Biology Department, University of Crete, Herakleion, Crete, Greece.
Developmental Biology, Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Sci Rep. 2018 May 25;8(1):8125. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-25991-8.
Over the next century, climate change of anthropogenic origin is a major threat to global biodiversity. We show here that developmental temperature can have significant effects on zebrafish cardiac anatomy and swimming performance. Zebrafish embryos were subjected to three developmental temperature treatments (T = 24, 28 or 32 °C) up to metamorphosis and then all maintained under common conditions (28 °C) to adulthood. We found that developmental temperature affected cardiac anatomy of juveniles and adults even eight months after the different thermal treatments had been applied. The elevation of T induced a significant increase of the ventricle roundness in juvenile (10% increase) and male (22% increase), but not in female zebrafish. The aerobic exercise performance of adult zebrafish was significantly decreased as T elevated from 24 to 32 °C. Gene expression analysis that was performed at the end of the temperature treatments revealed significant up-regulation of nppa, myh7 and mybpc3 genes at the colder temperature. Our work provides the first evidence for a direct link between developmental temperature and cardiac form at later life-stages. Our results also add to the emerging rationale for understanding the potential effects of global warming on how fish will perform in their natural environment.
在未来的一个世纪里，人为造成的气候变化是对全球生物多样性的主要威胁。我们在这里表明，发育温度会对斑马鱼的心脏解剖结构和游泳性能产生显著影响。我们将斑马鱼胚胎暴露于三种发育温度处理（T=24、28 或 32°C），直到变态期，然后在成年期都维持在相同的条件（28°C）下。我们发现，即使在不同的热处理应用 8 个月后，发育温度仍会影响幼鱼和成年鱼的心脏解剖结构。温度升高会导致幼鱼（心室圆度增加 10%）和雄性（心室圆度增加 22%）的心室圆度显著增加，但雌性斑马鱼没有这种情况。当温度从 24°C 升高到 32°C 时，成年斑马鱼的有氧运动性能显著下降。在温度处理结束时进行的基因表达分析显示，在较冷的温度下，nppa、myh7 和 mybpc3 基因的表达显著上调。我们的工作首次提供了发育温度与后期生命阶段心脏形态之间直接联系的证据。我们的研究结果也增加了对全球变暖如何影响鱼类在其自然环境中的表现的潜在影响的理解的依据。
