Mr Christopher Izzo

Biography/ Background

(Supervised by A/Prof Bronwyn Gillanders & Prof Stephen Donnellan)

TELOMERE BASED AGEING OF CHONDRICHTHYAN & TELEOST SPECIES

My current research aims to amend the shortcomings of the conventional increment based fish ageing technique, by exploiting natural chromosomal change as a mechanism for determining organismal age.

My project aims to assess the prevalence of the telomere length-age relationship in aquatic taxa, with a further emphasis on the use of non-lethally obtained tissues (i.e. blood & biopsy tissue) as a source of DNA. The precise nature of the telomere-age relationship will be investigated in a teleost, the Golden Perch, and two chondrichthyan species, the Port Jackson shark and the Southern Fiddler ray, in order to assess the utility of this methodology for fisheries science.

This research has the potential to provide an invaluable tool for fisheries conservation and management applications of endangered and exploited chondrichthyan and teleost species.

GENETIC POPULATION STRUCTURE OF THE PORT JACKSON SHARK

I am also investigating the population structure of the endemic Port Jackson shark across its entire southern Australian range, based on microsatellite and mitochondrial markers.

This research provides a unique opportunity to combine population structure modelling of Port Jackson sharks based on the derived data, with current fisheries based research in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. The combined analyses and modelling of all these facets of the biology and ecology of Port Jackson sharks will provide a sound understanding of this species across its entire range and possibly represents the first such endeavour for any chondrichthyan species.

Professional Associations

Oceania Chondrichthyan Society Inc.
Australian Society for Fish Biology
Flinders University Marine Biology Association

Qualifications

Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology, with first class honours, at Flinders University of Adelaide, Australia (2001 - 2005)

Research Interests

My primary research interests are in the taxonomy and the fundamental biology of Australia chondrichthyan [sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras] species. I am particularly interested in the area of life history analysis in relation to identifying those potential chondrichthyan species that are at risk to fisheries exploitation.

Publications

Tovar-Avila, J., IZZO, C., Walker, T. I., Braccini, J. M. and Day, R. W. (2007). Dorsal-fin spine growth model for Heterodontus portusjacksoni: a general model that applies to dorsal-fin spines of chondrichthyans? Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 65, 1: 74-82.

IZZO, C., Rodda, K. and T. Bolton. (2007). Incorporation time of oxytetracycline into calcified structures of the elasmobranch Heterodontus portusjacksoni. Journal of Fish Biology 71: 1208-1214.

IZZO, C., Rodda, K., Bolton, T. and I. Svane. (2006). Age and growth the Port Jackson shark (Heterodontus portusjacksoni) from the Spencer Gulf of South Australia. In: Prawn Fishery By-catch and Discards: marine ecosystem analysis - populations effects. I. Svane (ed). Final Report on FRDC Project 2003/023.

Entry last updated: Thursday, 31 Jul 2008