METHODS AND PLATFORMS 



The methods involve taking water samples with CTD or GoFlo bottles and doing analyses 

 in the lab, both shipboard and on land. We intend to do many experiments in local waters off 

 Delaware from small boats and ships of opportunity. After we are confident about our methods, 

 we will look for space on OMP cruises in the later stages of this project (late 1995 or 1996). 



STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF PROPOSED RESEARCH 



Given that we know so little, I suggest that any information collected about chitin in 

 coastal waters (even Delaware's) will prove interesting and important. Similarly, we know so 

 little about chitinases from natural marine bacteria that any molecular information will provide 

 insight into the degradation of particulate organic matter. The overall strength then of the 

 proposed work is that it will make progress on two fronts (hopefully simultaneously): 1) the 

 ecological and oceanographic questions involving chitin fluxes; 2) the molecular basis of chitin 

 degradation. 



Our present ignorance is our main limitation. We know so little that we need to test 

 methods and to obtain more sequence information before molecular methods can be applied to 

 the oceanographic problem of estimating degradation rates of chitin. 



STATUS OF RESEARCH 



We have tested methods for measuring chitin concentrations and turnover rates and are 

 now poised to begin estimating degradation rates. Within a couple weeks, we will begin a 

 regular sampling program of measuring concentrations, degradation rates and bacterial production 

 in order to address the first oceanographic goals of examining the importance of chitin in carbon 

 and nitrogen budgets. 



On the molecular side, we are in the middle of sequencing a chitinase from a marine 

 bacterium. Our next goal is to isolate natural DNA and to see if we clone a natural chitinase. 



Keywords: chitin, microbial, gene sequencing, PLR primers 



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