The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO), Goa, has started a project for mapping the genetic diversity of organisms and the effect of micronutrients and trace metals on them in the Indian Ocean. The project is supported by the CSIR, under one of its flagship projects TraceBioMe.
Key Points
- The project envisages extensive sampling of water, plankton sediments, and different organisms in various parts of the Indian Ocean with an aim to study the presence of different kinds of organisms and the trace metals and micronutrients found therein.
- Modern state-of-the-art molecular techniques as well classical techniques will be used to trace and study the different kinds of organisms.
- In the 1st phase of the project, microscopic organisms will be investigated.
- A 90-day long expedition onboard research vessel RV Sindhu Sadhana with 30 scientists took off from Visakhapatnam on March 15.
- The expedition will be completed in two-legs till the end of May. It will cover over 9,000 nautical miles, and end in Goa.
- The data generated under this program will help to achieve the SDG14 goals, which aim at conserving and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources.
- Scientists from the CSIR-NIO have set out on a mission to identify and characterize the genes and proteins in the ocean to understand the cellular-level operations of organisms in the ocean by utilizing emerging biomedical techniques, such as proteomics and genomics.
This study will enable scientists to identify the factors controlling the changes in RNA and DNA in the oceans and various stressors impacting them. They will also be used as tracers to track the causative factors and suggest possible solutions for their mitigation impacting society. In addition, these large pools of RNA and DNA libraries of the oceans would be utilized for future bioprospecting in the Indian Ocean for human benefit.
