Prashant P. Sharma

Prashant P. Sharma
Born (1984-03-15) March 15, 1984
EducationAB, Harvard University; PhD, Harvard University

Prashant P. Sharma is an Indian-American invertebrate biologist and a professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[1]

Education

Sharma attended Harvard University and completed his undergraduate training in 2006. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2012. He was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History.

Career

Sharma joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015. His research group works on phylogenomics, evolutionary developmental biology, and comparative genomics of ancient invertebrate groups, with emphasis on chelicerate arthropods. He is the director of the Zoological Museum of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received a distinguished Class of 1955 Teaching Excellence Award and a James R. Underkofler Teaching Excellent Award.[2][3][4]

His early work focused on the systematics and biogeography of the armored harvestmen (Laniatores) from the South Pacific. In 2011, he described three new families of harvestmen from the Paleotropics and showed that one family of armored harvestmen is capable of extreme dispersal, in contrast to the rest of this arachnid order.[5] His research group later discovered a suborder of fossil daddy-long-legs with four eyes called Tetraophthalmi, whereas all living species only have two eyes.[6][7]

His group is best known for using genome duplications to understand the relationships of arachnids. He proposed a grouping of arachnids with book lungs as well as pseudoscorpions, which is called "Arachnopulmonata" and is united by a shared whole genome duplication.[8][9][10][11] He proposed that horseshoe crabs are part of Arachnida and that arachnids independently colonized land more than once,[12] using both genomes and fossils.[9][11] His team sequenced the first chromosome-level genome of sea spiders and showed that they lack abdomens because of gene loss.[13]

He has contributed to the understanding of phylogenetic relationships of minor chelicerate orders, especially scorpions. His team's research led to a modern classification of scorpion families based on genome-scale data[14][15]. He showed that the diversification of scorpions' mammal-targeting venom peptides is relatively recent and coincided with the diversification of mammal orders[16]. His group generated the first phylogenetic tree of Solifugae (sun spiders) and established two suborders to accommodate their relationships[17]. He applied phylogenomic tools to create a robust phylogenetic tree for Pycnogonida (sea spiders) and showed that they have weathered mass extinction events better than most marine invertebrates[18]. In addition, he led efforts to establish the first molecular phylogeny of Amblypygi (whip spiders), through the rediscovery of a relictual lineage called Paracharontidae after over a century.[19]

His laboratory works on the genetics and development of daddy-long-legs (Opiliones or "harvestmen") and spiders. He previously showed that spiders recycled leg-patterning genes to make the segments of their heads, an example of an evolutionary process called cooption.[20][21] His team later showed that a gene duplicate restricted to Arachnopulmonata is responsible for making all eye types of spiders.[22] His group sequenced the first Opiliones genome and created "daddy-short-legs" using gene silencing to understand how daddy-long-legs make their long legs.[23][24] He also showed that modern daddy-long-legs have six eyes, contrary to the textbook understanding of Opiliones vision.[25]

Eponyms

The following species are named after Sharma.

