Þann 16. janúar 2015 mun Daniel H. Shain – dósent við dýrafræðideild Rutgers háskóla í Camden halda erindi um rannsóknir sínar – undir titlinum Towards Understanding the Bioenergetics of Cold Adaptation.
Ágrip á ensku
About three-quarters of the Earth’s inhabitable biosphere is cold (<5 C) yet relatively few organisms have evolved strategies to thrive in these conditions. Exceptions include single-celled microbes (e.g., archae, bacteria, fungi, algae) and a handful of animals including segmented worms (Annelida), collembola (Arthropoda), Nematoda, Rotifera, Tardigrada and likely a few others. Employing glacier ice worms (Annelida) as a model system, we have determined that cold adapted species elevate energy levels (i.e., ATP) as temperatures get colder, apparently to off-set reductions in molecular motion. The biochemical mechanism(s) of this paradoxical response may be convergent among very different taxa, and may offer a direction for engineering a diversity of cold adapted organisms.