Summary:
This project contributes to answering the question whether the Macondo 252 Oil Spill resulted in large-scale perturbation of the northern Gulf of Mexico ecosystem structure and function, by elucidating molecular responses of microbial communities and fish to the oil spill and to consequent decontamination efforts. Proposed research will address the Observe and Understand components of the NGI project clusters, providing a deeper understanding of the complex interplay within microbial communities, as well as delayed, chronic and indirect toxic effects on the marine fauna. Achieving these goals will result in a stronger predictive capacity.
Our objective is to discover, quantify, and model changes in the pelagic microbial community and sheepshead minnow fish, as a consequence of oil exposure. Expected results will help to address questions posed by NGI, specifically looking at the oil spill-modulated changes in the structure and function of the microbial community across the Alabama shelf, as well as the toxic effects of oil and dispersant on sheepshead minnow. We hypothesize that the diversity and abundance of specific groups of microorganisms as well as the proteomic profile of the fish liver will dramatically change in response to oil exposure, and that these modifications are measurable at the proteomics level.
To attain our objective and test our hypothesis, we will pursue the following specific goals:
1. To determine diversity and abundance of pelagic microorganisms in response to oil exposure using a global quantitative proteomic approach
2. To quantify and model physiological effects of the oil spill on the pelagic microorganisms via systems biology approach and pathway analysis
3. To identify and quantify liver protein markers of sheepshead minnow exposed to sublethal concentration of the oil, oil dispersant, and combination thereof.
We will analyze microbial samples collected from surface waters before and after oil exposure (collaboration with Dr. A. Ortmann, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Phase 1 NGI project), as well as liver samples of sheepshead minnow exposed to oil and dispersant (collaboration with Dr. N. Garcia-Reyero, Jackson State University). We will explore the changes occurring at the proteome level. These qualitative and quantitative changes will reflect the oil-triggered modifications of cellular pathways in sheepshead minnow and pelagic microorganisms, as well as the dynamic changes in interspecies diversity of microbial communities.
We will process the protein samples using the robotic sample preparation system and high-throughput, label-free quantitative proteomics, routinely used by our group. True state-of-the-art liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry hardware and software are available for this project. Functional analysis and pathway modeling will be carried out as well. The results acquired at a proteome level will be integrated with the genomics data (obtained by collaborators) for comprehensive system biology analysis.