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Asked by eve1 to Abyssal Grenadier, Baltic clam, Brachiopod, Common starfish, Naval Shipworm, Orkney vole, Scottish Crossbill, Snake Pipefish, Twisted-wing fly on 20 Nov 2017.
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Naval Shipworm answered on 20 Nov 2017:
The most obvious answer for naval shipworms is that it will help us with biofuel production – they can degrade cellulose from wood, which not many animals can do, and learning how could help us lots!
There are less obvious things we can learn – any animals’ genome is full of useful tricks! Naval shipworms develop in odd ways, and have not really been investigated before. We could learn all sorts of things about how they interact with bacteria, how they grow…. or things we haven’t even thought of!
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Common Starfish answered on 20 Nov 2017:
Here are some of these things we could learn:
1. How they are able to regenerate their arms.
2. How their nervous system works without having a “brain”
3. How they can change their body very quickly from being very stiff to very soft – we know they have what is called mutable collagenous tissue (MCT) but we don’t know how it works at the molecular level. We know MCT is controlled quickly by the nervous system but we don’t know how. Humans have collagenous tissue in skin, ligaments, bone etc – but it can’t change its mechanical state quickly as happens with MCT in starfish (and in other echinoderms). If we could find out how MCT works it could provide a basis for development of “smart” materials that could be used medically.
4. Starfish tube feet produce sticky proteins that stay sticky in water – finding out more about these proteins could be useful in medical surgery.
and lots more.
So sequencing the genome of the starfish could be both interesting and useful in many aspects of biology.
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Twisted-wing Fly answered on 21 Nov 2017:
The twisted wing fly is a parasite, and with a whole genome sequence we can
learn a lot about parasites, which is valuable knowledge for the study of human
parasites. -
Abyssal Grenadier answered on 21 Nov 2017:
Two main things we would like to learn are:
1. Genetic adaptions to the deep sea. The abyssal grenadiers live in an extreme environment: total darkness, cold, low food, and immense pressure. We understand some adaptions to surviving in the deep-sea, like the shape of the tail. We also know that abyssal grenadiers and other deep sea fish have high concentrations of a protein called Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). TMAO kinda acts like scaffolding to support other proteins from compressing under the weight of the high pressure. We would like to know more! The DNA can give us insights into other adaptions to living in the deep sea.
2. Population dynamics. The abyssal grenadier is one of a few species with a global distribution. It’s strange for a single species to have such a huge range without any barriers. Sequencing my genome will allow scientists to understand how one of us from the Arctic Circle is related to one of us off the coast of New Zealand.
This would be the first full genome sequenced from a deep-sea organism, which would be awesome!! -
Snake Pipefish answered on 22 Nov 2017:
So much!
Animals and plants should be able to be studied in their own right, not just for what benefits they may bring to humans. But, the snake pipefish belongs to a family of fish where the males provide all the care during embryonic development, and they do so in specialised areas on or in their bodies. Plus, they are able to provide nutrients, oxygenation and osmoregulation to the embryos as well as protect them from predators, so their parental care is considered equivalent to a mammalian pregnancy. The snake pipefish has a basic type of brooding structure compared to other members of its family (think of the incredible brood pouch of seahorses), so studying them can help us understand how such developed types of care evolved in fishes. It can also give us the opportunity to learn how genetically similar and dissimilar fish and mammalian (including human) pregnancies are. -
Scottish Crossbill answered on 29 Nov 2017:
We can learn all about why animals are the shapes and sizes they are, and what makes one species different from another species. pretty important questions!
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