EAPSI: Changes in Gene Expression of the Lined Seahorse, Hippocampus Erectus, in Response to Temperature Stress

海马（科：海马科）是最有趣和可识别的鱼类之一，具有独特的生活史特征，形态和文化重要性。自然的海马数量紧张，不仅因为它们直接被用作展示和医疗用途；它们也非常容易受到环境中许多其他威胁的影响，而它们独特的生活史又加剧了这种威胁。海马通常是一夫一妻制的，游泳能力差，分散能力有限，活动范围小，分布在小块区域。这些因素限制了海马对全球气候变化不可预测影响的反应。该项目将研究海马（Hippocampus erectus）热休克蛋白Hsp70对温度升高的反应。这项工作将在中国科学院广州热带海洋生物资源与生态重点实验室林强博士的指导下进行，他的团队对海马基因组进行了测序。在这个项目下开发的实验模型随后将应用于其他海马和管鱼物种，以提供更完整的Syngnathidae家族细胞应激反应的图片。海马体直立海马被国际自然保护联盟（IUCN）列为易危物种，原产于南中国海。随着林强博士完成海马基因组计划，现在有了一个功能基因百科全书，用来比较组织样本和确定单个海马。转录组。为了了解慢性和急性温度应激对这些生物体的影响，将从保持在固定温度下的直立人群体中收集肝脏和肌肉组织样本，以及从暴露于不同时间的急性热休克的不同群体中收集样本。从每个组织样本中提取mRNA和合成cDNA后进行转录组分析，以确定不同热应激事件之间基因表达的变化。通过更好地了解这些动物的细胞应激反应机制将如何应对和适应变暖的海洋，这些发现将有助于制定这些受威胁物种的管理计划。海马通常被用作生态系统健康的指示物种，从本研究中获得的信息可以更好地指导将合颌纲作为分散有限种群的代表性焦点物种。该奖项隶属于东亚和太平洋暑期研究所项目，由美国国家科学基金会和中国科技部共同资助，支持美国研究生的暑期研究。

Seahorses (Family: Syngnathidae) are one of the most intriguing and recognizable groups of fishes, with unique life history traits, morphologies, and cultural importance. Natural seahorse populations are strained, not only because they are directly targeted for display and medicinal uses; they are also extremely vulnerable to many other threats in their environment, exacerbated by their unique life histories. Seahorses are generally monogamous, are poor swimmers, have limited dispersal ability and small home ranges, and are distributed in small patches. These factors restrict seahorse responses to the unpredictable effects of global climate change. The proposed project will examine the response of the heat shock protein Hsp70 to increasing temperature in the lined seahorse, Hippocampus erectus. This work will be conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Qiang Lin, whose group sequenced the seahorse genome, at the Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology in Guangzhou, China. The experimental model developed under this project will subsequently be applied to other seahorse and pipefish species to offer a more complete picture of cellular stress response in the Syngnathidae family. The lined seahorse, Hippocampus erectus, is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is native to the South China Sea. With the completion of the Seahorse Genome Project by Dr. Qiang Lin?s laboratory in Guangzhou, China, there is now an encyclopedia of functional genes with which to compare tissue samples and determine an individual seahorse?s transcriptome. In an effort to understand how chronic and acute temperature stress will affect these organisms, liver and muscle tissue samples will be collected from groups of H. erectus that have been maintained at set constant temperatures, as well as from separate groups that have been exposed to acute heat shock for varying periods of time. Transcriptome analysis will be performed following extraction of mRNA and synthesis of cDNA from each tissue sample to determine the changes in gene expression between different heat stress events. These findings will assist the development of management plans for these threatened species, by providing a better understanding of how the cellular stress response mechanism of these animals will respond and adapt to warming oceans. Seahorses are often used as indicator species of the health of an ecosystem, and the information gained from this research can better direct the use of syngnathids as a representative focal species for dispersal-limited populations.This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.