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Otolith chemistry indicates recent worsened Baltic cod condition is linked to hypoxia exposure.

ABSTRACT: Deoxygenation worldwide is increasing in aquatic systems with implications for organisms' biology, communities and ecosystems. Eastern Baltic cod has experienced a strong decline in mean body condition (i.e. weight at a specific length) over the past 20 years with effects on the fishery relying on this resource. The decrease in cod condition has been tentatively linked in the literature to increased hypoxic areas potentially affecting habitat range, but also to benthic prey and/or cod physiology directly. To date, no studies have been performed to test these mechanisms. Using otolith trace element microchemistry and hypoxia-responding metrics based on manganese (Mn) and magnesium (Mg), we investigated the relationship between fish body condition at capture and exposure to hypoxia. Cod individuals collected after 2000 with low body condition had a higher level of Mn/Mg in the last year of life, indicating higher exposure to hypoxic waters than cod with high body condition. Moreover, lifetime exposure to hypoxia was even more strongly correlated to body condition, suggesting that condition may reflect long-term hypoxia status. These results were irrespective of fish age or sex. This implies that as Baltic cod visit poor-oxygen waters, perhaps searching for benthic food, they compromise their own performance. This study specifically sheds light on the mechanisms leading to the low condition of cod and generally points to the impact of deoxygenation on ecosystems and fisheries.

SUBMITTER: Limburg KE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6936021 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Otolith chemistry indicates recent worsened Baltic cod condition is linked to hypoxia exposure.

Limburg Karin E KE Casini Michele M

Biology letters 20191211 12

Deoxygenation worldwide is increasing in aquatic systems with implications for organisms' biology, communities and ecosystems. Eastern Baltic cod has experienced a strong decline in mean body condition (i.e. weight at a specific length) over the past 20 years with effects on the fishery relying on this resource. The decrease in cod condition has been tentatively linked in the literature to increased hypoxic areas potentially affecting habitat range, but also to benthic prey and/or cod physiology ...[more]

PMID: 31822246

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Project description:Establishing relationships between parasite infection and physiological condition of the host can be difficult and therefore are often neglected when describing factors causing population declines. Using the parasite-host system between the parasitic nematode Contracaecum osculatum and the Eastern Baltic cod Gadus morhua, we here shed new light on how parasite load may relate to the physiological condition of a transport host. The Eastern Baltic cod is in distress, with declining nutritional conditions, disappearance of the larger fish, high natural mortality and no signs of recovery of the population. During the latest decade, high infection levels with C. osculatum have been observed in fish in the central and southern parts of the Baltic Sea. We investigated the aerobic performance, nutritional condition, organ masses, and plasma and proximate body composition of wild naturally infected G. morhua in relation to infection density with C. osculatum. Fish with high infection densities of C. osculatum had (i) decreased nutritional condition, (ii) depressed energy turnover as evidenced by reduced standard metabolic rate, (iii) reduction in the digestive organ masses, and alongside (iv) changes in the plasma, body and liver composition, and fish energy source. The significantly reduced albumin to globulin ratio in highly infected G. morhua suggests that the fish suffer from a chronic liver disease. Furthermore, fish with high infection loads had the lowest Fulton's condition factor. Yet, it remains unknown whether our results steam from a direct effect of C. osculatum, or because G. morhua in an already compromised nutritional state are more susceptible towards the parasite. Nevertheless, impairment of the physiological condition can lead to reduced swimming performance, compromising foraging success while augmenting the risk of predation, potentially leading to an increase in the natural mortality of the host. We hence argue that fish-parasite interactions must not be neglected when implementing and refining strategies to rebuild deteriorating populations.

Project description:The eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua) population has been decreasing in the Baltic Sea for at least 30 years. Condition indices of the Baltic cod have decreased, and previous studies have suggested that this might be due to overfishing, predation, lower dissolved oxygen or changes in salinity. However, numerous studies from the Baltic Sea have demonstrated an ongoing thiamine deficiency in several animal classes, both invertebrates and vertebrates. The thiamine status of the eastern Baltic cod was investigated to determine if thiamine deficiency might be a factor in ongoing population declines. Thiamine concentrations were determined by chemical analyses of thiamine, thiamine monophosphate and thiamine diphosphate (combined SumT) in the liver using high performance liquid chromatography. Biochemical analyses measured the activity of the thiamine diphosphate-dependent enzyme transketolase to determine the proportion of apoenzymes in both liver and brain tissue. These biochemical analyses showed that 77% of the cod were thiamine deficient in the liver, of which 13% had a severe thiamine deficiency (i.e. 25% transketolase enzymes lacked thiamine diphosphate). The brain tissue of 77% of the cod showed thiamine deficiency, of which 64% showed severe thiamine deficiency. The thiamine deficiency biomarkers were investigated to find correlations to different biological parameters, such as length, weight, otolith weight, age (annuli counting) and different organ weights. The results suggested that thiamine deficiency increased with age. The SumT concentration ranged between 2.4-24 nmol/g in the liver, where the specimens with heavier otoliths had lower values of SumT (P = 0.0031). Of the cod sampled, only 2% of the specimens had a Fulton's condition factor indicating a healthy specimen, and 49% had a condition factor below 0.8, indicating poor health status. These results, showing a severe thiamine deficiency in eastern Baltic cod from the only known area where spawning presently occurs for this species, are of grave concern.

