Mitochondrial plasticity: a coping strategy in a warming world?

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Our world is changing rapidly, on a global scale, and some organisms are inhabiting environments that differ greatly from those in which they evolved. Climate change is predicted to result in increases in average land and water temperatures, but also more frequent temperature fluctuations. Understanding how organisms cope with these unprecedented environmental changes, as well as the timescale that they need to adjust to changing conditions, is a key priority of biological research. For ectothermic animals (i.e. all except mammals and birds), rising body temperatures cause faster depletion of energy reserves unless/until they can down-regulatemetabolism through adjusting the functioning of their mitochondria. However, the scope for flexibility in mitochondrial function, and the time required, are unknown - so we cannot know the true costs to animals of temperature fluctuations and hence their capacity to cope with climate change. I will employ cutting-edge laboratory methods to provide the first information on this topic, testing the effect of realistic environmental perturbations on mitochondrial function in a widely distributed teleost fish. My Objectives are to: 1) Identify the timescales over which mitochondrial function is regulated in response to changing thermal conditions; 2) Test for an age-related decline in the capacity of mitochondria to adjust to temperature fluctuations, so that older animals are more vulnerable to heat waves; 3) Determine whether older mothers pass on mitochondria with a reduced capacity to adjust to fluctuations in environmental temperature to their offspring. This highly original and interdisciplinary project will draw from, and expand upon, the combined research track-records and strengths of my work in ecology and ecophysiology, with that of hosts Prof. Neil Metcalfe (fish ecology, mitochondrial metabolism) and Prof. Pat Monaghan (senescence and intergenerational transfer of ageing) to achieve my future research career goals.