Meeting Abstract

74.4  Friday, Jan. 7  The effects of declining calcium levels on the gene expression patterns in crustaceans. ALTSHULER, I*; CRISTESCU, ME; University of Windsor; University of Windsor altshuli@uwindsor.ca

The rapid calcium decline in the Canadian Shield lakes has prompted research into understanding the effects of low calcium on biota, especially species with high calcium demands like crustacean zooplankton. Daphnia is an excellent model organism to study the effects of this environmental stressor on crustaceans since it is a keystone herbivore in freshwater aquatic food webs and has a high calcium requirement. Research has shown that Daphnids are negatively impacted by low calcium levels – lower rates of reproduction and slower growth rates have been observed. We plan to use Daphnia to observe the effects of low calcium on global gene transcription patterns via microarray experiments and a target gene approach via qPCR. One of the target genes is SERCA, a protein responsible for maintaining calcium homeostasis within the cell. Currently we are conducting phylogenetic analysis to understand the evolutionary history of this protein.