HR: 0800h
AN: B41C-0210    [Abstracts]
TI: Use Of Chitinase Gene As Biomarker To Reflect Penguin Population Change In History
AU: * Xiao, X
EM: xoxiang@yahoo.com
AF: Key lab of marine biogenetic resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen, P.R.China, Daxue road 178#, xiamen, 361005 China
AU: Yin, X
EM: xbyin@mail.ustc.edu.cn
AF: Institute of Polar Environment, University of Science and Technology of china, Hefei, 230026 China
AU: Lin, J
EM: lj@163.com
AF: Key lab of marine biogenetic resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen, P.R.China, Daxue road 178#, xiamen, 361005 China
AU: Sun, L
EM: slg@ustc.edu.cn
AF: Institute of Polar Environment, University of Science and Technology of china, Hefei, 230026 China
AU: You, Z
EM: zyy@163.com
AF: Key lab of marine biogenetic resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen, P.R.China, Daxue road 178#, xiamen, 361005 China
AU: Wang, P
EM: wp2005@163.com
AF: Key lab of marine biogenetic resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen, P.R.China, Daxue road 178#, xiamen, 361005 China
AU: Wang, F
EM: fengpingw@yahoo.com
AF: Key lab of marine biogenetic resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen, P.R.China, Daxue road 178#, xiamen, 361005 China
AB: Penguins are studied as bio-model to understand how climate change has influenced the Antarctic marine ecosystem. This certainly needs to exclude anthropogenic influences from natural variables. Ancient penguin excreta was found ideal material to study historically the impacts of climate change on penguin population excluding the influences of human beings and other secondary factors. In this study, a sediment core, spanning approximately 1600 yrs, collected from a lake on Ardley Island, Antarctica, was studied by a combination of geochemical and molecular microbiological methods. The sediment core had been greatly influenced by penguin guano. Chitinase gene was chosen and tested as a new bio-molecular marker to reflect possible penguin population change in history. Using quantitative competitive-polymerase chain reaction (QC-PCR), chitinase gene copies in each 1cm section of the whole sediment column were quantified. It was found that the chitinase gene copies coincide with the temperature history record: a low chitinase gene number in the column occurred around 600yrs B.P., the little ice age; high chitinase gene copies occurred around 1,400yrs B.P., the Medieval warm time period. Along the column, significant correlation was found between chitinase gene copies, P2O5 and TOC concentrations which were served as the geochemical monitor of penguin droppings, demonstrating that the variation of the bacterial chitinase gene number is another reliable proxy to reconstruct Antarctic penguin population change in history. Most of the chitinase genes cloned from the historic sediment core were novel. Analyzing the chitinase gene diversity in selected sediment layers and in the fresh penguin deposits indicated frequent shifts in the chitinolytic bacterial community over time, which suggested the penguin species change in the population and/or their diet change in history. Our results for the first time indicated that the chitinase gene probe is a suitable bio-molecular marker for historical Antarctic penguin research. This bio-molecular response could be an important supplemental tool for geochemistry research.
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 0448 Geomicrobiology
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005