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

海马科(Syngnathidae)是最耐人寻味和最容易辨认的鱼类之一，具有独特的生活史特征、形态和文化重要性。天然海马种群紧张，不仅是因为它们直接被用作展示和医疗用途；它们也极易受到环境中许多其他威胁的影响，而且它们独特的生活史加剧了这种威胁。海马一般是一夫一妻制的，游泳能力差，分散能力有限，栖息地小，成片分布。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。这项拟议的项目将研究海马海马直立体中热休克蛋白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中国博士的指导下进行，他的团队完成了海马基因组的测序。在该项目下开发的实验模型将随后应用于其他海马和海豚物种，以提供更完整的突触科家族细胞应激反应的图景。直立海马被国际自然保护联盟列为脆弱物种，原产于南中国海。随着广州实验室中国强林？S博士的海马基因组计划的完成，现在有了一部功能基因百科全书，可以用来比较组织样本和确定单个海马-S转录组。为了了解慢性和急性温度应激将如何影响这些生物体，将从保持恒定温度的直立人群体，以及暴露在不同时期的急性热休克的不同群体中收集肝脏和肌肉组织样本。转录组分析将在提取每个组织样本的mRNA和合成cDNA后进行，以确定不同热应激事件之间基因表达的变化。这些发现将有助于为这些受到威胁的物种制定管理计划，因为它们可以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海洋变暖。海马经常被用作生态系统健康状况的指示物种，从这项研究中获得的信息可以更好地指导联结类作为分散有限种群的代表性重点物种的使用。该奖项由东亚和太平洋夏季学院计划支持一名美国研究生的夏季研究，由美国国家科学基金会和中国的科技部联合资助。

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.