Descripción del proyecto
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PERTURBATIONS INTRODUCED BY MAN IN MARINE ECOSYSTEMS OFTEN GENERATE SIGNIFICANT PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS ON BENTHIC ORGANISMS, THIS STRESS MAY CONTRIBUTE TO DROP OFF THEIR FITNESS AND REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS, HAMPER GENE FLOW AMONG POPULATIONS, AND LOWER GENETIC DIVERSITY, ALL OF WHICH MAY RESULT IN POPULATION AND COMMUNITY SHIFTS, AND EVEN LEAD TO SPECIES EXTINCTION, THE GLOBAL OBJECTIVE IS TO STUDY CHANGES IN THE MARINE BENTHOS, RELATED TO PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS, USING NOVEL MOLECULAR TOOLS, THE STUDY OF THE MAIN STRESSORS ON THE FITNESS OF SELECTED BENTHIC ORGANISMS WILL HELP IN PREDICTING FUTURE IMPACTS IN BENTHIC ECOSYSTEMS WITH SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS (ECOSYSTEM SERVICES), THE STUDY WILL FOCUS ON THREE LEVELS OF BIOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION: ORGANISMS, POPULATIONS, AND COMMUNITIES, WE WILL USE PARTICULAR MOLECULAR AND ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR EACH ORGANIZATION LEVEL: DIFFERENTIAL GENE EXPRESSION AND RESPONSE TO STRESSORS (ORGANISM), SNPS/MICROSATELLITES/SEQUENCES (POPULATION), ENVIRONMENTAL DNA (COMMUNITY), FOCUSING ON A SET OF REPRESENTATIVE SPECIES AND COMMUNITIES, WE ALSO ATTEMPT AT VALIDATING THE BENTHOS RESPONSES TO THE INTRODUCED CHANGES, ASSESSED BY MOLECULAR TOOLS, BY BIOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL STUDIES,AT THE ORGANISM LEVEL, WE PLAN TO OBTAIN BY PYROSEQUENCING (LONG READS) THE TRANSCRIPTOME OF TWO TARGET SPECIES IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY GENES THAT COULD BE UP-REGULATED OR DOWN-REGULATED UNDER STRESS, THEN, BY EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES AND USING SHORTER READ TECHNOLOGIES (ILLUMINA), WE WILL QUANTIFY DIFFERENTIAL MULTI-GENE EXPRESSION UNDER THERMAL, ACIDIFICATION, AND POLLUTION STRESSES, IN POPULATION STUDIES, WE ATTEMPT TO ANALYSE NEW TARGET SPECIES BESIDES EXPLORING NEW POLYMORPHIC MARKERS, WE WILL OBTAIN ESTIMATES OF GENETIC DIVERSITY, DIVERGENCE AND CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF INVERTEBRATES AND FISHES FOR ASSESSING POPULATION VULNERABILITY, LOCAL ADAPTATION WILL BE INFERRED FROM GENETIC, MORPHOMETRIC AND DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION STUDIES ON SELECTED SPECIES, TEMPORAL VARIABILITY IN POPULATION DYNAMICS WILL BE USED AS A BASELINE FOR IDENTIFYING CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSORS, MOREOVER, ACCURATE INFORMATION WILL BE OBTAINED FROM PARENTAGE ANALYSIS IN A FISH SPECIES BY USING SNPS, WHICH ALLOWS DETERMINATION OF THE NATAL ORIGIN OF EACH INDIVIDUAL, FACILITATING THE KNOWLEDGE OF CONNECTIVITY AMONG POPULATIONS AT A VERY FINE SCALE,AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL, WE WILL APPLY TAG-PYROSEQUENCING TO THE STUDY OF METAZOAN COMMUNITIES OF MARINE SEDIMENTS, THIS APPROACH WILL PROVIDE AN IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXISTING DIVERSITY, WE WILL PERFORM A COMPARISON BETWEEN NATURAL AND PERTURBED COMMUNITIES TO IDENTIFY THE SENSITIVE GROUPS, FURTHERMORE, AS APPLICATION OF TAG-PYROSEQUENCING TO METAZOAN COMMUNITIES HAS NOT BEEN DONE BEFORE, WE EXPECT TO CONTRIBUTE HEAVILY ON THE METHODOLOGICAL SIDE,TO SUMMARISE, WE WILL IMPLEMENT NEW METHODS AND PROTOCOLS FOR ASSESSMENT OF THE VULNERABILITY OF THE BENTHOS AT THE THREE STUDY LEVELS, WE WILL ESTABLISH GENERAL TRENDS IN THE RESPONSE OF THE DIFFERENT GROUPS TO STRESSORS AND WILL IDENTIFY INDICATOR GENE FAMILIES OF GENERAL APPLICABILITY, WE WILL ALSO DETERMINE GENERAL PATTERNS AND BARRIERS TO GENE FLOW IN THE AREA, AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO CONSERVATION POLICIES, ESTRES AMBIENTAL\VULNERABILIDAD DEL BENTOS\ASPECTOS BIOLOGICOS\GENETICA DE POBLACIONES\SECUENCIACION MASIVA\EXPRESION GENICA\TAXOGENOMICA\ADAPTACION LOCAL\ANALISIS DE PARENTESCO\MORTALIDAD DIFERENCIAL