Frontiers in Polar Biology in the Genomic Era (2003) / Chapter Skim
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All polar biological disciplines with applicability to polar regions, including systematics, microbiology, ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology, will be transformed by exploiting the new technologies available to biologists. These genomeenabled methods will allow us to examine the genomic structure of organisms and communities, monitor changes in the expression of genes, and obtain detailed images of how the physiologies of organisms are affected by natural or anthropogenic changes in the environment.
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examined the opportunities and challenges of using the new technologies and methods of biology to conduct research on key questions related to Arctic and Antarctic organisms. Specifically, the study committee was given the following charge: · Identify high-priority research questions that can benefit most from the new tools of biology in polar regions and recommend ways to facilitate and accelerate the transfer and use of genomic technologies to answer fundamental questions about Arctic and Antarctic organisms.
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The Arctic, in essence, is an icedominated ocean surrounded by large, continental landmasses with wide, shallow continental shelves; the Antarctic, on the other hand, is a glaciated continent featuring narrow, deep coastal margins and surrounded by an ice-covered ocean. Both polar ecosystems are predominantly cold, isolated, and subject to pronounced seasonal cycles of temperature and photoperiod.
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A major shaping force in the evolution of polar organisms and polar ecosystems was the development of the extreme physical conditions of the two polar regions, notably their very low temperatures. Polar species thus provide exceptional models for analyzing adaptive evolutionary change in extreme environments.
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The abilities of polar organisms to carry out the physiological and biochemical processes required for metabolism, growth, and reproduction under extreme climatic conditions are based on widespread adaptive change. Proteins, membranes, and other key biochemical components of polar species exhibit a broad suite of adaptations that may at once "fit" their biochemistry to polar conditions and at the same time limit their functional range to the extreme environments of the poles.
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· What is the lower temperature limit for evolving microbial life? · Can we exploit an understanding of microbial life in Earth's polar regions to design probes and experiments to detect potential life in extraterrestrial environments?
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The establishment of a Polar Genome Science Initiative would help address these research questions effectively. The Polar Genome Science Initiative would need to include the following aims: · generation of genetic and physical maps of genomes of selected polar species; · high-throughput sequencing of genomic DNA and expressed genes; · gene identification and annotation; · population analysis via single-nucleotide polymorphisms; and · transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and envirogenome analyses.
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Choices should be based on evidence that: interest. · analysis of its genome will address broad and significant scientific questions; · it is a good model for evolution in an isolated polar environment; · it provides opportunities for comparisons to organisms of comparable ecotype from polar habitats and along polar-to-temperate latitudinal clines; and/or · its cellular processes possess characteristics of biotechnological Monitoring physiological and biochemical processes of polar organisms and monitoring polar ecosystems are keys to linking data generated from a Polar Genome Science Initiative to understanding and predicting organismal and ecosystem responses to environmental changes.
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polar biologists access to Svalbard would provide new opportunities to study northern polar ecosystems. Due to the difficulties in conducting work during the dark, extremely harsh, polar winter, a substantial fraction of research activity in polar regions is restricted to the warmer parts of the year when the sun is above the horizon.
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In addition to increasing interactions between polar biologists and the broader community of biological scientists, continued efforts should be made to enhance the flow of information about polar biology to a wider audience because polar ecosystems play an important role in global-scale phenomena. Thus, what happens to organisms in polar ecosystems may have implications for biological processes in other terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
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should develop a major new initiative in polar genome sciences that emphasizes collaborative multidisciplinary research and coordinates research efforts. The Polar Genome Science Initiative could facilitate genome analyses of polar organisms and support the relevant research on their physiology, biochemistry, ecosystem function, and biotechnological applications.
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. Virtual Genome Science Centers Finding 3: Genomic technologies, both those currently available and those anticipated in the future, are applicable to some of the key questions in polar biology.
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The conduct of molecular research in the polar regions requires specific infrastructure, and there is no high-technology equipment for such work in the Arctic. Development of ice-drilling and clean-sampling technologies in the Antarctic will facilitate research in deep ice and subglacial lakes.
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NSF should conduct a brief survey of researchers and research groups who would potentially work in both poles to identify impediments and then take steps to address them. Recommendation 6-4: To facilitate integrated, multidisciplinary biological research at both poles, NSF will have to improve biological laboratories and research vessels, and develop ice-drilling resources in the polar regions.
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