Study: purple sea urchins evolve to survive climate change from global warming, A new study done by researchers from Stanford University found that sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) have shown adaptation to circumstances surrounding global warming. Melissa Pespeni, who is currently an evolutionary biologist at Indiana University and lead author of the study, bred adult sea urchins with colleagues that were collected from the Pacific Ocean between central Oregon and Southern California. They place the urchins in tanks and exposed them to normal carbon dioxide levels and elevated levels to mimic future levels associated with greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
The purple sea urchins adaptation revolve around gene proportion and regulating their cells’ pH (acidity) and skeletal development; like other West Coast marine species, sea urchins normally live in cold water that wells up along the coast, causing higher levels of CO2 levels. The urchins that were exposed to higher levels of CO2 showed changes in genes that promoted growth and producing minerals keeping pH within a range that is tolerable to them. Those that were exposed to current levels of CO2 only showed random genetic variation.
The study also demonstrated natural selection, i.e. only the fittest urchins survive when introduced to a high carbon dioxide environment.
But the researchers are intent on finding out why some species are more adaptive to acidification than others as well as the benefits that can be provided to humans. Sea urchins are blind but they have the same genes that help people see as well as genes for a sense of smell and one of the most complicated immune systems in the animal world, researchers say.
"If any organism were able to adapt and evolve, it would be the sea urchins, because they live in an environment where they're experiencing daily changes in pH," said Pespeni. “Urchins are very long-lived and have more genetic variability than any other species — including humans.”
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The purple sea urchins adaptation revolve around gene proportion and regulating their cells’ pH (acidity) and skeletal development; like other West Coast marine species, sea urchins normally live in cold water that wells up along the coast, causing higher levels of CO2 levels. The urchins that were exposed to higher levels of CO2 showed changes in genes that promoted growth and producing minerals keeping pH within a range that is tolerable to them. Those that were exposed to current levels of CO2 only showed random genetic variation.
The study also demonstrated natural selection, i.e. only the fittest urchins survive when introduced to a high carbon dioxide environment.
But the researchers are intent on finding out why some species are more adaptive to acidification than others as well as the benefits that can be provided to humans. Sea urchins are blind but they have the same genes that help people see as well as genes for a sense of smell and one of the most complicated immune systems in the animal world, researchers say.
"If any organism were able to adapt and evolve, it would be the sea urchins, because they live in an environment where they're experiencing daily changes in pH," said Pespeni. “Urchins are very long-lived and have more genetic variability than any other species — including humans.”
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
