Wilkins Emily M, Anderson Audrey M, Buckley Katherine M, Strader Marie E
Auburn University, Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn, AL, 36830, USA.
University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
Mar Environ Res. 2024 Nov;202:106705. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106705. Epub 2024 Aug 23.
Anthropogenic climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves that may broadly impact the health of marine invertebrates. Rising ocean temperatures lead to increases in disease prevalence in marine organisms; it is therefore critical to understand how marine heatwaves impact immune system development. The purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) is an ecologically important, broadcast-spawning, omnivore that primarily inhabits kelp forests in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The S. purpuratus life cycle includes a relatively long-lived (∼2 months) planktotrophic larval stage. Larvae have a well-characterized cellular immune system that is mediated, in part, by a subset of mesenchymal cells known as pigment cells. To assess the role of environmental temperature on the development of larval immune cells, embryos were generated from adult sea urchins conditioned at 14 °C. Embryos were then cultured in either ambient (14 °C) or elevated (18 °C) seawater. Results indicate that larvae raised in an elevated temperature were slightly larger and had more pigment cells than those raised at ambient temperature. Further, the larval phenotypes varied significantly among genetic crosses, which highlights the importance of genotype in structuring how the immune system develops in the context of the environment. Overall, these results indicate that larvae are phenotypically plastic in modulating their immune cells and body length in response to adverse developmental conditions.
人为气候变化增加了海洋热浪的频率和强度，这可能广泛影响海洋无脊椎动物的健康。海洋温度上升导致海洋生物疾病流行率增加；因此，了解海洋热浪如何影响免疫系统发育至关重要。紫海胆（Strongylocentrotus purpuratus）是一种具有重要生态意义的、散播产卵的杂食动物，主要栖息在东北太平洋的海带森林中。紫海胆的生命周期包括一个相对长寿（约2个月）的浮游营养幼虫阶段。幼虫具有一个特征明确的细胞免疫系统，部分由一种称为色素细胞的间充质细胞亚群介导。为了评估环境温度对幼虫免疫细胞发育的作用，从在14°C条件下饲养的成年海胆中获取胚胎。然后将胚胎在环境温度（14°C）或升高温度（18°C）的海水中培养。结果表明，在较高温度下饲养的幼虫比在环境温度下饲养的幼虫略大，且色素细胞更多。此外，幼虫表型在不同遗传杂交组合之间有显著差异，这突出了基因型在构建免疫系统如何在环境背景下发育方面的重要性。总体而言，这些结果表明，幼虫在应对不利发育条件时，在调节其免疫细胞和体长方面具有表型可塑性。
