Meeting Abstract
S6-1.3 Thursday, Jan. 5 Damage or defenses: An examination of how the sea urchin proteome changes in response to ultraviolet radiation ADAMS, N.L.*; CAMPANALE, J.P.; FOLTZ, K.R.; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA; University of California, Santa Barbara, CA nadams@calpoly.edu
Anthropogenically induced ozone depletion and climate change have increased the importance in understanding how marine organisms, especially planktonic embryos and larvae that float in surface waters, respond to and protect themselves from abiotic stress. Marine organisms living in shallow waters are most vulnerable to damaging levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR), which may act synergistically with other stressors including temperature, lower pH and changes in salinity. Over a century of research has demonstrated that echinoids, especially sea urchins, embryos and larvae are a powerful model organisms for studying effects of UVR on development, cellular targets, protein regulation, effects on whole organisms, and protection against damage. In addition to providing a large number of synchronously developing embryos amenable to cellular, biochemical, molecular, and single cell analyses, the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, also offers an annotated genome, making it an excellent model for studying proteome dynamics and identifying protein biomarkers of stress. Our studies have highlighted some ways the proteome of S. purpuratus changes during development and in response to UV-induced stress. These changes include variation in protein levels as well as many post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, glycosylation, ubiquitination, and acetylation. Post-translational modifications may provide embryos with a fine-tuned, rapid-response to stress during early stages, especially during pre-blastula stages that rely on maternally derived defenses rather than responses through gene transcription.
