Research

Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences

Title :	A FUNCTIONAL GENOMIC APPROACH FOR PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION: Understanding the response of Life to Paleoclimate Change
Area of research :	Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences
Focus area :	Seismology
Principal Investigator :	Dr. S. Senthil Kumar, SERB YOUND SCIENTIST FELLOW/ ASSISTANT PROFESSOR GEOBIOTECHNOLOGY LABORATORY PG & Research Department of Botany National College (Autonomous) Tiruchirapalli-620012 9865268433; Telephone- 0431-2482995 Fax no- 0431-2481997
Timeline Start Year :	2019
Timeline End Year :	2020

Details

Executive Summary :

Functional genomics is extremely complex and powerful approach to determine the function of individual genes, pathways, networks and ultimately entire genomes. The application of Functional Genomics for paleoclimate reconstruction is not yet utilized in geology. The microbial communities are able to respond and adapt to environmental changes (temperature fluctuations, nutrient limitation, and osmolarity) through alterations in their functions. These responses are unique to the type of environmental variation they experience and leave imprints on microbiome. These imprints can be retrieved by functional genomics which will infer the environmental changes the microbiome experienced so far. The Paleome based paleoclimate reconstruction is considered to be more accurate due to the specificity of functional responses, and the obtainable species richness exhibited by Archaea, Bacteria and Fungi, stratigraphic reliability, that can be traced at a higher resolution as low as few mm. The Holocene sediments from seven boreholes in Koyna-Warna region give an excellent opportunity for paleoclimate reconstruction. The climate changes in this region during Holocene period will be suitable for predicting the extent of future climate anomalies. The present study is focused on recovering microbial community responses from Koyna-Warna sediments using high throughput screening of Paleoenvironmental DNA (PalEnDNA) by DNA Microarray. The dynamics in functional diversity of microbial communities will be employed to deduce the past environmental changes. Comparing these data with the conventional geological proxies like geochronology, sedimentology and geochemistry will validate the higher accuracy of functional genomics in paleoclimatology.