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Metabolic plasticity in development: Synergistic responses to high temperature and hypoxia in zebrafish, Danio rerio
Author(s) -
Pan TienChien Francis,
Hunt von Herbing Ione
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of experimental zoology part a: ecological and integrative physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.834
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 2471-5646
pISSN - 2471-5638
DOI - 10.1002/jez.2092
Subject(s) - danio , hypoxia (environmental) , bioenergetics , zebrafish , oxygen , biology , thermoregulation , medicine , endocrinology , chemistry , biochemistry , organic chemistry , mitochondrion , gene
This study investigated interactions of temperature and hypoxia on metabolic plasticity and regulation in zebrafish, Danio rerio , in the first week of development. Larval morphometry, oxygen consumption, and metabolic responses to acute changes in temperature and oxygen were measured in larvae reared under four conditions, including control (28°C and partial pressures of oxygen [ P O 2 ] of 21 kPa), high temperature (31°C), hypoxia (11 kPa), and the two stressors combined. Rearing conditions did not result in consistent morphometric changes; substantial metabolic adjustments, however, were evident. While acute temperature increase resulted in elevated oxygen consumption, with a Q 10 of 2.2 ± 0.08, early‐staged larvae were able to compensate to chronic temperature rise as routine metabolic rates did not differ between 28°C and 31°C chronic treatments. In contrast, larval responses to chronic and acute hypoxia were similar, with ∼30% decrease in metabolic rates from normoxic values at both temperatures. Further, prior exposure to chronic hypoxia in conjunction with acute high temperature increased Q 10 by a factor of 2.5 from 2.2 ± 0.08 to 5.6 ± 0.19. Metabolic suppression by acute hypoxia was independent of any prior exposure conditions. In short, results from this study showed that zebrafish larvae exhibited surprising temperature resilience and metabolic plasticity to a 3°C temperature rise even in their first week of life. Yet exposure to a second stressor (hypoxia) resulted in elevated sensitivity to temperature change that may lead to bioenergetic imbalance due to synergetic effects of temperature and hypoxia on metabolic rates.