CAREER: Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Cadmium and Temperature Action on Mitochondrial Bioenergetics in Marine Mollusks

在当今世界，地质力量与过去和现在的人类活动结合在一起，造成了极其迅速的环境变化，这种变化往往过于强烈和迅速，以至于无法进行可能需要许多代人才能完成的漫长的进化适应过程。许多物种在这个快速变化的环境中的种群生存和分布将取决于它们科普压力的能力，以及迅速调整其生理以适应环境变化的能力。 代谢调节在所有生物的环境胁迫耐受性中起着关键作用。生物体在其线粒体中产生ATP，细胞的主要能量货币，以满足其基本维持，生长，活动和繁殖的需要。线粒体功能的损伤将对生物体在应激条件下的表现和存活产生重要影响。该项目将揭示镉和高温对模式海洋软体动物Crassostrea virginica中线粒体功能的基本生理和分子作用机制。镉和温度是河口和沿海生境中常见的环境胁迫因素，直接影响线粒体功能。变温（“冷血”）动物，包括大多数海洋鱼类和无脊椎动物，可能特别容易受到这些压力，因为它们暴露在不同的温度和水和沉积物中的镉水平。该项目将使用东部牡蛎作为模式生物，以便：获得镉的温度依赖性作用的综合生理模型，并确定目前未知的变温动物中镉的关键线粒体靶点;确定镉和温度诱导的线粒体功能变化如何影响细胞和整个生物体的代谢;确定暴露于一种环境应激源（例如，温度）可以使生物体对另一个生物体更敏感（例如，镉），反之亦然。这些结果将为了解多种环境压力源对海洋变温动物代谢调节和生理表现的影响提供重要见解，并将使人们更好地了解限制这些生物适应性的因素。面对快速的环境变化。虽然在生物学系夏洛特的跨学科研究生课程提供了一个强有力的环境重点，这个项目通过新的网络增强课程，并通过积极招募本科生和研究生（包括妇女和代表性不足的少数民族）进入研究，提高教育质量。还包括与加拿大和德国的国际合作伙伴以及当地少数民族大学的积极合作计划和学生交流。

In today's world, geological forces have combined with past and present human activities to cause an extremely rapid environmental change, one that is often too strong and too fast to permit the long process of evolutionary adaptation that can require many generations to complete. The population survival and distribution of many species in this rapidly changing environment will depend on their abilities to cope with stress and to quickly adjust their physiology to environmental change. Metabolic regulation plays a key role in environmental stress tolerance of all organisms. An organism produces ATP, the main energetic currency of the cell, in its mitochondria to cover its needs for basal maintenance, growth, activity and reproduction. Impairment of mitochondrial function will have important consequences for performance and survival of the organism under stress conditions. This project will uncover fundamental physiological and molecular mechanisms of action of cadmium and elevated temperatures on the function of mitochondria in a model marine mollusk, the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica. Cadmium and temperature, common environmental stressors in estuaries and coastal habitats, directly affect mitochondrial function. Poikilothermic ("cold-blooded") animals, which include most marine fish and invertebrates, may be especially prone to these stressors because they are exposed to varying temperatures and levels of cadmium in water and sediment. This project will use the eastern oyster as a model organism in order to:Obtain a comprehensive physiological model of temperature-dependent action of cadmium and to identify key mitochondrial targets for cadmium in poikilothermic animals, which are currently unknown;Determine how cadmium- and temperature-induced changes in mitochondrial function affect cellular and whole-organism metabolism;Determine whether exposure to one environmental stressor (e.g., temperature) can make an organism more sensitive to the other (e.g., cadmium) and vice versa.These results will provide important insights into the effects of multiple environmental stressors on metabolic regulation and physiological performance of marine poikilotherms and will allow a better understanding of the factors that limit adaptability of these organisms in the face of the rapid environmental change. While providing a strong environmental focus in the interdisciplinary graduate programs in the Department of Biology at UNC Charlotte, this project increases the quality of education through new Web-enhanced courses and through active recruitment of undergraduate and graduate students (including women and under-represented minorities) into research. Also included are active collaborative programs and student exchange with international partners in Canada and Germany and with a local minority undergraduate-level university.