View/Open - HPS Repository - Arizona State University

R14
JOSEPHINE BAY F
MOLECULAR E
CENTER FOR
OGY AND EVOLUTION
DIRECTOR
Mitchell Sogin
SENIOR SCIENTISTS
Stephen Hajduk
Monica Riley
ASSISTANT SCIENTISTS
Michael Cuirtmings
Robert Sabatmi
Jennifer Wernegreen
Ocean-dwelling ancantnanan,
Linda Amaral Zettler
The underlying theme of the Josephine
Bay Paul Center is to explore the
evolution and interaction of genomes
of diverse organisms that play significant
roles in environmental biology and
human health.
This dynamic research
program integrates the powerful tools
of genome science, molecular
phylogenetics, and molecular ecology
to advance our understanding of how
living organisms are related to each
other, to provide the tools to quantify and
assess biodiversity, and to identify genes and
underlying mechanisms of biomedical
importance.
Three interlocking programs define the scope
of research in the Bay Paul Center. They are
the Program in
Program in
Global Infectious Diseases, the
Molecular Evolution, and the
Program in Molecular Microbial Diversity. This
past year has marked significant growth in the
Bay Paul Center. We attracted Mat Meselson's
molecular evolution program to the MBL.
Meselson is an esteemed member of the
National Academy of Science and in collaboration
with David Mark Welch and Jessica
Mark Welch, he has established a molecular
evolution group in the Bay Paul Center that
explores genome evolution in asexual rotifers.
A generous award by the Ellison Medical
Foundation allowed us to move forward with a
dramatically expanded
in
program Global
Infectious Diseases. This grant provided
support for a major renovation that accommodates
24 scientists and visitors to the Bay Paul
Center.
Dr. Steve Hajduk
is the director of this
new initiative and has brought six graduate
and post doctoral fellows to the MBL. His
research emphasizes the post transcriptional
processing of RNA in African trypanosomes,
the cause of human sleeping sickness. RNA
Giardia lamblia. Barb Davids (UCSD)
Life at the Extremes
Molecular Technology
Uncovers Astonishing Diversity in Spain's
"River of Fire"
Living conditions are tough for bacteria, algae, and
other microscopic organisms
in the Rio Tinto, the
highly acidic, vividly crimson river that flows through
the countryside of southwestern Spain. Mined
since 3000 B.C., the Rio Tinto contains heavy metal
concentrations that are several orders of magnitude
higher than those of typical fresh water. New
findings from the Rio Tinto, published in the May 9,
2002, issue of the journal Nature, present the first
molecular description of eukaryotes in a highly
acidic, high metal environment and reveal the
River's incredible eukaryotic diversity. The results
show that adaptation to extreme conditions is much
more widespread than originally expected and
provide a new understanding of the range of
organisms capable of living at life's extremes and
perhaps on other planets.
Eukaryota describes those organisms whose genetic
material is contained within a membrane-bound
nucleus.
This includes plants, animals, and humans.
Previous studies of the Rio Tinto relied on morphology
to describe the river's diversity and alerted
scientists to only a few of the evolutionary similarities
between its eukaryotic organisms.
By examining
the DNA of organisms extracted from the Rio
Tmto's sediment and biofilm, the slimy substance
that coats the surface of the River's water and rocks,
scientists have uncovered new eukaryotic lineages