddam, Michael J O’Donnell, Jay Kormish, Sheena Banh, Jason R Treberg, David Merz, Dirk Weihrauch (2016). Ammonia excretion in Caenorhabditis elegans: physiological and molecular characterization of the rhr-2 knock-out mutant.Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology 195, 46-54.
- D Munro, S Banh, E Sotiri, N Tamanna, JR Treberg (2016). The thioredoxin and glutathione-dependent H 2 O 2 consumption pathways in muscle mitochondria: Involvement in H 2 O 2 metabolism and consequence to H 2 O 2 efflux assays. Free Radical Biology and Medicine 96, 334-346.
- JR Treberg, B Speers-Roesch (2016). Does the physiology of chondrichthyan fishes constrain their distribution in the deep sea?. J. Exp. Biol. 219, 615-625.
- JR Treberg, SS Killen, TJ MacCormack, SG Lamarre, EC Enders (2016). Estimates of metabolic rate and major constituents of metabolic demand in fishes under field conditions: Methods, proxies, and new perspectives. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiologt 202, 10-22.
- RJ Mailloux, JR Treberg (2016). Protein S-glutathionlyation links energy metabolism to redox signaling in mitochondria. Redox Biology 8, 110-118.
- S Banh, L Wiens, E Sotiri, JR Treberg (2016). Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production by fish muscle mitochondria: Potential role in acute heat-induced oxidative stress. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 191, 99-107.
- Treberg JR (2016). There was more to osmolyte selection than just osmotic balance. J. Exp. Biol. 218, 3532-3533.
- AR Quijada-Rodriguez, JR Treberg, D Weihrauch (2015). Mechanism of ammonia excretion in the freshwater leech Nephelopsis obscura: characterization of a primitive Rh protein and effects of high environmental ammonia. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 309, R692-R705.
- JR Treberg, D Munro, S Banh, P Zacharias, E Sotiri (2015). Differentiating between apparent and actual rates of H 2 O 2 metabolism by isolated rat muscle mitochondria to test a simple model of mitochondria as regulators of H 2 O 2 concentration. Redox Biology 5, 216-224.
- Banh S, Treberg JR. (2013). The pH sensitivity of H2O2 metabolism in skeletal muscle mitochondria. FEBS Letters 587, 1799-1804.
- Cruz MJ, Sourial MM, Treberg JR, Fehsenfeld S, Adlimoghaddam A, Weihrauch D. (2013). Cutaneous nitrogen excretion in the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis: effects of high environmental ammonia (HEA). Aquatic Toxicology 136, 1-12.
- Quinlan CL, Orr AL, Perevoshchikova IV, Treberg JR, Ackrell BA, Brand MD. (2012). Mitochondrial Complex II Can Generate Reactive Oxygen Species at High Rates in Both the Forward and Reverse Reactions. J. Biol. Chem. 287, 27255-64.
- Quinlan CL, Treberg JR, Perevoshchikova IV, Orr AL, Brand MD. (2012). Native rates of superoxide production from multiple sites in isolated mitochondria measured using endogenous reporters. Free Radic Biol Med. 53, 1807-1817.
- Treberg JR, Stacey JE, Driedzic WR. (2012). Vanadium accumulation in ascidian coelomic cells is associated with enhanced pentose phosphate pathway capacity but not overall aerobic or anaerobic metabolism. Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol. 161, 323-330.
- Quinlan CL, Gerencser AA, Treberg JR, Brand MD. (2011). The mechanism of superoxide production by the antimycin-inhibited mitochondrial Q-cycle. Journal of Biological Chemistry 286, 31361-31372.
- Treberg JR, Brand MD. (2011). A model of the proton translocation mechanism of complex I. Journal of Biological Chemistry 286, 17579-17584.
- Treberg JR, Quinlan CL, Brand MD. (2011). Evidence for two sites of superoxide production by mitochondrial NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (complex I). Journal of Biological Chemistry 286, 27103-27110.
