For decades, doctors have sought methods to diagnose how different types of cells and systems in the body are functioning. Now scientists have adapted an emerging biomedical technique to study the vast body of the ocean.
In a study published Sept. 5 in the journal Science, a research team led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) demonstrated that they can identify and measure proteins in the ocean, revealing how singled-celled marine organisms and ocean ecosystems are operating.
“Proteins are the molecules that catalyze the biochemical reactions happening in the organisms,” said WHOI biogeochemist Mak Saito, the study’s lead author. “So instead of just measuring what species are where in the ocean, now we can effectively look inside those organisms and see what biochemical reactions they are performing in the face of various ocean conditions. It’s a potentially powerful tool we can use to reveal the inner biochemical workings of organisms within ocean ecosystems and to start diagnosing how the oceans are responding to pollution, climate change, and other shifts.”
The emerging biomedical technique of measuring proteins—a field called proteomics—builds upon the more familiar field of genomics, which has allowed scientists to detect and identify genes in cells. The new study is an initial demonstration that proteomic techniques can be applied to marine environments to not only identify the presence of proteins, but for the first time, to precisely count their numbers.
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