USAP-DC

Genome-enabled biology provides a foundation for understanding the genetic basis of organism-environment interactions. . The research project links gene expression, genome methylation, and metabolic rates to assess the mechanisms of environmental adaptation (temperature) across multiple generations in a polar, and closely related temperate, polychaete. By comparing these two species, the research will assess how a polar environment shapes responses to environmental stress. This work will produce: 1) a database of full transcriptome (gene specific) profiling data for the polar polychaete cultured at two temperatures; 2) the contribution of genome methylation to the suppression of gene transcription activities; 3) the linkage between shifts in mRNA pools and total cellular activities (as ATP consumption via respiration); 4) an assessment of the inheritance of patterns of gene expression and metabolic activities across three generations; and 5) a simple demographic model of the polar polychaete population dynamics under normal and 'global-warming' temperature scenarios. Broader impacts include two outreach activities. The first is a mentoring program, where African-American undergraduate students spend 1.5 years working on a research project with a UD faculty member (2 summers plus their senior academic year). The second is a children's display activity at UD?s School of Marine Science "Coast Day".

Person	Role
Marsh, Adam G.	Investigator

Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems

Award # 0944557

NSF-ANT09-44557

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
NCBI GenBank	Environmental Genomics of an Antarctic Polychaete #SRP040946	None	exist

1. Crowgey, E. L., Marsh, A. G., Robinson, K. G., Yeager, S. K., & Akins, R. E. (2018). Epigenetic machine learning: utilizing DNA methylation patterns to predict spastic cerebral palsy. BMC Bioinformatics, 19(1). (doi:10.1186/s12859-018-2224-0)
2. Marsh, A. G., Cottrell, M. T., & Goldman, M. F. (2016). Epigenetic DNA Methylation Profiling with MSRE: A Quantitative NGS Approach Using a Parkinson’s Disease Test Case. Frontiers in Genetics, 7. (doi:10.3389/fgene.2016.00191)