Exploring Stress Signatures in Marine Fishes

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Fish diversity and abundance is affected by several factors, including natural stressors such as temperature and predators as well as anthropogenic stressors (e.g. pollution and overfishing). Biomarkers can act as warning signs of physiological disturbances such as loss of homeostasis caused by environmental stressors. My research program explores the identification of biomarkers in response to different types of stressors in fish. These studies are important and timely. When a fish is stressed, bioreactive compounds are released from tissues and organs such as the gill, skin, liver, spleen and kidney. These proteins collect in the mucus of fish and can subsequently be identified using proteomic methods. Stress can also affect the regulation of genes responsible for protein translation, and therefore mechanisms of adaptation can be detected in the DNA and RNA of various fish tissues. It is important to understand how these factors, and their interactions, negatively affect fish health. This novel approach provides hypotheses regarding the metabolic significance of these changes. By examining how these changes are dependent on age, sex and other factors, I will also increase our understanding of the different trade-offs fish may be making to survive in our changing environment. ******I am applying for funding to allow our lab to acquire an imaging system which is essential for our molecular biology and proteomic laboratory. This piece of equipment is an integral part of my new NSERC 2019-2023 research program. I need a dedicated imaging system for visualization of agarose gels in order to identify and quantify nucleic acids resulting from PCR, qPCR and RT-PCR assays. My research program includes testing integrity, quantity and presence of nucleic acids and proteins and an imager is an essential piece of equipment that allows us to do this work. Acadia has integrated modern molecular analyses into may program and our molecular suite spawned numerous publications though we are dependent on a functioning imaging system to continue to produce the high-quality work we are known for. ******The system we are seeking can also be used for chemiluminescence and chemi-fluorescence which are necessary to quantify proteins being used in Western blots. My NSERC funded research program is dependent on such technology and thus this system is essential for me to satisfy my mandate and maintain a modern research facility. Work I am doing in collaboration with Dr. Alejandro Cojen at the Dalhousie University Proteomics facility will be greatly facilitated by this system. Proteins that are separated, visualized and quantified in my lab are further processed using Dr. Cojen's proteomics facility including metabolomics assays and shotgun proteomics techniques. ********