The Summary of the Project

This project is stimulated by the ever-increasing interest to penguins, which are an important part of the Antarctic ecosystem. At present their biology is one of the hottest problems of Antarctic investigations of the international community.

The main aim of the study is to reach a better understanding of the evolutionary history and biology of Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua), which belong to one of the four penguin species breeding in Antarctica. The problem of the regulation of population sizes is one of the key questions in penguin studies. The 90 % of avian species were, until recently, categorised as monogamous, but applying molecular genetic methods revealed that in many species social monogamy does not result in genetic monogamy. Genetic markers will allow deep insight into the gene flow in a population and the reconstruction of the relationship between parental and offspring generations.

The present project forms a part of investigations, that each participating country carries out on its traditional territories in Antarctica. The key scientific questions in evolutionary biology of Gentoo penguins will be addressed through an interdisciplinary approach by the development and refinement of hypotheses, field sampling and data collection, application of new molecular methods, data analysis and hypothesis testing.

Thus, the key problems to be solved are the problems of the analysis of genetic variability and genetic structure of populations, the level of genetic diversity, problems of adaptation to Antarctic environment, the problem of the changing of genetic structure of populations under ecological impact. Due to the variety of problems and scientific approaches to their solving, while the project is rather interdisciplinary, the total synergistic effect of simultaneous study of different indicators and parameters of variability of populations together is expected to have a greater total effect than the sum of the individual studies.

The main objectives of this project are:

1. To evaluate the level of phenotypic and genotypic variability of penguins within and between colonies. Phenotypic variability will be described by selected morphological traits, while genetic variability (average polymorphism, heterozygosity and average number of alleles per locus, deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium) with protein and DNA markers.
2. To measure possible genotype-phenotype correlation and physiological and morphological differences between individuals with different genotypes.
3. To characterise breeding biology (egg-laying dates, clutch success, size of breeding colonies, extra-pair paternity level) and its phenotypic and genotypic covariance.
4. To investigate the genotype-dependent level of environmental impact on the instability of the genome and the instability of individual development, with the rate of micronuclei and deviates of morphological traits (incl. fluctuating asymmetry) used as indicators.

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