[Ocean and bio-medical research].
On the Planet Earth, oceans and seas today correspond to the largest volume offered to Life. Roughly, 275,000 species have been described from marine environments, only representing some 15% of all the present known living. But marine biomass can be enormous. Life appeared in the ancestral ocean 3 800 million years ago and determining events occurred there: appearance of the nuclear membrane and cell nucleus, "pluricellularity", capture of bacteria transformed into organelles, then sexuality. On the 33 phyla existing today on the Earth, 12 never have left the ocean and are exclusively marine. Such biodiversity, archaism of characters, organisational and behavioural patterns make these marine organisms an excellent reservoir for identifying and extracting very interesting pharmacological and cosmetic molecules (>5 000 today) and/or to represent very pertinent "models" for basic and applied research. Relationships between ocean and public health are physical, chemical, biological and physiological. A few marine species as "models" set the base for major advances in life sciences recognized by several Nobel Prices: from the discovery of phagocytosis to anaphylactic shock, and including nervous influx transmission, memory molecular bases, cyclins discovery, eye organisation, neurotransmitter membrane receptors, bases of the specific immune system... These marine models are very useful to understand the origin and functioning of important living mechanisms in the human and sometimes to deduce applications for efficient treatments. Ocean supplies mankind with renewable living resources, much threatened today. We have to manage and protect these to maintain ecosystems, stocks and biodiversity. Only because of the greenhouse effect and anthropic emissions, temperature is globally increasing: and, what if (tomorrow?) one million species would disappear (before 2050) because of global warming?
Boeuf
par Gilles
pG
Laboratoire Arago, UMR Modèles en biologie cellulaire et évolutive, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6/CNRS, Banyuls-sur-mer. gboeuf@obs-banyuls.fr
D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D018534:Earth, Planet; D008954:Models, Biological; D009613:Nobel Prize; D012623:Seawater