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Elevated seasonal temperature disrupts prooxidant-antioxidant homeostasis and promotes cellular apoptosis in the American oyster, Crassostrea virginica, in the Gulf of Mexico: a field study

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Abstract

One of the major impacts of climate change has been the marked rise in global temperature. Recently, we demonstrated that high temperatures (1-week exposure) disrupt prooxidant-antioxidant homeostasis and promote cellular apoptosis in the American oyster. In this study, we evaluated the effects of seasonal sea surface temperature (SST) on tissue morphology, extrapallial fluid (EPF) conditions, heat shock protein-70 (HSP70), dinitrophenyl protein (DNP, an indicator of reactive oxygen species, ROS), 3-nitrotyrosine protein (NTP, an indicator of RNS), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) protein expressions, and cellular apoptosis in gills and digestive glands of oysters collected on the southern Texas coast during the winter (15 °C), spring (24 °C), summer (30 °C), and fall (27 °C). Histological observations of both tissues showed a notable increase in mucus production and an enlargement of the digestive gland lumen with seasonal temperature rise, whereas biochemical analyses exhibited a significant decrease in EPF pH and protein concentration. Immunohistochemical analyses showed higher expression of HSP70 along with the expression of DNP and NTP in oyster tissues during summer. Intriguingly, CAT and SOD protein expressions exhibited significant upregulation with rising seasonal temperatures (15 to 27 °C), which decreased significantly in summer (30 °C), leaving oysters vulnerable to oxidative and nitrative damage. qRT-PCR analysis revealed a significant increase in HSP70 mRNA levels in oyster tissues during the warmer seasons. In situ TUNNEL assay showed a significant increase in apoptotic cells in seasons with high temperature. These results suggest that elevated SST induces oxidative/nitrative stress through the overproduction of ROS/RNS and disrupts the antioxidant system which promotes cellular apoptosis in oysters.

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All relevant data are within the paper, and its supporting information files are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We greatly appreciate for the cordial help of Maruf Billah, Brittney Lacy, and Md Faizur Rahman, School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences (SEEMS), University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), with the oyster collections and dissections. We also give thanks to the Texas Park & Wildlife Department for allowing us in collecting oysters, and Dr. Aubrey Converse, University of Texas Marine Science Institute, for her valuable comments and suggestions on the manuscript. We would also like to thank and appreciate Dr. Manuela Truebano, Senior Editor, Cell Stress and Chaperones, and anonymous reviewers, for providing constructive comments and valuable suggestions on our manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded in part by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Presidential Graduate Research Assistantship to Md Sadequr Rahman and the start-up fund and UTRGV College of Science SEED grant (grant no. 210000371) to Dr. Md Saydur Rahman.

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Correspondence to Md Saydur Rahman.

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The UTRGV Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee does not require any animal care and/or handling protocol for terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates. All oysters, however, were handled and/or cared according to the Guide for Care and Use Animals for research in the US National Research Council Committee (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals.pdf).

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Md Sadequr Rahman: field sampling, data collecting, statistical analyzing, writing original draft of manuscript. Md Saydur Rahman: field sampling; data collecting and analyzing; writing, reviewing, and editing manuscript; supervision.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Rahman, M.S., Rahman, M.S. Elevated seasonal temperature disrupts prooxidant-antioxidant homeostasis and promotes cellular apoptosis in the American oyster, Crassostrea virginica, in the Gulf of Mexico: a field study. Cell Stress and Chaperones 26, 917–936 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12192-021-01232-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12192-021-01232-2

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