A genetic study of a fish that lives in the icy waters off Antarctica sheds light on the adaptations that enable it to survive in one of the harshest environments on the planet. The study is the first to search the genome of an Antarctic notothenioid fish for clues to its astounding hardiness.
These fish can withstand temperatures that would turn most fish to ice. Their ability to live in the cold – and oxygen-rich
“If you have a drastic rise in the water temperature we don’t know how well the Antarctic fish will adapt, whether they will die out or not,”. And if they do, then the whole Antarctic food web will be drastically affected.”
Cheng’s lab currently is conducting studies on how the fish respond to warming.