NSF funds collaborative effort to identify genes supporting life in extreme conditions

In search of the genes that support life in extreme environments, researchers at the University of Miami (UM) are participants in a collaborative grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to sequence the genome of the Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus), a species known to have evolved extremely high tolerance to dangerous pollutants and to different thermal environments. Information on how these fish tolerate polluted or warm ocean water inform us on man's impact on the earth and global warming.

The collaboration, led by LSU Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Andrew Whitehead, includes Douglas Crawford and Marjorie Oleksiak from UM's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science; Joe Shaw and John Colbourne from Indiana University; Wes Warren of The Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis; and Mark Hahn from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in partnership with the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory.

The Atlantic killifish has a rich history as a useful model for research on how organisms respond to changes in the environment. Drs. Oleksiak and Crawford created one of the first databases on expression of 1,000 of genes for killifish and used it to discern that certain populations of this fish have rapidly and repeatedly evolved extreme tolerance to the chemicals that pollute some estuaries along the Atlantic coast. Sequencing the genome of these fish will provide answers to how these fish survive and thrive in such stressful and normally lethal environments.

This new research aims to sequence the entire genome of the Atlantic killifish to provide a reference that can then be compared to the sequences generated from multiple other populations. This work will help guide the discovery of the genes and genetic changes that facilitate the dramatic evolution of pollution tolerance observed among the various populations of Atlantic killifish.

A complete genome sequence for the Atlantic killifish - with its many beneficial physiological and ecological characteristics - will also provide a critical research resource for the broader scientific community. Studying the genome of this fish promises to accelerate and advance our understanding of the wider genetic and historical determinants of health and disease within a changing environment for both wild species and humans.

Provided by University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science