Climate change can impair bacterial pathogen defences in sablefish via hypoxia-mediated effects on adaptive immunity.
Dev Comp Immunol
; 156: 105161, 2024 Jul.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38521379
ABSTRACT
Low-oxygen levels (hypoxia) in aquatic habitats are becoming more common because of global warming and eutrophication. However, the effects on the health/disease status of fishes, the world's largest group of vertebrates, are unclear. Therefore, we assessed how long-term hypoxia affected the immune function of sablefish, an ecologically and economically important North Pacific species, including the response to a formalin-killed Aeromonas salmonicida bacterin. Sablefish were held at normoxia or hypoxia (100% or 40% air saturated seawater, respectively) for 6-16 weeks, while we measured a diverse array of immunological traits. Given that the sablefish is a non-model organism, this involved the development of a species-specific methodological toolbox comprised of qPCR primers for 16 key immune genes, assays for blood antibacterial defences, the assessment of blood immunoglobulin (IgM) levels with ELISA, and flow cytometry and confocal microscopy techniques. We show that innate immune parameters were typically elevated in response to the bacterial antigens, but were not substantially affected by hypoxia. In contrast, hypoxia completely prevented the â¼1.5-fold increase in blood IgM level that was observed under normoxic conditions following bacterin exposure, implying a serious impairment of adaptive immunity. Since the sablefish is naturally hypoxia tolerant, our results demonstrate that climate change-related deoxygenation may be a serious threat to the immune competency of fishes.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Cambio Climático
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Aeromonas salmonicida
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Inmunidad Adaptativa
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Enfermedades de los Peces
Límite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Dev Comp Immunol
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos