Refrigerated tabletop centrifuge

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This proposal requests funds to replace a 9 year old refrigerated benchtop centrifuge that is broken and cannot be repaired. Refrigerated centrifuges are a core piece of laboratory equipment for all molecular biology and biochemistry laboratories and would be used daily by the research trainees in my research group, and by at least 6 other users in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia. This centrifuge is an integral piece of equipment that will support research on the ways that fish adapt to the temperature of their environment. Temperature is known to be an important factor influencing the distribution and abundance of fish. Despite several decades of study, however, we still do not have a complete understanding of how fish respond to changes in environmental temperature during their lifetimes, or how adaptation to environmental change occurs over evolutionary time. In our current research we are testing the hypothesis that the increased metabolism required for adaptation to low temperatures comes at a cost of increased sensitivity to high temperatures, thus imposing a tradeoff between high metabolic rate and high thermal tolerance. We are also studying the molecular and biochemical basis of this effect. This research will provide an understanding of the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying responses to temperature changes on both short and long time scales. This understanding will be particularly critical given the likely effects of global climate change.