Molecular Biology in Marine Science Scientific Questions, Technological Approaches, and Practical Implications (1994) / Chapter Skim
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4 Marine Organisms as Model Systems
4 Marine Organisms as Model Systems
Pages 39-48
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From page 39... ...
, some yet to be defined. Although automated identification of many marine taxa and assessment of functional diversity appears achievable (see Chapter al, determination of the physiological status of marine organisms and the development of biological sensors is presently limitecl by the lack of fundamental information on the physiology, cell biology, and molecular biology of these organisms.
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From page 40... ...
ORGANISM BIOLOGICAL SYSTEM Ctenophores Squid Sea snails Sea urchin embryos Clam, sea urchin, and tunicate eggs Abalone and sea urchin gametes SharI |
From page 41... ...
Although major advances have been made in our uncierstanrding, much remains obscure on how genes determine biological functions, how they generate biological structures and materials, and how they control acclimation and adaptation. Among the most serious and general practical failures that will occur if our level of basic i |
From page 42... ...
Nerve cells communicate by releasing chemicals called neurotransmitters from a specialized structure called a synapse. The density of synapses in the marine ray electric organ is about JOO times the concentration in human muscle and allowed the purification of a large variety of the molecules that comprise the synapse.
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From page 43... ...
The union of these disciplines will require advanced molecular techniques now being developed that will enable identification, isolation, and analysis of i |
From page 44... ...
Developmental gene regulation has been intensely studied in the sea urchin embryo, because of the practical advantages afforded by the availability of immense numbers of synchronously developing embryos; their permeability to radioisotopes; the ease of exogenous gene transfer into these eggs; accessibility to a variety of optical, cytological, biochemical, and molecular technologies; and because of their particularly simple, straightforward, early developmental process. Research on sea urchins demonstrates the type of approaches that could be extended to other organisms.
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From page 45... ...
systems should include some or all of the following, as appropriate: egg-to-egg laboratory culture must be feasible and not technically difficult; gene transfer into the egg should be possible; embryonic and other stages of material should be available in quantity; the material should be accessible for molecular biology, that is, it should be easy to prepare nucleic acids, nuclear extracts, ceil types, mRNA; and clusters of evolutionarily related but morphologically distinct species should be available. At present, sea urchins and some te~eost fish are the best known, but many additional invertebrate marine models need to be developed, including marine anne~ids, mollusI |
From page 46... ...
These technologies are based fundamentally on recombinant DNA procedures for isolating, cloning, characterizing, and expressing genes and their products; on application of nucleic acid and protein physical chemistry; on the availability of a series of meclium-~eve! expensive instruments, including protein microsequencers, f~uorimetry, spectrophotometers, DNA sequencers, PCR machines, and phosphorimaging devices; and on optical equipment capable of image processing, such as videomicroscope image processors equipped with fluorescent and differential interference contrast optics.
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From page 47... ...
However, for both biotechnological and basic research purposes this is an essential area, because cultured cells provide enormous opportunities for experimental manipulation, expression cloning, cell genetics, and tests of molecular function of all kinds. Gene transfer systems that are easy and sufficient exist so far only for some teleost fish and for sea urchin eggs.
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