Abstract
Euryhaline Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) are native to estuaries where they encounter tidal fluctuations in environmental salinity. These fluctuations can be dramatic, subjecting individuals to salinities characteristic of fresh water (FW < 0.5‰) and seawater (SW 35‰) within a single tidal cycle. In the current study, we reared tilapia under a tidal regimen that simulated the dynamic conditions of their native habitat. Tilapia were sampled every 3 h over a 24 h period to temporally resolve how prolactin (PRL) signaling is modulated in parallel with genes encoding branchial effectors of osmoregulation. The following parameters were measured: plasma osmolality, plasma PRL177 and PRL188 concentrations, pituitary prl177 and prl188 gene expression, and branchial prl receptor (prlr1 and prlr2), Na+/Cl−-cotransporter (ncc2), Na+/K+/2Cl−-cotransporter (nkcc1a), Na+/K+-ATPase (nkaα1a and nkaα1b), cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (cftr), and aquaporin 3 (aqp3) gene expression. Throughout the 24 h sampling period, plasma osmolality reflected whether tilapia were sampled during the FW or SW phases of the tidal cycle, whereas pituitary prl gene expression and plasma PRL levels remained stable. Branchial patterns of ncc2, nkcc1a, nkaα1a, nkaα1b, cftr, and aqp3 gene expression indicated that fish exposed to tidally changing salinities regulate the expression of these gene transcripts in a similar fashion as fish held under static SW conditions. By contrast, branchial prlr1 and prlr2 levels were highly labile throughout the tidal cycle. We conclude that local (branchial) regulation of endocrine signaling underlies the capacity of euryhaline fishes, such as Mozambique tilapia, to thrive under dynamic salinity conditions.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Mr. Julian Leon for laboratory assistance and Dr. Lucia A. Seale and Ms. Amanda Reyes for sampling assistance.
Funding
This work was funded in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (IOS-1755016 and IOS-1755131 to APS and JPB), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NA18OAR4170347 to DTL and APS and NA14OAR4170071, which is sponsored by the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program projects R/SS-12 and R/SB-18 to APS), the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases 1R21DK111775-01 from the National Institutes of Health to APS, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch No. HAW02051-H to APS. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the aforementioned granting agencies. University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant publication number UNIHI-SEAGRANT-JC-14-62.
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Seale, A.P., Pavlosky, K.K., Celino-Brady, F.T. et al. Systemic versus tissue-level prolactin signaling in a teleost during a tidal cycle. J Comp Physiol B 189, 581–594 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-019-01233-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-019-01233-9