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Adult plasticity in African cichlids: Rapid changes in opsin expression in response to environmental light differences.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to adapt quickly to local environmental conditions and could facilitate adaptive radiations. Cichlids have recently undergone an adaptive radiation in Lake Malawi where they inhabit diverse light environments and tune their visual sensitivity through differences in cone opsin expression. While cichlid opsin expression is known to be plastic over development, whether adults remain plastic is unknown. Adult plasticity in visual tuning could play a role in cichlid radiations by enabling survival in changing environments and facilitating invasion into novel environments. Here we examine the existence of and temporal changes in adult visual plasticity of two closely related species. In complementary experiments, wild adult Metriaclima mbenji from Lake Malawi were moved to the lab under UV-deficient fluorescent lighting; while lab raised M. benetos were placed under UV-rich lighting designed to mimic light conditions in the wild. Surprisingly, adult cichlids in both experiments showed significant changes in the expression of the UV-sensitive single cone opsin, SWS1, in only 3 days. Modeling quantum catches in the light environments revealed a possible link between the light available to the SWS1 visual pigment and SWS1 expression. We conclude that adult cichlids can undergo rapid and significant changes in opsin expression in response to environmental light shifts that are relevant to their habitat and evolutionary history in Lake Malawi. This could have contributed to the rapid divergence characteristic of these fantastic fishes.

SUBMITTER: Nandamuri SP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5690868 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Adult plasticity in African cichlids: Rapid changes in opsin expression in response to environmental light differences.

Nandamuri Sri Pratima SP Yourick Miranda R MR Carleton Karen L KL

Molecular ecology 20171009 21

Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to adapt quickly to local environmental conditions and could facilitate adaptive radiations. Cichlids have recently undergone an adaptive radiation in Lake Malawi where they inhabit diverse light environments and tune their visual sensitivity through differences in cone opsin expression. While cichlid opsin expression is known to be plastic over development, whether adults remain plastic is unknown. Adult plasticity in visual tuning could play a role in cic ...[more]

PMID: 28926160

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Project description:BackgroundLow socioeconomic status neighborhood exposure to stress and violence may be sources of negative stimuli that poses significant health risks for children, adolescents and throughout the life course of an individual. The study aims to investigate if aberrant epigenetic DNA methylation changes may be a potential mechanism for regulating neighborhood exposures and health outcomes.MethodsExposure to environmental stressors identified in 98 young African American (AA) adults aged 18-25 years old from the Washington D.C., area were used in the study. We correlated the association between stress markers; cortisol, CRP, IgG, IGA, IgM, and self-reported exposure to violence and stress, with quantitative DNA methylation changes in a panel of gene-specific loci using saliva DNA.ResultsIn all participants studied, the exposure to violence was significant and negatively correlated with DNA methylation of MST1R loci (p = 0.032; r = -0.971) and nominally significant with NR3C1 loci (p = 0.053; r = -0.948). In addition, we observed significant and negative correlation of DNA methylation changes of LINE1 (p = 0.044; r = -0.248); NR3C1 (p = 0.017; r = -0.186); MSTR1 (p = 0.022; r = -0.192); and DRD2 (p = 0.056; r = -0.184; albeit nominal significant correlation) with IgA expression. On the other hand, we observed a significant and position correlation of DNA methylation changes in DRD2 (p = 0.037; r = 0.184) with IgG expression. When participants were stratified by sex, we observed in AA young male adults, significant DNA methylation changes of MST1R (p< 0.05) and association with exposure to violence and IgG level. We also observed significant DNA methylation levels of DRD2 (p< 0.05) and association with IgA, IgG, and cortisol level. Furthermore, we observed significant DNA methylation changes of NR3C1 (p< 0.05) with stress, IgA, and IgG in the male participants only. On the other hand, we only observed significant and a positive association of IgG with DNA methylation levels of ESR1 (p = 0.041) in the young AA female participants.ConclusionOur preliminary observation of significant DNA methylation changes in neuronal and immune genes in saliva samples supports our recently published genome-wide DNA methylations changes in blood samples from young AA male adults indicating that saliva offers a non-invasive means for DNA methylation prediction of exposure to environmental stressors in a gender-specific manner.

Dataset Information

Adult plasticity in African cichlids: Rapid changes in opsin expression in response to environmental light differences.

Publications

Adult plasticity in African cichlids: Rapid changes in opsin expression in response to environmental light differences.

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