Life Sciences Commons^™

Collaborative Research: Differential Expression Of Oxygen-Binding Proteins In Antarctic Fishes Affects Nitric Oxide-Mediated Pathways Of Angiogenesis And Mitochondrial Biogenesis, Bruce Sidell

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The polar ocean presently surrounding Antarctica is the coldest, most thermally stable marine environment on earth. Because oxygen solubility in seawater is inversely proportional to temperature, the cold Antarctic seas are an exceptionally oxygen-rich aquatic habitat. Eight families of a single perciform suborder, the Notothenioidei, dominate the present fish fauna surrounding Antarctica. Notothenioids account for approximately 35% of fish species and 90% of fish biomass south of the Antarctic Polar Front. Radiation of closely related notothenioid species thus has occurred rapidly and under a very unusual set of conditions: relative oceanographic isolation from other faunas due to circumpolar currents and …