Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Ph.D. in Marine Environmental Science. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2001. / Also available online.

Univ., Diss.--Göteborg, 2005. / Enth. außerdem 5 Zeitschriftenaufsätze.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 1975. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-83).

Thesis (Doctoral)--Göteborg Univ., 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Zoology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The dark-green pigmented marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas tunicata produces several extracellular compounds against a range of common fouling organisms including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, diatoms, invertebrate larvae and algal spores. The regulator WmpR, which has N-terminal similarity to ToxR from Vibrio cholerae and CadC from Escherichia coli, controls all of the pigment and antifouling phenotypes. These compounds appear at the onset of stationary phase. The role of WmpR as a stationary phase regulator in P. tunicata was investigated in this thesis. Starvation and stress studies demonstrated that WmpR does not appear to control genes necessary for survival during carbon, phosphate or nitrogen starvation and UV/hydrogen peroxide stress. Intriguingly, phosphate starvation caused pigmentation of wmpR mutant (D2W2) logarithmic phase cells, suggesting a second regulation of the pigments (and thus antifouling compounds) that could be mediated by the PhoR/B twocomponent regulatory system. Proteomic analysis using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) found that 11 proteins were differentially regulated by WmpR, and the identities of some of these proteins suggested a role for WmpR as a general stationary phase regulator rather than a specific starvation or stress regulator. Gene expression studies using RNA-arbitrarily primed PCR introduced a new role for WmpR as a regulator of iron acquisition; a TonB-dependant outer membrane receptor gene and a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene were up-regulated in the stationary phase Wt strain compared to the D2W2 strain. An assay for iron-binding activity supported the proposal that the NRPS may be making a siderophore. Further studies demonstrated that WmpR is required for survival under long-term low-iron conditions and that the pigments and antifouling genes are down-regulated during low-iron, while biofilm formation is up-regulated. WmpR also appears to constitutively regulate the production of iron-binding compounds, a novel regulation of iron acquisition that has not been seen in other organisms studied so far. A model is proposed that describes WmpR as responding to environmental signals, including iron, and co-ordinating the expression of a complex regulon including a number of genes involved in iron acquisition, general stationary phase physiology and bioactive secondary metabolite production.

The marine environment is likely to experience profound climate change in the coming 100 years and beyond. Ocean acidification (OA) is one of the climate change issues attracting the attention of researchers all over the world. The decreasing pH of the oceans might threaten marine biofouling organisms. However, climate change is not only involved with ocean acidification (OA) but the change of other environmental variables, such as temperature and salinity. These environmental factors act as multiple stressors and synergistically affect shell-forming biofoulers, in which, the calcium carbonate skeleton structure plays an important role of protection. Previous studies regarding the response of marine biofoulers to the environmental stressors were generally summarized in this article. Then a calcifying biofouling tube worm, Hydroides elegans, were reared from larval stage to early juvenile stage under control and treatment conditions to examine the combined effects of temperature (24, 30°C), pH (8.1, 7.7) and salinity (34, 27ppt). Juvenile growth and chemical composition (Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca) of their calcareous tubes were tested and used as assessment of effects of the three environmental stressors. The experiment revealed that H. elegans was robust to the environmental change because juvenile development positively responded to temperature and the interaction between temperature and salinity. Other combinations did not exert significant effect. The results suggest the need of further study of proteomics and transcriptomics to reveal the mechanisms of calcification as well as long-term studies to examine the energy costs of adaptation. In addition, the non-significant chemical composition (Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca) of the tube of this organism suggest a need of further exploration of the same animal but not only focus on three factors but the seawater chemical composition as well. / published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

No description available.