- Speers-Roesch B, Treberg JR. (2010). The unusual energy metabolism of elasmobranch fishes. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 155, 417-434.
- Treberg JR, Brosnan ME, Watford M, Brosnan JT. (2010). On the reversibility of glutamate dehydrogenase and the source of hyperammonemia in the hyperinsulinism/hyperammonemia syndrome. Advances in Enzyme Regulation 50, 34-43.
- Treberg JR, Clow KA, Greene KA, Brosnan ME, Brosnan JT. (2010). Systemic activation of glutamate dehydrogenase increases renal ammoniagenesis: implications for the hyperinsulinism/hyperammonemia syndrome. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 298, E1219-1225.
- Treberg JR, Quinlan CL, Brand MD. (2010). Hydrogen peroxide efflux from muscle mitochondria underestimates matrix superoxide production–a correction using glutathione depletion. FEBS Journal 277, 2766-2778.
- Clow KA, Treberg JR, Brosnan ME, Brosnan JT. (2008). Elevated tissue betaine contents in developing rats are due to dietary betaine, not to synthesis. Journal of Nutrition 138, 1641-1646.
- Treberg JR, Driedzic WR. (2007). The accumulation and synthesis of betaine in winter skate (Leucoraja ocellata). Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 147, 475-483.
- Treberg JR, MacCormack TJ, Lewis JM, Almeida-Val VM, Val AL, Driedzic WR. (2007). Intracellular glucose and binding of hexokinase and phosphofructokinase to particulate fractions increase under hypoxia in heart of the amazonian armored catfish (Liposarcus pardalis). Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 80, 542-550.
- Treberg JR, Crockett EL, Driedzic WR. (2006). Activation of liver carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 and mitochondrial acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase is associated with elevated ketone body levels in the elasmobranch Squalus acanthias. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 79, 899-908.
- Treberg JR, Driedzic WR. (2006). Maintenance and accumulation of trimethylamine oxide by winter skate (Leucoraja ocellata): reliance on low whole animal losses rather than synthesis. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 191, R1790-1798.
- Treberg JR, Speers-Roesch B, Piermarini PM, Ip YK, Ballantyne JS, Driedzic WR. (2006). The accumulation of methylamine counteracting solutes in elasmobranchs with differing levels of urea: a comparison of marine and freshwater species. Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 860-870.
- Treberg JR, Bystriansky JS, Driedzic WR. (2005). Temperature effects on trimethylamine oxide accumulation and the relationship between plasma concentration and tissue levels in smelt (Osmerus mordax). J Exp Zool A Comp Exp Biol. 303, 283-293.
- Treberg JR, Hall JR, Driedzic WR. (2005). Enhanced protein synthetic capacity in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is associated with temperature-induced compensatory growth. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 288, R205-R211.
- Treberg JR, Martin RA, Driedzic WR. (2003). Muscle enzyme activities in a deep-sea squaloid shark, Centroscyllium fabricii, compared with its shallow-living relative, Squalus acanthias. J Exp Zool A Comp Exp Biol. 300, 133-139.
- Treberg JR, Driedzic WR. (2002). Elevated levels of trimethylamine oxide in deep-sea fish: evidence for synthesis and intertissue physiological importance. J Exp Zool. 293, 39-45.
- Treberg JR, Lewis JM, Driedzic WR. (2002). Comparison of liver enzymes in osmerid fishes: key differences between a glycerol accumulating species, rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax), and a species that does not accumulate glycerol, capelin (Mallotus villosus). Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 132, 433-8.
- Treberg JR, Wilson CE, Richards RC, Ewart KV, Driedzic WR. (2002). The freeze-avoidance response of smelt Osmerus mordax: initiation and subsequent suppression of glycerol, trimethylamine oxide and urea accumulation. Journal of Experimental Biology 205, 1419-1427.