Meeting Abstract
P2.38 Monday, Jan. 5 Environmental Proteomics: The Response of the Marine Model Organism Ciona savignyi to Acute Temperature Stress SERAFINI, Loredana*; TOMANEK, Lars; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo loredanaserafini@gmail.com
The ascidian Ciona savignyi is a basal chordate that is commonly found along the Pacific coast of North America. Because its genome has been fully sequenced, Ciona savignyi is an ideal model organism for proteomics research. The response of Ciona savignyi to temperature is particularly interesting because previous studies have shown that temperature has a strong effect on ascidian development, especially on the metamorphosis from the motile larval stage to the sessile adult stage. In order to assess the effect of thermal stress on adult Ciona savignyi, we studied global changes in protein expression in response to heat stress. To observe the effect of heat shock, field-acclimatized animals were exposed to either a 22C or 28C temperature treatment for 6 hours, and then allowed to recover at 13C for 16 hours, a common seawater temperature at the point of collection in central California. Using the whole organism, with the tunic removed, two-dimensional SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was employed to separate proteins and create protein expression profiles (PEPs). A one-way ANOVA, with a critical p-value of 0.01, was performed to determine which proteins showed a statistically significant change in expression. Of the 616 total spots, 49 spots (8%) were significantly up-regulated in the 22C treatment, the 28C treatment, or both; and 48 spots (8%) were significantly down-regulated in the 22C treatment, the 28C treatment, or both. Another group of 19 spots (3%) were significantly up-regulated in the 22C treatment group, and then down-regulated in the 28C treatment group. We are currently using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry to identify proteins of interest and to characterize their role in the heat shock response of Ciona.
