The Laboratory of Professor Carol Lee, in the Center of Rapid Evolution (CORE) and the Department of Zoology, has been awarded two grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Both grants focus on critical environmental topics using the copepod Eurytemora affinis or E. affinis, as a model systen.
Copepods are small crustaceans that form the largest biomass of animals on the planet. They are exceedingly abundant in coastal ecosystems and form essential components of food webs as grazers of algae and food source for fish.
Lee's Lab has been awarded a RAPID Response Grant to examine the rapid evolutionary responses of the coastal E. affinis to toxic effects of the Gulf Oil Spill.
This study investigates how quickly these copepods could evolve resistance to toxic components of crude oil.
Nothing is known about the evolutionary responses of organisms to crude oil, yet such responses are important for determining the long-term survival and recovery of the impacted populations, given the acute toxicity of crude oil.
The second grant to the Lee Lab, a $2.4 million Dimensions of Biodiversity Award from the NSF, will be used to examine the microbial diversity associated with E. affinis.
E. affinis is an invasive species in many freshwater habitats throughout the world, including the Great Lakes.
Despite the enormous abundance of copepods on the planet, the microbial communities associated with copepods remain largely unexplored.
Preliminary data from the Lee Lab show that many of the microbes associated with E. affinis are potentially pathogenic, such that E. affinis could potentially serve as a vector for human disease.
Lee's project will characterize the taxonomic diversity of the copepod "microbiome" and investigate the metabolic functions performed by this relatively undiscovered component of the ecosystem. This project will also explore how the copepod microbiome shifts in composition during copepod invasions into novel habitats.
This research will be performed in collaboration with Joana Silva at the Institute of Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine.