UB Students Pursue Evolutionary Evidence in Alaska as Part of New Course on Arctic Molecular Ecology

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In search of evidence that could help explain how certain species were created and how their genome has changed with evolution, a University at Buffalo evolutionary biologist and nine of his students enrolled in a new course on arctic molecular ecology are participating in a two-week research expedition to the arctic climes of Alaska.

The trip, which ends Aug.1, is providing a rare opportunity for the students -- particularly the three undergraduates -- to do research in the field 4,000 miles away from campus.

And indications are that the results of their work will be scientifically groundbreaking.

"We think we've identified the parent species for a common, arctic micro-crustacean," said Derek Taylor, UB assistant professor of biological sciences. "It's going to be one of the few cases where you can actually say how an animal species is formed."

The fact that students are close to uncovering the origin of a particular polyploid species, Taylor added, is remarkable, given the difficulty in the details of speciation.

The student researchers, based in Nome, are focusing on marine organisms, or aquatic invertebrates that, explained Derek Taylor, UB assistant professor of biological sciences, "tend to grow faster and larger" in the arctic environment.

"We really don't know much about them in nature, but what we do know is they do well in extreme environments, such as the tops of mountains and polar environments," he added.

The organisms being studied by the students, Taylor noted, "have both given up sexual reproduction and increased their chromosome complement." Called polyploids, they have a chromosome number more than double the normal complement. The students are using methods such as DNA fingerprinting to identify and analyze the species.

"Nobody will have addressed these questions before, so they are truly exploring and advancing science," said Taylor, who last year received a $478,000 Early Career Development Grant from the National Science Foundation. One part of that grant involved developing an

educational component, and the work in Alaska fulfills the NSF's mission of integrating research and education.

"I think that's a very positive experience for students," Taylor added.

And a somewhat unique one to the field, as the UB students are among just a handful throughout the country for whom this type of research is a possibility.

The trip is part of a new course, arctic molecular ecology, that Taylor's students will complete in the fall with a mini-conference.

A pilot project that Taylor and two graduate students conducted at the same location last year went well, with the trio collecting from more than 120 ponds and lakes aquatic specimens on which they conducted genetic analysis.

The area is a particularly interesting one for field research, Taylor said, because it served as a kind of hideout -- or refugium -- for a number of plants and animals during the last ice age. While the rest of North America was blanketed under thick ice, Alaska remained ice-free. Many of those species, he said, colonized the continent by migration via the Bering land bridge thousands of years ago.

"The area is more diverse because it was a refugium, and also because you get these Asian species that aren't found anywhere else in North America," he added, explaining that Nome boasts unique fauna akin to some of what is present in Asia -- largely due to the land bridge. During periods of glaciation, Taylor noted, many animals and plants could have been distributed via the bridge, which was broken some 10,000 years ago.

"You can see things you can't see anywhere else on the planet," he said.