Adélie penguin. Credit: Griffith University

Antarctica’s humble Adélie penguin is helping scientists shed new light on the process of evolution and may even hold the secret of how animals adapt to climate change.

Griffith University’s Professor of Evolutionary Biology David Lambert used genetically pristine Adélie penguin populations to reach back further in DNA history than thought possible, analysing DNA from living mothers and chicks alongside their ancestors from 44,000 years ago.

David suggests problems in accurately measuring change in DNA led to miscalculations in the past. “If you don’t know the relationship of the ancient animals you’re studying to the modern ones, it’s easy to misinterpret how fast DNA sequences change,” he said.

“Breeding colonies of Adélie penguins have been free of interference from humans in the Antarctic. They have probably returned to the same breeding sites for hundreds of thousands of years. The extreme cold and dry conditions preserved the DNA enabling us to reach back 44,000 years.”

For more information: Griffith University, Skye Roberts, Tel: +61 (7) 5552 8654, skye.roberts@griffith.edu.au

Evidence is building to suggest that our forests may not be the climate change ‘get out jail free’ card we all want.

Australian Rivers Institute’s Assoc. Prof. Peter Pollard has researched rainforest lakes and rivers to test a provocative theory. The respiration of bacteria living and ‘breathing’ in these freshwater ecosystems is a major pathway for the return of rainforest carbon back to the atmosphere as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

His concern is that we are underestimating the rate of return of these greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

“A rainforest ecosystem has a carbon ‘budget’. That’s an equation that tells us how much carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere which should add up to the amount fixed back into the earth in trees and vegetation during photosynthesis, plus that returned via respiration,” he said.

”The enigma is that these numbers don’t quite add up – it’s almost as if there is a line item on this balance sheet missing. Hence rainforests are seen as ‘sinks’ of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide — but are they really?”

“For years there has been a major gap in our knowledge of the global carbon cycle – it’s like we’re environmental accountants unable to reconcile the carbon budgets.”

For more information: Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Skye Roberts, Tel: +61 (7) 5552 8654, skye.roberts@griffith.edu.au, www.griffith.edu.au/environment-planning-architecture/australian-rivers-institute

Morton Bay. Credit: Jenna C.

The health of southeast Queensland’s rivers, creeks and catchment areas are under scrutiny with the release of the 2009 Ecosystem Health Report Card.

This year, Moreton Bay received the lowest ecosystem health rating (D) in more than a decade. Prof. Jon Olley, from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute, said the report card results were a wake-up call for Moreton Bay and southeast Queensland.

“In 2008 there were no F ratings for Moreton Bay but unfortunately there are now two areas—Bramble Bay and Southern Moreton Bay—which received an F rating,” Jon said.

“This serves as a call to action for everyone living in southeast Queensland, in particular local councils and the State Government, to remain focused on ways of maintaining and improving waterway health,” says Jon.

For more information: Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Skye Roberts, Tel: +61 (7) 5552 8654, skye.roberts@griffith.edu.au, www.griffith.edu.au/environment-planning-architecture/australian-rivers-institute

Australia’s iconic kangaroo may hold the secret for the war on cancer. Assoc. Prof. Ming Wei from the Griffith Institute of Health and Medical Research is using commensal bacteria found in kangaroos to develop anti-cancer agents that are expected to be effective in combating solid tumours, which account for up to 90 per cent of cancers.

The bacteria’s spore, injected into blood, can seek out a tumour mass and release special enzymes which soften the tumour. Ming says conventional therapies were unable to penetrate solid tumour mass, thus having a low success rate. “In the labs, we train the bacteria, so they develop their innate ability to colonise tumours, digesting them, and stimulating the body’s natural immune system,” he says. “The bacteria don’t need oxygen to multiply and they grow much faster than the tumour.”

Ming says the bacteria were also present in humans and soil but when in kangaroos they contained more protein-digesting enzymes. The theory was tested on tumours in mice, with a 30 to 45 per cent success rate. Clinical trials are expected to start in two years, where this novel approach will be applied together with anti-inflammatory therapy for best results.

For more information: Griffith University, Sabrina Rashid, Tel: +61 (7) 3735 4288, s.rashid@griffith.edu.au