School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Assessment of hypoxiainducible factor-1α mRNA expression in mantis shrimp as a biomarker of environmental hypoxia exposure

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-23-2012

Abstract

Efforts to assess the ecological impacts of the marked increase in coastal hypoxia worldwide have been hampered by a lack of biomarkers of hypoxia exposure in marine benthic organisms. Here, we show that hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1a) transcript levels in the heart and cerebral ganglion of mantis shrimp (Oratosquilla oratoria) collected from hypoxic sites in Tokyo Bay are elevated several-fold over those in shrimp collected from normoxic sites. Upregulation of HIF-1α mRNA levels in the heart after exposure to sub-lethal hypoxia was confirmed in controlled laboratory experiments. HIF-1α transcript levels were increased at approximately threefold after 7 and 14 days of hypoxia exposure and declined to control levels within 24 h of restoration to normoxic conditions. The results provide the first evidence for upregulation of HIF-1α transcript levels in two hypoxia-sensitive organs, heart and cerebral ganglion, in a marine invertebrate exposed to environmental hypoxia. These results suggest that upregulation of HIF- 1α transcript levels is an important component in adaptation of mantis shrimp to chronic hypoxia and is a potentially useful biomarker of environmental hypoxia exposure.

Comments

© 2011 The Royal Society.

First Page

278

Last Page

281

Publication Title

Biology Letters

DOI

10.1098/rsbl.2011.0887

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