Dr Alison Cleary1,2, Dr Geraint Tarling1, Dr So Kawaguchi2
1British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdon, 2Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Australia
Parasite- host interactions can play important roles in structuring ecosystems, affecting population dynamics, competition, and carbon fluxes across trophic levels. Observing these interactions however is challenging and time consuming, and the diversity of parasites present in natural ecosystems remains poorly characterized. This limits our understanding of the roles parasites play in ecosystems, and the potential for these roles to shift under changing environmental conditions. In this study we applied genetic tools to detect parasites within Antarctic krill, and to explore the impact of parasites on krill reproduction. Antarctic krill are small crustaceans which play a keystone role in Southern Ocean ecosystems as prey for whales, seals, penguins and other megafauna. Two different methods were used to amplify metabarcode regions of diverse eukaryotic parasite organisms, without amplifying the much more abundant host krill DNA: peptide nucleic acid PCR blocking and pre-PCR CRISPR digestion. Resulting amplicon sequences were used to characterize the range of parasites present within the krill population, and the infection status of each krill individual. Combining these molecular results with aquarium observations of krill egg production provides first insights into the influence of parasites on krill reproduction, a key factor influencing populations dynamics of these important crustaceans.
Biography:
Biographies to come