National Institute of Oceanography Bruria Funkenstein bruria@ocean.org.il Tel: 04 – 8565233 Senior Scientist Ph.D. 1981, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel At IOLR since 1986

Research interests:
Studies related to growth regulation of marine fish at the molecular level with emphasis on the ontogeny of growth-related genes and use of biotechnological approaches to improve fish culture. Application of molecular and biochemical markers for endocrine disruption in the marine environment.

Selected publications:
Almuly, R., Skopal, T. and Funkenstein, B. (2008). Regulatory regions in the promoter and first intron of Sparus aurata growth hormone gene: repression of gene activity by a polymorphic minisatellite. Comp. Biochem. Physiol.(D). 3:43-50.

Funkenstein, B. and Rebhan, Y. (2007). Expression, purification, renaturation and activation of fish myostatin expressed in Escherichia coli: facilitation of refolding and activity inhibition by myostatin prodomain. Protein. Expr. Purif. 54:54-65.

Funkenstein, B., Balas, V., Skopal, T., Radaelli, G. and Rowlerson, A. (2006). Long-term culture of muscle explants from Sparus aurata. Tissue Cell 38:399-415.

Funkenstein, B., Dyman, A., Lapidot, Z., de Jesus-Ayson, E.G., Gertler, A. and Ayson, F.G. (2005). Expression and purification of a biologically active recombinant rabbitfish (Siganus guttatus) growth hormone. Aquaculture 250:504-515.

Almuly, R., Poleg-Danin, Y., Gorshkov, S., Gorshkova, G., Rapoport, B., Soller, M., Kashi, Y. and Funkenstein, B. (2005). Characterization of the 5prime flanking region of the growth hormone gene of the marine teleost, gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata: analysis of a polymorphic microsatellite in the proximal promoter. Fish. Sci. 71:479-490.

Funkenstein, B., Dyman, A., Levavi-Sivan, B. and Tom, M. (2004). Application of real-time PCR for quantitative determination of hepatic vitellogenin transcript levels in the striped sea bream, Lithognathus mormyrus. Mar. Environ. Res. 58:659-663.

Radaelli, G., Rowlerson, A., Mascarello, F. Patruno, M. and Funkenstein, B. (2003). Myostatin precursor is present in several tissues in teleost fish: a comparative immunolocalization study. Cell Tissue Res. 311:239-250.

Funkenstein, B., Bowman, C.J., Denslow, N.D., Cardinali, M. and Carnevali, O.
(2000). Contrasting effects of estrogen on transthyretin and vitellogenin expression in males of the marine fish, Sparus aurata. Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 167:33-41.

Funkenstein, B. (2000). Potential application of recombinant hormones and growth factors in fish culture. In: Recent Advances in Marine Biotechnology, Fingerman, M. and Nagabhushanam, R. (Eds), Vol. 4(B), USA & UK, Science Publishers, pp. 57-76.

Almuly, R., Cavari, B., Ferstman, H., Kolodny, O. and Funkenstein, B. (2000). Genomic structure and sequence of the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) growth hormone-encoding gene: identification of minisatellite polymorphism in intron I. Genome 43:836-845.