Lina Nikoleris

I am the research administrator of the strategic research environment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate (BECC) and research coordinator of the strategic environment Modelling the Regional and Global Earth system (MERGE) at CEC.

becc.lu.se

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I have a background as a researcher within the areas of endocrine disrupters, environmental toxicology and reproductive endocrinology. I hold a PhD in Environmental Science from CEC on the topics of salmonid fish, hormonal contraceptives, endocrine disruption and societal awareness, topics that still hold a warm place in my heart.

My research interests focused on the sex hormone systems in aquatic ecosystem, especially the estrogen receptor system in fish. I was interested in evolutionary history as well as gene expression dynamic of hormone receptors and how gene activities are influenced by anthropogenic factors (e.g. environmental pollutant and sewage treatment plant effluents) throughout the life cycle.

More knowledge is needed about functions and activation of the estrogen receptor in economically important fish species such as salmon and trout, which are my primary target species. The salmonids are anadromous fish that can display very different life histories within the species. They have tetraploid genomes with numerous retained duplicated genes. This causes salmonids to have two or three gene copies of hormone receptors, which in other vertebrates would only be found in a single copy. How the high number of gene copies is involved in the complicated life histories of salmonids and affect the displayed high sensitivity to environmental pollutants seen in these species is currently unknown. Molecular analyses can reveal changes that affect important system such as reproduction and biotransformation processes.