M3.1.2/F/029/2007
Luís Filipe Cunha
Centro de Investigação de Recursos Naturais (CIRN)
48 meses
Resumo:
The main objectives of this project are to identify ecological, cellular and molecular adaptations associated to heavy metals and hypoxia in Lumbricus terrestris living under extreme conditions in a geothermal field, and to gain insights into the mechanisms involved in apoptosis and detoxification. Verifying and establishing the metal- and hypoxia-tolerance status of the population of L. terrestris from Furnas’ terrestrial geothermal field opens the possibility to assess how an eukaryotic organism can adapt to such extreme environment.
The specific objectives are:
1. assess growth and reproduction of Lumbricus Terrestris under extreme environment of volcanic origin;
2. to test the tolerance to trace metals, such as cadmium, lead, and zinc, and hypoxia of a population of L. terrestris chronically exposed to volcanic emissions, and to analyze the expression of metallothioneins, haemoglobin content, cell proliferation, apoptosis, heat shock proteins and other biomarkers;
3. based on objective 2., to compare the expression of genes associated to apoptosis and metallothioneins in populations of L. terrestris exposed and non-exposed to volcanic emissions.
4. to test the assimilation of heavy metals of L. terrestris exposed and non-exposed to volcanic emissions by using stable metal isotopes based techniques.
Expected publications:
1. Growth and reproduction traits of Lumbricus Terrestris under extreme environment of volcanic origin (1 paper);
2. Metal and hypoxia tolerance in earthworms from a terrestrial hydrothermal field;
3. mtDNA genes expression and apoptosis in Cd, Zn-exposed earthworms from a terrestrial hydrothermal field;
4. Metallothionein gene expression in the chloragocytes and coelomocytes of Cd, Zn-exposed earthworms from a terrestrial hydrothermal field;
5. Assimilation of Cd and Zn by earthworms from a terrestrial hydrothermal field.