A well-attended public forum was held in Townsville on 14 March, at the end of a fruitful week in which some big names in the science of ocean acidification were visiting AIMS.

The visiting scientists, Dr Joanie Kleypas of the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment, National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, Dr Chris Langdon of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Florida, Dr Ken Anthony of Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland, Dr Bronte Tilbrook of the CSIRO Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship, Hobart, and Dr Jean-Pierre Gattuso of the Laboratoire d'Océanographie, CNRS and University of Paris, were on hand at the Museum of Tropical Queensland to address an audience of interested locals and answer their questions.

It was an opportunity to hear from national and international experts in this field and to participate in discussions on an important issue for the north Queensland region.

The workshop held during the week at AIMS was a planning tool to identify and formulate a future AIMS ocean acidification research strategy to build on the Institute’s strengths and complement other national and international activities.

An international research team has shown how a simple and prolific sea creature gathered fragments of essential DNA from ancient microbes and then incorporated them into its own genetic makeup.

This work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*, may provide insights into the metabolic adaptation of corals affected by climate change and environmental stress. Although the paper relates specifically to a kind of sea anemone, the research may help to explain several apparent anomalies in the metabolic biochemistry of both sea anemones and related corals. The anemone, Nematostella vectensis, is among the simplest of multicellular animals and is a relative of jellyfish and corals.

In the research team led by Dr Paul Long of the University of London School of Pharmacy, Dr Walt Dunlap from AIMS and AIMS Visiting Scientist Professor Malcolm Shick from the University of Maine School of Marine Science worked with colleagues from the UK and Europe to elucidate the transfer of microbial genes encoding a biochemical pathway classically said to be lacking in sea anemones and in more developed animals, including humans.

Full reference and link to the paper:
Antonio Starcevic, Shamima Akthar, Walter C. Dunlap, J. Malcolm Shick, Daslav Hranueli, John Cullum, and Paul F. Long. “Enzymes of the shikimic acid pathway encoded in the genome of a basal metazoan, Nematostella vectensis, have microbial origins.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, February 19, 2008, vol. 105 no. 7, 2533-2537.