Ocean acidification affects acid-base physiology and behaviour in a model invertebrate, the California sea hare (Aplysia californica).
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Zlatkin RL
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6837219 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Ocean acidification affects acid-base physiology and behaviour in a model invertebrate, the California sea hare (<i>Aplysia californica</i>).
Zlatkin Rebecca L RL Heuer Rachael M RM
Royal Society open science 20191009 10
Behavioural impairment following exposure to ocean acidification-relevant CO<sub>2</sub> levels has been noted in a broad array of taxa. The underlying cause of these disruptions is thought to stem from alterations of ion gradients ( HC O 3 - / C l - ) across neuronal cell membranes that occur as a consequence of maintaining pH homeostasis via the accumulation of HC O 3 - . While behavioural impacts are widely documented, few studies have measured acid-base parameters in species showing behavi ...[more]
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Project description:The marine opisthobranch mollusk, Aplysia californica, is a powerful experimental system in cellular, molecular, and behavioral neuroscience as well as cell and evolutionary biology because of the distinctive organization of its nervous system, which makes it advantageous for cellular and comparative analysis of a variety of behaviors and learning and memory. Aplysia's large neurons allow examination of neuronal architecture of instinctive and learned behaviors at the level of single characterized cells and defined cellular compartments (e.g., synapses). As a result, many fundamental problems in neurobiology can be analyzed more effectively in Aplysias than in Drosophila, C. elegans, and vertebrates. In a larger sense work on Aplysia is synergistic with these other experimental systems. Here, we are sequencing the genome of Aplysia both to gain access to genomic mechanisms of basic neuronal and other functions and to study these mechanisms in real physiological time with single-neuron resolution. The distinction of Aplysia as a neurobiological and cellular model system is due to the following: (1) Its nervous system has a relatively small number of nerve cells. (2) Many of these cells are large (sometimes gigantic, up to 1 mm in diameter). (3) As a result of their size, pigmentation, and position in the nervous system, many cells can easily be uniquely identified at the single cell level and can be reliably linked to the animal's behavior. (4) The cells provide enough messenger RNA to generate cDNA libraries from single cells. (5) These neurons can be isolated and cultured in vitro and they form circuits which can be explored in detail at molecular and cellular levels. (6) The animal generates a variety of behaviors, many of which can be specified in terms of their underlying circuitry. (7) Some of these behaviors can be modified by different forms of learning. Aplysia are easy to rear in the laboratory from fertilized ova to mature adults and it is possible to obtain an inbred stock of reproducing animals. In 1995, the NIH established a National Resource Center for Aplysia at the University of Miami to meet the growing needs of the biomedical community. This Center supplies over 20,000 cultured Aplysia at all developmental stages annually to the research community throughout the world. This community consists of more than 100 laboratories and over a thousand investigators with overall research budgets of tens of millions of dollars annually. In addition to its value to the neurobiological community, Aplysia is also of interest from a comparative biological perspective. Aplysia is a free-living representative of Mollusca, the second largest animal phylum (after Arthropoda). Members of this phylum have received relatively little genetic study, even though they are of considerable significance for evolutionary and developmental biology and for basic and applied biomedical studies. Aplysia has a stable diploid genome consisting of 17 haploid chromosomes with highly polyploid central neurons. The genome size of about 850 million base pairs is typical for many molluscan species. Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have already been sequenced, including more than 50,000 unique sequences representing several thousand genes, from the central nervous system of Aplysia – see Moroz et al (2006) . These ESTs have revealed many signaling molecules and pathways, including their key receptors, kinases and substrate proteins, but many rare yet key genes (e.g., ionic channels) have escaped detection so far. To achieve a complete understanding of the biologically important genes and their regulatory elements, a careful annotation and analysis of the sequenced genome is analysis is required. The Aplysia genome project will serve two major functions. First, it will be important for neuroscience by providing a critical resource for facilitating: (a) identification of all genes and regulatory regions of this valuable organism, (b) assembling microarrays and cDNA libraries for global expression studies, including those based on single neurons and their processes, and (c) gene function analysis by RNA interference screens. Second, the Aplysia genome will be important for comparative, developmental and evolutionary biology. Aplysia will serve as a complementary invertebrate/molluscan genomic model from the most diverse and second largest clade of bilaterally symmetrical animals. The Aplysia genome will promote studies of metazoan evolution, developmental biology, neuroscience, and human health, including identifying and validating therapeutic targets for human disorders that are related to aging, cancer, the central nervous system, as well as learning and memory mechanisms.
