Fall 11 Epigenetics and aquatic life

-

 Epigenetics influences more than just humans. Aquatic life also have their own epigenome. The microbes, fish, mammals, etc. all rely on a healthy epigenome to regulate their cells. Like ours, aquatic life's epigenome can be altered by their environment. 

One factor is their surrounding temperature, which is being impacted by overall climate change. As ocean temperatures change, the organisms epigenome can be altered. 

Another factor is pollution. Toxic chemicals from oil spills, discarded medications, or microplastics can change the epigenome. This in turn affects their ability to function, survive, and procreate, devastating microbial populations. 

Why is this important? 

  1. Much of the worlds oxygen is produced from microbes in the water.
  2. Greenhouse gases are partially regulated by these microbes. 
  3. Changes in epigenome can affect microbial populations and their ability to function.
  4. Fewer microbes means less oxygen and more greenhouse gases.
  5. Fewer microbes also means fewer fish (which we eat), because fish rely on microbes for food.
  6. Changes in greenhouse gas processing changes ocean temperatures
  7. The change in ocean temperature affects currents and sea levels
  8. All of these changes affect the rest of our planets climate, such as rain fall, wind, and erosion. This affects land based life, including humans, and our ability to grow food.
In short, our climate and food are greatly impacted by the epigenetic health of aquatic life. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASU Week 1

-
 Do you feel you have a more malleable/growth mindset, or a fixed mindset?      I am not sure how to answer this. I am very fixed with some things, and malleable with others. I am not afraid to learn when it comes to things like science, although I can get particular about knowing all the rules or expectations, and sometimes get stuck. I can go to a foreign city, or in the middle of a jungle, and feel very comfortable in unfamiliar territory. If I am fixing a machine, I see it as a challenge and growth opportunity when I don't find the problem right away. In other areas I definitely have a fixed mindset. Language, for instance, has never been easy for me, and I resist learning. I took Spanish for 4 years and it did not "speak to me." I didn't like it at all. Now I hear people telling me how I need to learn Spanish and I get upset. I say things like, "There are 450 languages spoken in the U.S.. Am I to learn them all, or should everyone just learn English?" I...
Read more

Fall 4: Literature Review

-
Image
       The microbiome group will not be meeting as frequently this semester, creating gaps in my weekly reporting ability. One of my advisors suggested I supplement by doing a literature review as well. So, what is a literature review, why do we do them, and how?       In the attached video series it was described as this: Imagine going to a high school reunion and meeting up with a person you haven't seen in years. They might ask, "What have you been up to?" at which point you would provide the highlights of past years. "I moved to Arizona in 2010.  A few years later I invented post-it notes, and became rich overnight. Three minutes later I got married. We have been traveling the world, and just flew in from Belize to be here with you all today." Note that, while this brings the listener up to speed, this does not move forward with an idea of the future. A literature review uses multiple, credible sources, to explain the current status on a...
Read more

Week 5 Bacterial Symbiosis

-
Image
Presentation given by Richard Ricketts on the research paper “Emergent simplicity in microbial community assembly” Goldford et al. Science, 2018, 3;361(6401):469-474. doi: 10.1126/science.aat1168. Emergent simplicity in microbial community assembly | Science (sciencemag.org) The research attempts to understand the symbiosis between species of bacteria. If we were to imagine several types of bacteria all fighting over the same food supply, we might expect to see one species starve out the rest. What research has shown is that bacteria are able to feed off the metabolites of other bacteria, allowing all to thrive.   In a colony of a few hundred varieties, the feeding structure can get complex. This research attempts to isolate and determine which varieties can feed off each other in order to construct a mathematical model. With this knowledge we may be able to propagate and control a healthy microbiome. It could help illuminate  the root cause of some dysbioses, or potentially...
Read more