Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration

The exhibit DNA, Red Tide and the Sea at Mystic Aquarium& Institute for Exploration highlights research led by Senjie Lin, professor of marine sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point.

In a four-year, $1 million project funded by the National Science Foundation, Prof. Lin and colleagues at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Maryland’s Center of Marine Biotechnology and the Venter Institute are studying the genetic make-up of two species of tiny organisms that often cause red tides.

These microscopic plants, phytoplankton called dinoflagellates, live on the ocean surface and produce the toxin that causes the most dangerous form of red tides.

By learning which genes of the dinoflagellates are turned off or on during different growth conditions, the researchers hope to understand the genetic gears that control their growth and toxin production.

The data collected by Prof. Lin’s research project may someday enable scientists to find genetic markers that will predict when a toxic red tide is forming and how bad it will be.

This year alone, $1.2 million in federal disaster assistance was allotted to Massachusetts commercial fisheries that lost income due to shellfish areas being closed because of red tides.

Red tides are most common in the spring and summer and affect coastal areas most disturbed by human activity. Their toxins can spread up the food chain from shellfish to marine animals and humans, causing illness, and in some cases, death.

In studying the dinoflagellates, Lin says the scientists are learning that they are much more complex genetically than expected. The tiny organisms have as much as 80 times more DNA than humans.

The researchers are sequencing the DNA of genes expressed by the two species of dinoflagellates to learn more about their composition, function and the evolution of their genomes and to find out how they reproduce and produce toxin.

Click here to hear directly from Professor Lin!