2022-10-11 | GSE79231 | GEO
Project description:Aplysia californica is a marine opisthobranch mollusc used as a model organism in neurobiology for cellular analyses of learning and behavior because it possesses a comparatively small number of neurons of large size. The mollusca comprise the second largest animal phylum, yet detailed genetic and genomic information is only recently beginning to accrue. Thus developmental and comparative evolutionary biology as well as biomedical research would benefit from additional information on DNA sequences of Aplysia. Therefore, we have constructed a series of unidirectional cDNA libraries from different life stages of Aplysia. These include whole organisms from the egg, veliger, metamorphic, and juvenile stages as well as adult neural tissue for reference. Individual clones were randomly picked, and high-throughput, single pass sequence analysis was performed to generate 7971 sequences. Of these, there were 5507 quality-filtered ESTs that clustered into 1988 unigenes, which are annotated and deposited into GenBank. A significant number (497) of ESTs did not match existing Aplysia ESTs and are thus potentially novel sequences for Aplysia. GO and KEGG analyses of these novel sequences indicated that a large number were involved in protein binding and translation, consistent with the predominant biosynthetic role in development and the presence of stage-specific protein isoforms.
| S-EPMC2875295 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The monitoring of global transcription patterns during development is a useful first step to understand mechanisms underlying growth, differentiation and patterning in a given species. However such large scale developmental studies are so far only available from a few selected model organisms such as mouse, Drosophila and the nematode C. elegans. Genomic scale information from the lophotrochozoa is now emerging. The recently characterized neuronal transcriptome of the sea hare Aplysia californica (~200’000 ESTs and ~40,000 unique non-redundant sequences representing about 55-70% of all neuronal transcripts including splice forms and non-coding RNAs) provides new insights and opportunities into problems of molluscan development and specifically neurogenesis. Regulatory genes used in development are recruited for the functions of adult nervous systems such as synaptogenesis, specific wiring in networks and structural changes underlying synaptic plasticity. While this similarity reflects a basic concept in biology, namely the recruitment of the same genes for different functions, it has never been tested on a large scale genomic level. We used representative oligo-arrays constructed from transcripts obtained from the Aplysia nervous system to explore the following two questions: 1) What neuronal genes are differentially expressed during embryonic development of the sea hare Aplysia. 2) What gene expression changes can be observed in correlation with gastrulation, metamorphosis, and larval neurogenesis. For this purpose we hybridized RNA from 3 embryonic (64 cells, gastrula, trochophore) and 4 larval stages (pre-hatching, post-hatching, pre-metamorphosis, postmetamorphosis) against a reference sample consisting of equal contributions from all stages. Our analysis revealed that all embryonic and larval stages can be distinguished based on their transcription profiles. A comparison of the Aplysia atlas with similar studies in Drosophila and mouse reveals interesting differences. We identified several new transcription factors which are differentially expressed during early embryonic development. Various other transcripts involved in metabolism and differentiation were characterized. These genes can be candidate targets for understanding neuronal growth, synaptogenesis and memory mechanisms. We conclude that the microarray technology provides us with a powerful tool for efficient survey and functional annotation of the neuronal transcriptome in Aplysia.
2010-10-05 | GSE14941 | GEO
Project description:The monitoring of global transcription patterns during development is a useful first step to understand mechanisms underlying growth, differentiation and patterning in a given species. However such large scale developmental studies are so far only available from a few selected model organisms such as mouse, Drosophila and the nematode C. elegans. Genomic scale information from the lophotrochozoa is now emerging. The recently characterized neuronal transcriptome of the sea hare Aplysia californica (~200’000 ESTs and ~40,000 unique non-redundant sequences representing about 55-70% of all neuronal transcripts including splice forms and non-coding RNAs) provides new insights and opportunities into problems of molluscan development and specifically neurogenesis. Regulatory genes used in development are recruited for the functions of adult nervous systems such as synaptogenesis, specific wiring in networks and structural changes underlying synaptic plasticity. While this similarity reflects a basic concept in biology, namely the recruitment of the same genes for different functions, it has never been tested on a large scale genomic level. We used representative oligo-arrays constructed from transcripts obtained from the Aplysia nervous system to explore the following two questions: 1) What neuronal genes are differentially expressed during embryonic development of the sea hare Aplysia. 2) What gene expression changes can be observed in correlation with gastrulation, metamorphosis, and larval neurogenesis. For this purpose we hybridized RNA from 3 embryonic (64 cells, gastrula, trochophore) and 4 larval stages (pre-hatching, post-hatching, pre-metamorphosis, postmetamorphosis) against a reference sample consisting of equal contributions from all stages. Our analysis revealed that all embryonic and larval stages can be distinguished based on their transcription profiles. A comparison of the Aplysia atlas with similar studies in Drosophila and mouse reveals interesting differences. We identified several new transcription factors which are differentially expressed during early embryonic development. Various other transcripts involved in metabolism and differentiation were characterized. These genes can be candidate targets for understanding neuronal growth, synaptogenesis and memory mechanisms. We conclude that the microarray technology provides us with a powerful tool for efficient survey and functional annotation of the neuronal transcriptome in Aplysia. We used a reference design for this study where we hybridized each of the 8 developmental stages of Aplysia (cleavage, gastrula, trochophore, first veliger, hatching veliger, pre-metamorphosis (stage 6), post-metamorphosis (stage 7), post-metamorphosis 60 hours (pm60)
2010-10-04 | E-GEOD-14941 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Anthropogenic elevation of atmospheric CO2 is driving global-scale ocean acidification, which consequently influences calcification rates of many marine invertebrates and potentially alters their susceptibility to predation. Ocean acidification may also impair an organism's ability to process environmental and biological cues. These counteracting impacts make it challenging to predict how acidification will alter species interactions and community structure. To examine effects of acidification on consumptive and behavioural interactions between mud crabs (Panopeus herbstii) and oysters (Crassostrea virginica), oysters were reared with and without caged crabs for 71 days at three pCO2 levels. During subsequent predation trials, acidification reduced prey consumption, handling time and duration of unsuccessful predation attempt. These negative effects of ocean acidification on crab foraging behaviour more than offset any benefit to crabs resulting from a reduction in the net rate of oyster calcification. These findings reveal that efforts to evaluate how acidification will alter marine food webs should include quantifying impacts on both calcification rates and animal behaviour.
