Sally Lau led a fantastic study published in Science which used octopus DNA to discover that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) likely collapsed during the Last Interglacial period around 125,000 years ago – when global temperatures were similar to today. This provides the first empirical evidence that the tipping point of this ice sheet could be reached even under the Paris Agreement targets of limiting warming to 1.5 – 2 degrees C.

This research solves a long-running mystery regarding whether or not the WAIS collapsed during the Last Interglacial. This was a period when global average temperatures were 0.5 – 1.5 ^oC warmer than preindustrial levels, but global sea level was 5 – 10 metres higher than today. What makes the WAIS important is that it’s also Antarctica’s current biggest contributor to global sea level rise. A complete collapse could raise global sea levels by somewhere between 3 and 5 metres.

In the study we employed a novel population genomic approach to answer this question. By employing demographic modelling and comparing the genetic profiles of Turquet’s octopus found in the Weddell, Amundsen, and Ross seas enabled detection of genetic connectivity dating back to the Last Interglacial. This would only be possible if a complete collapse of the WAIS occurred during the Last Interglacial, opening seaways linking the present-day Weddell, Amundsen and Ross seas. This would have allowed octopus to travel across the opened straits and exchange genetic material, which we can detect in the DNA of today’s populations.

This research was interdisciplinary, bringing together geneticists, physical scientists and geologists and was only possible through international collaboration and the use of samples collected over a 30 year time period. Our work was supported by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Academy of Science, an Antarctic Science International Bursary, the SCAR INSTANT programme, Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment, NZ, the Antarctic Science Foundation, Australasian eResearch Organisations and Suomen Akatemia.

Interdisciplinary team work makes the dream work! From L to R: Nick Golledge (Victoria University of Wellington), Nerida Wilson (University of Western Australia), Sally Lau (James Cook University), Tim Naish (Victoria University of Wellington) and Jan Strugnell (James Cook University).

We are delighted with the media attention our paper has received! Some of our favourites include First Dog on the Moon, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN. You can also read more about our research in an article we wrote for The Conversation.

The latest in Antarctic research from the Marine Omics lab,  Sally, Ira and Jan used a novel genomic approach to answer if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) had collapsed during the Last Interglacial period, and they did so by looking into the genomic loci of an Antarctic octopus (Pareledone turqueti). They found a clear, distinct connectivity between Ross Sea and Weddell Sea, dating it back to the last interglacial period, that is different from the signal of the octopus’s general circumpolar movement around the continent. By comparing the genomic data against contrasting hypothesised scenarios via demographic modelling, including no, partial or complete WAIS collapse in the past, their findings suggest the Ross and Weddell connectivity was only possible if the WAIS completely collapsed and opened the seaway connecting the two basins.

A focus of Sally’s PhD research this paper is available as a pre-print on bioRxiv and has certainly made waves, with an interview in The Guardian, IFLScience and has been re-imaged by the creator First Dog on the Moon!  Their research is a successful transdisciplinary example demonstrating that only by bringing different disciplines together, we can have the best shot to help solving the current climate change.

A new paper by Jia in Molecular Biology and Evolution showcases the power of whole genome sequencing to understand adaptive evolution in corals. Thanks to our collaborators in Western Australia we were able to obtain samples for deep WGS on 75 corals, including samples from the inshore Kimberley reefs and two offshore atolls. The results revealed very recent divergence driven by founder effects and strong selection, especially in the inshore reefs.

Paper: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msac201

Press Release: https://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/dna-reveals-the-past-and-future-of-coral-reefs

New paper by Sally, Catarina and Jan in Ecology & Evolution, uses COI sequences to investigate the population genetic patterns of the Antarctic brittle stars Ophionotus victoriae and O. hexactis with contrasting life histories (broadcasting vs brooding) and morphology (5 vs 6 arms). They found that, throughout the Pleistocene glacial maxima, O. victoriae likely persisted in deep sea refugia; whereas O. hexactis likely persisted in Antarctic island refugia. This work proposes the evolutionary innovations in O. hexactis (increase in arm number and a switch from broadcast spawning to brooding) could be linked to survival within island refugia, which open up new avenues for future genomic research!   

New paper by Catarina and Jan in Molecular Ecology, (full article here), investigates genome-wide divergence, introgression patterns and inferred demographic history between species pairs of all six extant rock lobster species within the genus Jasus – species with a larval duration of up to two years. Funded by the Australian Research Council, this work shows the important effect of habitat and demographic processes on the recent divergence of species in the genus.

New paper by Ira, Jan and Jia in Science Advances (full article here), uses shallow whole genome sequencing to look at demographic history and selection for Acropora tenuis. The main findings are outlined in this tweet thread. Maria Nayfa also made this nice video of Ira explaining why genomes are so useful for understanding the history of the GBR.

Our paper on the reference genome & pop #genomics of #Acropora tenuis on the #GBR is out today. Thanks to all co-authors for a great team effort. @pimbongaerts @JanStrugnell @jiazhangjia @mattfield100 @spectacularia @CTBMB_JCU @MarineOmics @CoralCoEhttps://t.co/IIvYy1lUer

— Ira Cooke (@iracooke) November 28, 2020

Antimicrobial peptides are part of the innate immune system and help defend the host against pathogens and regulate the microbiome. Antimicrobial peptides occur in all life, are incredibly diverse, mostly quite small (< 200 amino acids), and only comprise of a small proportion in a genome (~ 1%). This makes them very difficult to find. We created a classification model implemented in an R package, ampir, to predict antimicrobial peptides from protein sequences on a genome-wide scale. ampir was tested on multiple test sets (including complete proteomes) and performed with high accuracy. ampir can be used to narrow down the search space for novel antimicrobial peptides in genomes.

ampir was recently published in Bioinformatics and is available on CRAN and github . Legana has also created a companion repository to accompany the paper and document the thinking behind ampir’s model building process.