Effects of Climate Change on Marine Organisms

The effects of climate change, namely sea warming and ocean acidification, cause changes in the physiology, phenology, and biogeographical distribution of organisms. The stress induced in marine organisms at the proteome level, altering the expression of proteins and their modifications, is still largely unknown. The most common techniques used in marine proteomics regarding climate change are 2D electrophoresis and protein identification by mass spectrometry. Typically, the workflow includes several sequential steps: (1) sample preparation, (2) protein denaturation and reduction, (3) protein (peptide) separation, enzymatic digestion, and mass spectrometry analysis, and (4) bioinformatics and protein identification. As such the “omics”, and particularly proteomics, have the potential to provide new insights into the integrative functional responses of organisms to environmental stresses. Studies developed to date on proteome changes suggest a convergence toward a common set of stress-induced proteins related to metabolism, the cytoskeleton, chaperones, and diverse protective proteins. Therefore, this chapter discusses the main aspects related to climate change that affect marine organisms, with a special emphasis on the typical proteomic workflow used for marine organisms, the most relevant studies, the main problems, and future challenges.