Project description:Bathymodiolin mussels are a group of bivalves associated with deep-sea reducing habitats, such as hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. These mussels usually engage in an obligatory symbiosis with sulfur and/or methane oxidizing Gammaproteobacteria. In addition to these bacteria, Bathymodiolus heckerae that inhabit gas and oil seeps in Campeche Bay, the southern Gulf of Mexico, host bacteria phylogenetically with the Cycloclasticus genus. We recently discovered the capability for short-chain alkane degradation in draft genomes of symbiotic Cycloclasticus. With proteomics, we investigated whether the genes required for this process are expressed by the symbionts.
Project description:<p>Four species of phytoplankton representing important bloom-forming species from three globally important phyla (Bacillariophyta, Haptophyta, and Ochrophyte) were cultured in this study. These species include the cosmopolitan diatom <em>Chaetoceros affinis</em> CCMP159 (isolated from Great South Bay, NY, USA, 1958), the haptophytes<em> Chrysochromulina polylepis </em>CCMP1757 (isolated from the North Sea 1988) and <em>Gephyrocapsa oceanica</em> RCC1303 (isolated from Arachon Bay, France, Jan 1999), and the raphidophyte <em>Heterosigma akashiwo </em>strain CCMP 2393 (isolated from Rehoboth Bay, Delaware, USA). Cultures were grown under three conditions: nitrogen-stress, phosphorus-stress, and replete conditions. Intracellular metabolites were extracted from cultures and analyzed with targeted and untargeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomics methods.</p>
Project description:Here we developed a new high-throughput polymorphism detection and genotyping method based on identifying restriction cut site polymorphisms using a microarray platform. We compared the genomes of 20 individual urchins; 10 from the northern part of the species range (Boiler Bay, OR) and 10 from the southern part of the range (San Diego, CA).
