Meeting Abstract
The Starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, is a type of burrowing sea anemone most commonly found in nearshore estuarine environments along the east and west coasts of North America. These sea anemones have a high physiological tolerance to salinity, temperature, and pollutant exposure. With the high amount of plastic waste entering our oceans organisms found in these nearshore environments are now facing a new environmental stressor not previously encountered. To study the impacts of plastics on N. vectensis we used two population strains originally from Maryland (now a long-term lab strain) and individuals from the wild found in an estuary in California. Both strains, were used to test survivorship after a 12 week long term exposure to microplastics. Collections for the long term portion occurred every two weeks. Additionally, the lab established strain was used to test survivorship and overall genetic response after short term exposure with an increase in temperature. Collections for the short term portion were taken every two days representing three distinct time points. After laboratory exposure was concluded, total RNA was extracted and sent out for Tag Seq analysis. In addition to stress response genes, our approach provided us with insight into how venom production of the N. vectensis strains are affected as a result of direct exposure to microplastics. Our observations, highlighted behaviour consistent with previous studies that correlated anemones and microplastics, while our results might shed light on what happens to differentially expressed genes like stress response genes and venom when exposed to plastics.
