School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences , Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems , Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
J Exp Biol. 2023 Jun 1;226(11). doi: 10.1242/jeb.245644. Epub 2023 Jun 8.
Protective responses are pivotal in aiding organismal persistence in complex, multi-stressor environments. Multiple-stressor research has traditionally focused on the deleterious effects of exposure to concurrent stressors. However, encountering one stressor can sometimes confer heightened tolerance to a second stressor, a phenomenon termed 'cross-protection'. Cross-protection has been documented in a wide diversity of taxa (spanning the bacteria, fungi, plant and animal kingdoms) and habitats (intertidal, freshwater, rainforests and polar zones) in response to many stressors (e.g. hypoxia, predation, desiccation, pathogens, crowding, salinity, food limitation). Remarkably, cross-protection benefits have also been shown among emerging, anthropogenic stressors, such as heatwaves and microplastics. In this Commentary, we discuss the mechanistic basis and adaptive significance of cross-protection, and put forth the idea that cross-protection will act as a 'pre-adaptation' to a changing world. We highlight the critical role that experimental biology has played in disentangling stressor interactions and provide advice for enhancing the ecological realism of laboratory studies. Moving forward, research will benefit from a greater focus on quantifying the longevity of cross-protection responses and the costs associated with this protective response. This approach will enable us to make robust predictions of species' responses to complex environments, without making the erroneous assumption that all stress is deleterious.
保护响应对于帮助生物体在复杂的多胁迫环境中生存至关重要。多胁迫研究传统上侧重于同时暴露于应激源的有害影响。然而，有时遇到一种应激源可以增强对第二种应激源的耐受性，这种现象称为“交叉保护”。在许多应激源（如缺氧、捕食、干旱、病原体、拥挤、盐度、食物限制）的作用下，已经在广泛的生物多样性（包括细菌、真菌、植物和动物王国）和栖息地（潮间带、淡水、热带雨林和极地）中记录了交叉保护。值得注意的是，交叉保护益处也已在新兴的人为胁迫因素中得到证实，例如热浪和微塑料。在本评论中，我们讨论了交叉保护的机制基础和适应意义，并提出了这样一种观点，即交叉保护将作为应对不断变化世界的“预适应”。我们强调了实验生物学在阐明胁迫相互作用方面所起的关键作用，并为增强实验室研究的生态现实性提供了建议。展望未来，研究将受益于更多地关注量化交叉保护响应的持久性以及与这种保护响应相关的成本。这种方法将使我们能够对物种对复杂环境的反应做出稳健的预测，而不会错误地假设所有的应激都是有害的。
