Daphnia Genomics Consortium changes environmental genomics

Dr. John Colbourne, tucked away inside Myers Hall, has big news.

As project leader and director of the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics at IU, Colbourne, with more than 450 international scientists that compose the Daphnia Genomics Consortium, is literally changing the world. This change is making IU quickly become the hotspot for an up-and-coming and crucial field of science called environmental genomics.

“Environmental genomics looks at how a population adapts to new environments. It studies the link between gene function and environmental conditions,” Colbourne said.

Contrary to the terminology, environmental genomics extends far past the biology-majors-only warning sign. Though complex, this new field will affect every single organism living on earth, especially humans, though it began with a much different life form.

Daphnia Pulex, or the water flea, is what Colbourne would describe as the “keystone species for freshwater environments.”

Its significance grew tremendously when its genome was sequenced, making it the first crustacean to ever undergo the process. This is significant for a variety of reasons, but most importantly because of the distinctiveness of the Daphnia genome.

The crustacean, so small that it is almost microscopic, has a total of 31,000 genes. That’s 8,000 more genes than a human being. And it doesn’t stop there.

“More than one-third of Daphnia’s genes are undocumented in any other organism — in other words, they are completely new to science,” Don Gilbert said in a recent press release. Gilbert is a scientist in the Department of Biology and co-author of the Daphnia report.

However, these new genes mean more to humans than a new addition to science. When put under environmental stress in their freshwater habitat, the Daphnia’s genes react and this reaction is observable. Welcome to environmental genomics.

“Now that we know the genome for the Daphnia, we can perform extensive studies in the laboratory to determine which of these pathways are affected by which compounds,” said Dr. James E. Klaunig, a professor and chair of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation’s Department of Environmental Health. “If the same or similar pathways are affected in the human cells, we would have an exciting bioassay model to further study human health effects of compounds.”

This means that everyday heavy metals and chemicals — zinc, lead, nickel, pharmaceuticals and even chemicals found in shampoo — might all be tested on the Daphnia.

“There are currently 80,000 chemicals in the environment. As to this day only seven percent have been tested and 2,000 come to the market every year. My hope is that this work is going to better involve us to do sound, environmental tests to better protect both humans and the environment,” Colbourne said.

Since many of the scientists involved in the Daphnia project call IU home, the University is now enabled to take a leadership role in these important tests. Colbourne, however, also urges the individual role of the student.

“Students are always welcome to knock on a door and say, ‘How can I participate in this?’ or ‘How can I get involved?’ The role of the University — the reason this is done here — is because the project can only make a true contribution by recruiting that next generation of scientists,” he said.