Metallothionein in Marine Coccoid Cyanobacteria:
Cloning, Transcriptional Analyses and Application to the Assessment of Metal Stress in Natural Communities of Picoplankton in Chesapeake Bay
Determining whether or not chronic, sub-lethal concentrations of pollutants have subtle though significant effects on trophic level interactions in the Chesapeake Bay is extremely difficult. Traditional laboratory approaches to studying the sub-lethal stress on organisms do not seek to uncover the cellular mechanisms that such stresses exert.
In this project, Jonathan Kramer is employing the techniques of molecular toxicology to determine how toxics impact sub-cellular mechanisms in an important species of blue-green algae, cyanobacteria (commonly referred to as picoplankton), in the Bay. The microalgae being studied are common in the Bay, and at some seasons represent an important fraction of the phytoplankton.
An organism under chronic exposure to certain toxic trace metals will have a distinct genetic signature in the release of a protein called metallothionein. Moreover, they are unique in that-unlike most other organisms-they produce metallothionein only in response to metal exposure. The ability to recognize such signatures enables researchers to make sensitive measurements of cellular characteristics that indicate ongoing metal stress, an ability that could provide scientists and managers with a means for realistically assessing the effects of metal toxicity in the natural environment.
|
Jonathan G. Kramer
Center of Marine Biotechnology
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute
|
|
|
