Environmental regulation of epigenetics in aquatic teleosts

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Aquatic ecosystems are currently facing a myriad of abiotic (e.g. temperature, oxygen availability, acidification) and anthropogenic (e.g. pharmaceutical contaminants, metals, agricultural runoff) influences that have a significant impact on the health of the environment and the organisms that depend upon it. These threats are numerous and are not independent, but work cumulatively to alter our ecosystems. However, our ability to ensure ecosystem sustainability is limited by our capacity to understand and predict how the various stressors resulting from these threats interact to cause change. While individual stressors poses documented problems for aquatic ecosystems, the concern is that combinations of these effects will create even more significant challenges to these environments and, more specifically, aquatic organisms living in them. Many regulations, policies, monitoring and remediation programs are based on an understanding of only single factors (e.g., temperature or one specific pollutant) and are therefore inadequate. It is upon this that my research program is based - to gain a fundamental understanding of multiple, mixed stressors found within the environment and the impact upon aquatic species, specifically teleost fishes. By taking an integrative approach, my research program will cross all levels of biological organization, from DNA regulation to whole animal physiology towards making predictions regarding the impact of mixed stressors on species health and abundance. My research will focus on abiotic factors associated with climate change (temperature/hypoxia) in combination with emerging organic pollutants (pharmaceuticals), which have been shown to target numerous fish species. This novel approach will examine how the environment affects epigenetic regulation, and the downstream, functional consequences of these changes. Epigenetics is defined by examining the inheritance of variation beyond changes in DNA sequence. Epigenetic regulation, through DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNA may profoundly alter transcriptional and translational effects of gene expression, and it is now clear that these mechanisms are influenced by environmental stressors, both natural and anthropogenic, acting as the interface between the genome and the environment. Not only will I compare and contrast epigenetic regulation within the lifespan of teleosts, but also examine the intra- and inter-generational inheritance of epigenetic mechanisms from maternal and paternal sources, which will highlight the susceptibility of future generations from prior environmental stress exposure. Focusing on both model genomic (zebrafish) and physiological (rainbow trout) species, I will significantly advance our understanding of complex ecosystem interactions using integrated multi-stressor experimentation.