Micro/Immuno Intro | Goggles & Labcoats | Breast Cancer | Extremophiles | Tuberculosis

Extremophiles
By Michael Trotman

___Ace Lake in Antarctica has a water temperature of less than 2°C. It is hard to imagine that any life could exist in such harsh conditions, but there is in fact an abundance of microscopic life. These life forms are known as extremophiles. Ace Lake extremophiles are anaerobic; that is, they live in an environment with no oxygen. One of these extremophiles, currently being studied by Charmaine Ng, is Methanococcoides burtonii. Charmaine has completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and is now finishing her honors year studying the proteins secreted from M. burtonii.

___Heading the research into extremophiles at UNSW is Professor Rick Cavicchioli. He is Charmaine’s supervisor, and as well as doing research, he is responsible for writing grants and applying for research funding. Charmaine has been working in Rick’s laboratory for nearly a year now and enjoys the experience immensely. As an honors student, she is mainly concerned with carrying out experiments and writing up the results. Her experiments are often very long and complex. She gets excited when her results can be interpreted and used for her research, "achieving results is really very rewarding". According to Charmaine, "the thing with research is that you have to be very optimistic". In Rick’s laboratory, up to seven scientists may be working on their research at any given time. Teamwork and cooperation between the scientists in the laboratory are vital for them to get the results they require.

___M. burtonii is an archaea, a primitive type of microorganism. These organisms that Charmaine studies were collected from Antarctica by drilling a hole in the ice of Ace Lake and then inserting a probe into the hole to retrieve samples. The samples were then shipped back to Australia and to a laboratory at UNSW. This practice has recently come under environmental scrutiny, with some people concerned that the unique lake environment is being destroyed.

___In order to study the proteins secreted by M. burtonii, Charmaine goes through a long and extremely delicate process. First, the proteins must be concentrated so that there are sufficient quantities for detection. A sample of the protein is placed into a test tube using a pipette. Specific chemicals are added to the sample, and the test tube is placed in a centrifuge - a large machine that spins the tube extremely quickly, which leaves the proteins that Charmaine wants to study concentrated at the bottom. The concentrated solution is now delicately placed into a gel solution, and an electric current is passed through the gel. This process separates the different proteins within the sample, with smaller proteins moving further in the gel. This method allows Charmaine to compare different samples and helps identify the different components in a specific protein sample.

___The study of M. burtonii has some fascinating possible outcomes. It is a fairly new field of microbiology; as Charmaine says, "they [the archaea] are there, but we have actually never taken notice of it". Some scientists believe that, because these archaea live in such extreme conditions on earth, they may also live on planets such as Mars or Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons). Another scientist in Rick's laboratory, Khawar Sohail Siddiqui, believes that these organisms could live on other planets but maintains that a bigger question is. "Did these organisms actually evolve there (on other planets) or come from Earth?"

___Charmaine was interested in Science throughout high school; so it seemed natural to pursue a career in Science. She advises students interested in studying Science at university to take as many different science courses as possible. This strategy will give them a feel for the different areas so they can choose the area that appeals to them the most. From spending a day with Charmaine, it is clear that Microbiology was the right choice for her. However, we might have to wait a few years before she can tell us whether there is life on Mars!

Micro/Immuno Intro | Goggles & Labcoats | Breast Cancer | Extremophiles | Tuberculosis