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Project description:Genome-wide transcriptional changes in development provide important insight into mechanisms underlying growth, differentiation, and patterning. However, such large-scale developmental studies have been limited to a few representatives of Ecdysozoans and Chordates. Here, we characterize transcriptomes of embryonic, larval, and metamorphic development in the marine mollusc Aplysia californica and reveal novel molecular components associated with life history transitions. Specifically, we identify more than 20 signal peptides, putative hormones, and transcription factors in association with early development and metamorphic stages-many of which seem to be evolutionarily conserved elements of signal transduction pathways. We also characterize genes related to biomineralization-a critical process of molluscan development. In summary, our experiment provides the first large-scale survey of gene expression in mollusc development, and complements previous studies on the regulatory mechanisms underlying body plan patterning and the formation of larval and juvenile structures. This study serves as a resource for further functional annotation of transcripts and genes in Aplysia, specifically and molluscs in general. A comparison of the Aplysia developmental transcriptome with similar studies in the zebra fish Danio rerio, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and other studies on molluscs suggests an overall highly divergent pattern of gene regulatory mechanisms that are likely a consequence of the different developmental modes of these organisms.
| S-EPMC4028319 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Ocean acidification poses a range of threats to marine invertebrates; however, the emerging and likely widespread effects of rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on marine invertebrate behaviour are still little understood. Here, we show that ocean acidification alters and impairs key ecological behaviours of the predatory cone snail Conus marmoreus Projected near-future seawater CO2 levels (975 µatm) increased activity in this coral reef molluscivore more than threefold (from less than 4 to more than 12 mm min-1) and decreased the time spent buried to less than one-third when compared with the present-day control conditions (390 µatm). Despite increasing activity, elevated CO2 reduced predation rate during predator-prey interactions with control-treated humpbacked conch, Gibberulus gibberulus gibbosus; 60% of control predators successfully captured and consumed their prey, compared with only 10% of elevated CO2 predators. The alteration of key ecological behaviours of predatory invertebrates by near-future ocean acidification could have potentially far-reaching implications for predator-prey interactions and trophic dynamics in marine ecosystems. Combined evidence that the behaviours of both species in this predator-prey relationship are altered by elevated CO2 suggests food web interactions and ecosystem structure will become increasingly difficult to predict as ocean acidification advances over coming decades.
| S-EPMC5326510 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Study objectiveTo characterize sleep in the marine mollusk, Aplysia californica.DesignAnimal behavior and activity were assessed using video recordings to measure activity, resting posture, resting place preference, and behavior after rest deprivation. Latencies for behavioral responses were measured for appetitive and aversive stimuli for animals in the wake and rest states.SettingCircadian research laboratory for Aplysia.Patients or participantsA. californica from the Pacific Ocean.InterventionsN/A.Measurements and resultsAplysia rest almost exclusively during the night in a semi-contracted body position with preferential resting locations in the upper corners of their tank. Resting animals demonstrate longer latencies in head orientation and biting in response to a seaweed stimulus and less frequent escape response steps following an aversive salt stimulus applied to the tail compared to awake animals at the same time point. Aplysia exhibit rebound rest the day following rest deprivation during the night, but not after similar handling stimulation during the day.ConclusionsResting behavior in Aplysia fulfills all invertebrate characteristics of sleep including: (1) a specific sleep body posture, (2) preferred resting location, (3) reversible behavioral quiescence, (4) elevated arousal thresholds for sensory stimuli during sleep, and (5) compensatory sleep rebound after sleep deprivation.
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Project description:The California Current System (CCS) sustains economically valuable fisheries and is particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification, due to its natural upwelling of carbon-enriched waters that generate corrosive conditions for local ecosystems. Here we use a novel suite of retrospective, initialized ensemble forecasts with an Earth system model (ESM) to predict the evolution of surface pH anomalies in the CCS. We show that the forecast system skillfully predicts observed surface pH variations a year in advance over a naive forecasting method, with the potential for skillful prediction up to five years in advance. Skillful predictions of surface pH are mainly derived from the initialization of dissolved inorganic carbon anomalies that are subsequently transported into the CCS. Our results demonstrate the potential for ESMs to provide skillful predictions of ocean acidification on large scales in the CCS. Initialized ESMs could also provide boundary conditions to improve high-resolution regional forecasting systems.
| S-EPMC7195403 | biostudies-literature