References

  1. ↑ "New professor turns to arachnids to solve evolutionary puzzles | College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison". ls.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  2. ↑ Auger, Ian (2023-01-30). "UW awards Distinguished Teaching Awards to twelve faculty". The Badger Herald. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  3. ↑ "Meet the 2023 Distinguished Teaching Award recipients". news.wisc.edu. 6 April 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  4. ↑ "Alliant Energy | James R. Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Awards". Awards & Grants. 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  5. ↑ "Arachnids crossed the Pacific". Nature. 485 (7400): 550. May 2012. doi:10.1038/485550a. ISSN 0028-0836.
  6. ↑ Blaszczak-Boxe,LiveScience, Agata. "Four-Eyed 'Daddy Longlegs' Fossil Discovered". Scientific American. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  7. ↑ "Daddy longlegs once had four eyes, research says". PBS NewsHour. 2014-04-11. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  8. ↑ Sharma, Prashant P.; Kaluziak, Stefan T.; Pérez-Porro, Alicia R.; González, Vanessa L.; Hormiga, Gustavo; Wheeler, Ward C.; Giribet, Gonzalo (November 2014). "Phylogenomic Interrogation of Arachnida Reveals Systemic Conflicts in Phylogenetic Signal". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 31 (11): 2963–2984. doi:10.1093/molbev/msu235. ISSN 1537-1719. PMID 25107551.
  9. 1 2 Ballesteros, Jesús A; Sharma, Prashant P (2019-11-01). Halanych, Ken (ed.). "A Critical Appraisal of the Placement of Xiphosura (Chelicerata) with Account of Known Sources of Phylogenetic Error". Systematic Biology. 68 (6): 896–917. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syz011. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 30917194.
  10. ↑ Ontano, Andrew Z; Gainett, Guilherme; Aharon, Shlomi; Ballesteros, Jesús A; Benavides, Ligia R; Corbett, Kevin F; Gavish-Regev, Efrat; Harvey, Mark S; Monsma, Scott; Santibáñez-López, Carlos E; Setton, Emily V W; Zehms, Jakob T; Zeh, Jeanne A; Zeh, David W; Sharma, Prashant P (2021-05-19). Pupko, Tal (ed.). "Taxonomic Sampling and Rare Genomic Changes Overcome Long-Branch Attraction in the Phylogenetic Placement of Pseudoscorpions". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 38 (6): 2446–2467. doi:10.1093/molbev/msab038. ISSN 1537-1719. PMC 8136511. PMID 33565584.
  11. 1 2 Ballesteros, Jesús A; Santibáñez-López, Carlos E; Baker, Caitlin M; Benavides, Ligia R; Cunha, Tauana J; Gainett, Guilherme; Ontano, Andrew Z; Setton, Emily V W; Arango, Claudia P; Gavish-Regev, Efrat; Harvey, Mark S; Wheeler, Ward C; Hormiga, Gustavo; Giribet, Gonzalo; Sharma, Prashant P (2022-02-03). Teeling, Emma (ed.). "Comprehensive Species Sampling and Sophisticated Algorithmic Approaches Refute the Monophyly of Arachnida". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 39 (2) msac021. doi:10.1093/molbev/msac021. ISSN 0737-4038. PMC 8845124. PMID 35137183.
  12. ↑ Greenwood, Veronique (2022-02-18). "Act of 'Heresy' Adds Horseshoe Crabs to Arachnid Family Tree". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  13. ↑ Greenwood, Veronique (2025-07-02). "Sea Spiders Lack a Key Body Part and a Missing Gene Could Explain Why". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  14. ↑ Sharma, Prashant P.; Fernández, Rosa; Esposito, Lauren A.; González-Santillán, Edmundo; Monod, Lionel (2015-04-07). "Phylogenomic resolution of scorpions reveals multilevel discordance with morphological phylogenetic signal". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 282 (1804) 20142953. Bibcode:2015PBioS.28242953S. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2953. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 4375871. PMID 25716788.
  15. ↑ Santibáñez-López, Carlos E; Aharon, Shlomi; Ballesteros, Jesús A; Gainett, Guilherme; Baker, Caitlin M; González-Santillán, Edmundo; Harvey, Mark S; Hassan, Mohamed K; Abu Almaaty, Ali Hussein; Aldeyarbi, Shorouk Mohamed; Monod, Lionel; Ojanguren-Affilastro, Andrés; Pinto-da-Rocha, Ricardo; Zvik, Yoram; Gavish-Regev, Efrat (2022-11-01). "Phylogenomics of Scorpions Reveal Contemporaneous Diversification of Scorpion Mammalian Predators and Mammal-Active Sodium Channel Toxins". Systematic Biology. 71 (6): 1281–1289. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syac021. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 35348798.
  16. ↑ "Scorpions' venomous threat to mammals a relatively new evolutionary step". News. 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  17. ↑ Kulkarni, Siddharth S.; Steiner, Hugh G.; Garcia, Erika L.; Iuri, Hernán; Jones, R. Ryan; Ballesteros, Jesús A.; Gainett, Guilherme; Graham, Matthew R.; Harms, Danilo; Lyle, Robin; Ojanguren-Affilastro, Andrés A.; Santibañez-López, Carlos E.; Silva de Miranda, Gustavo; Cushing, Paula E.; Gavish-Regev, Efrat (September 2023). "Neglected no longer: Phylogenomic resolution of higher-level relationships in Solifugae". iScience. 26 (9) 107684. Bibcode:2023iSci...26j7684K. doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107684. ISSN 2589-0042. PMC 10484990. PMID 37694155.
  18. ↑ "Creepy sea spiders have evolved to be tough". www.science.org. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  19. ↑ de Miranda, Gustavo S; Kulkarni, Siddharth S; Tagliatela, Jéssica; Baker, Caitlin M; Giupponi, Alessandro P L; Labarque, Facundo M; Gavish-Regev, Efrat; Rix, Michael G; Carvalho, Leonardo S; Fusari, Lívia Maria; Harvey, Mark S; Wood, Hannah M; Sharma, Prashant P (2024-05-01). "The Rediscovery of a Relict Unlocks the First Global Phylogeny of Whip Spiders (Amblypygi)". Systematic Biology. 73 (3): 495–505. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syae021. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 38733598.
  20. ↑ "Leg genes give spiders segmented heads". cosmosmagazine.com. 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  21. ↑ Setton, Emily V. W.; Sharma, Prashant P. (2018-04-10). "Cooption of an appendage-patterning gene cassette in the head segmentation of arachnids". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (15): E3491–E3500. Bibcode:2018PNAS..115E3491S. doi:10.1073/pnas.1720193115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5899462. PMID 29581309.
  22. ↑ Gainett, Guilherme; Ballesteros, Jesús A.; Kanzler, Charlotte R.; Zehms, Jakob T.; Zern, John M.; Aharon, Shlomi; Gavish-Regev, Efrat; Sharma, Prashant P. (December 2020). "Systemic paralogy and function of retinal determination network homologs in arachnids". BMC Genomics. 21 (1): 811. doi:10.1186/s12864-020-07149-x. ISSN 1471-2164. PMC 7681978. PMID 33225889.
  23. ↑ Wu, Katherine J. (2021-08-03). "You've Never Seen Legs Like These". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  24. ↑ "How the daddy-long-legs gets long legs". Nature. 596 (7871): 167. 2021-08-05. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-02127-z.
  25. ↑ Greenwood, Veronique (2024-03-01). "Daddy Longlegs Have Been Hiding Extra Eyes From Us". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  26. ↑ Selden, Paul A.; Dunlop, Jason A.; Giribet, Gonzalo; Zhang, Weiwei; Ren, Dong (2016-10-01). "The oldest armoured harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones: Laniatores), from Upper Cretaceous Myanmar amber". Cretaceous Research. 65: 206–212. Bibcode:2016CrRes..65..206S. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2016.05.004. ISSN 0195-6671.
  27. ↑ Australia, Atlas of Living. "Species: Austropurcellia sharmai". bie.ala.org.au. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
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