Researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) have announced plans to perform the first metagenomic analysis of organisms living within Antarctic sea-ice.
For many years, researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany have been studying polar and marine environments to improve understanding of ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions and the animal and plant kingdoms of the Arctic and Antarctic.
This particular project will be led by Klaus Valentin and his colleague Thomas Mock from the University of East Anglia, who will use the award sequencing received as a runner-up winner for the 10 Gigabase Grant Program from 454 Life Sciences, a Roche company.
Metagenomic sequencing, which allows researchers to obtain a detailed view into the phylogenetic composition and functional diversity within a complex sample, has been enabled by 454 Sequencing Systems in recent years.
Previously performed projects at the Alfred Wegener Institute and University of East Anglia have completed the genome sequence of a sea-ice alga and a bacterium.
Moreover, they sequenced transcriptomes of sea-ice species and communities - the goal of these studies was to decode the active genes contributing to the genetic adaptation of these species to the extreme Antarctic environment.
As part of their new metagenomic study, the researchers plan to analyse the complete set of organisms found in the ice and hope to find genes that are 'turned off' within the organisms.
Valentin said: 'In order to gain knowledge about the potentials that slumber in the genome, we will sequence both active and inactive genes.
'If environmental factors such as temperature, carbon dioxide concentration or light intensity change in the future, it is important to know which genomic potentials polar biocoenoses have to resist the climatic change.' During the past several decades, climate change has had a tremendous impact on polar ecosystems, including sea ice, forests and tundra.
As polar temperatures rise, the plant, animal, and bacterial species that inhabit the regions are forced to either adapt to the environmental changes or perish.
The 454 Sequencing System for ultra-high throughput DNA sequencing is also used for applications such as de novo sequencing and re-sequencing of genomes, metagenomics, RNA analysis and targeted sequencing of DNA regions of interest.
The hallmarks of the 454 Sequencing System are its simple unbiased sample-preparation and long, highly accurate sequence reads, including paired-end reads.
The technology of the 454 Sequencing System has enabled hundreds of peer-reviewed studies in diverse research fields such as cancer and infectious-disease research, drug discovery, marine biology, anthropology, paleontology and more.
