Dr. Marianne H. Donker

Education: MSc Ecotoxicology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 1987
PhD  Physiology of metal adaptation in the isopod Porcellio scaber. A research Programme financed by STW.

Short biography

Marianne Donker was born in 1960 in Hilversum, the Netherlands. She obtained her MSc in Ecotoxicology in 1987 and her PhD in 1992 at the department of Animal Ecology at the Vrije Universiteit (advisor Nico M van Straalen). She has worked as university lecturer at this department from 1992 till 1999 and the main focus of her research was on the role of metal binding proteins in the adaptation processes of soil animals. She participated in the EC project BIOPRINT (Biochemical Fingerprint Techniques as versatile tools for the risk assessment of chemicals in terrestrial invertebrates) and focused her research on biomarkers for environmental stress in the terrestrial environment.
After a car accident in 1999 she left research and focused her work on education. She participated in the development of a master programme at the department of  Biology and Society and recently started her position as a lecturer at the department of  Nutrition and Health.
  
 

Key Publications

• Donker M.H. , P. Koevoets, J.A.C. Verklij and N.M. van Straalen (1990) Metal binding  compounds in the hepatopancreas and haemolymph of Porcellio scaber (Isopoda) from contaminated and reference areas.Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 97C, 119-126.
• Donker M.H. and C.G. Bogert (1991) Adaptation to cadmium in three populations of the isopod Porcellio scaber. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 100C: 143-146.
• Donker M.H. (1992). Energy reserves and distribution of metals in populations of the isopod Porcellio scaber from metal contaminated sites. Functional Ecology 6,445-454.
• Donker M.H. van H.E. Capelleveen and N.M. Van Straalen (1993). Metal contamination affects size-structure and life-history dynamics in isopod field populations. In: Dallinger R. and Rainbow P.S.(eds),  Ecotoxicology of metals in invertebrates. Lewis Publishers, pp 383-399.
• Donker M.H. (1993) Early reproduction and increased reproducitve allocation in metal adapted populations of the terrestrial isopod Porcellio scaber. Oecologia 96, 316-323.
• Donker M.H.,  H.J.P. Eijsackers en F. Heimbach (1994) Ecotoxicology of Soil Organisms, Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton.
• Donker M.H., M. Raedecker and N.M. Van Straalen (1996) The role of zinc regulation in the zinc tolerance mechanism of the terrestrial isopod Porcellio scaber. Journal of Applied Ecology.33, 955-964.
• Donker M.H., Abdel-Lateif H.M, Khalil,  M.A., Bayoumi M.B., Van Straalen, N.M. (1998) Temperature, physiological time and zinc toxicity in the isopod Porcellio scaber. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 17, 1558-1563.
• Hensbergen P.J., Donker M.H., Van Velzen, M.J.M., Roelofs D., Van der Schors, R.C. van, Hunziker, P.E. and Van Straalen, N.M. (1999). Primary structure of cadmium-induced metallothionein from the insect Orchesella cincta. Eur. J. Biochem. 259, 197-203.
• Kammenga J.E., Weeks, J.M., Kohler H-R, Donker M.H., Dallinger R., Simonsen V. (2000). Biomarkers in the terrestrial invertebrates for ecotoxicological soil risk assessment. Rev. Envir. Cont. Tox. 164, 93-147.