Project description:Purpose: To investigate any association between parasite infection and physiological status of the host we performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis of liver obtained from C. osculatum infected and non-infected cod. Methods: Samples for transcriptomic analyses were collected from cod caught by local fishermen. Infected cod: Live cod (ten specimens) obtained by trawling along the Coastline of Bornholm were brought ashore (Nexø, Bornholm island, Denmark) and stocked in fish tanks (volume 8 cubic meter) supplied with running saltwater from the Baltic (salinity 8 ppt, temperature 10 °C). Non-infected cod: Live cod (ten specimens) were caught on the coastline of Zealand and stocked in similar fish tanks at the fish keeping facility (Blue Planet, Kastrup, Denmark). Total RNA was extracted using RTN350 (Sigma-Aldrich), according to the manufacturer’s instruction and subsequently, DNase treated with DNase I (Thermo Scientific, USA). Quality and integrity of the total RNA were checked on an Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100 total RNA Nano series II chip (Agilent, Amstelveen, Netherlands). Illumina RNAseq libraries were prepared from 500 ng total RNA using the Illumina TruSeqTM Stranded mRNA LT Sample Prep Kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Illumina Inc. San Diego, CA, USA). All RNAseq libraries (150-750 bp inserts) were sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq2500 sequencer as 1 x 50 nucleotides single-end reads according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Image analysis and base calling were done using the Illumina pipeline. Reads were aligned to the Rainbow trout reference genome (http://www.genoscope.cns.fr/trout/data/) using TopHat (version 2.0.5) and on average 53.4% of the RNAseq reads could be mapped. The resulting files were filtered using SAMtools (version 0.1.18) to exclude secondary alignment of reads. For statistical comparison of gene expression levels between groups, aligned fragments per predicted gene were counted from SAM alignment files using the Python package HTSeq (version 0.5.3p9). To make comparisons across samples possible, these fragment counts were corrected for the total amount of sequencing performed for each sample. As a correction scalling factor, we employed library size estimates determined using the R/Bioconductor (release 2.11) package DESeq. Read counts were normalized by dividing the raw counts obtained from HTSeq by its scale factor. Correction for false positives is included in the statistical analysis of gene expression through DESeq. The cut-off for significance was set to adjusted p<0.05 and at least 2-fold change. Results: A total of 47,025 unigenes were identified from cod liver, of which 2,085 (4.43%) unigenes were differentially expressed in the infected liver when compared to non-infected. Of the differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs) 1,240 unigenes were up-regulated while 796 were down-regulated. The Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis showed that 845 DEGs were highly represented in cellular process and single-organism process, cell and cell part, binding and catalytic activity. As determined by the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genomes (KEGG) Pathways analysis, 241 DEGs were involved in 753 pathways. Eighty DEGs were related to metabolic pathways including carbohydrate, lipid, and amino acid metabolism. Twenty-four regulated genes were playing a role in immune response such as complement and coagulation cascades, B-cell receptor signalling, chemokine signalling and twenty-five genes (most of which were down-regulated) were associated with growth of Baltic cod Conclusion: a transcriptomic profile of rainbow trout gills exposed to the parasitic I. multifiliis was reported for the first time. A total of 3,355 differentially expressed unigenes were identified. Of these were 1,184 unigenes (mapped to 952 genes) annotated 282 KEGG pathways and 268 unigenes were associated with 16 immune pathways. Most unigenes were related to innate immune system pathways (Chemokine signaling pathway, Platelet activation, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, and Leukocyte transendothelial migration) although a number of unigenes was related to adaptive responses (antigen processing and presentation, T and B cell receptor signaling pathway). The present study gave a far better resolution of the immune response of rainbow trout exposed to a parasitic protozoan than has ever been presented previously. The identification of a series of immune genes involved in several but important was useful for understanding of immune mechanism of the rainbow trout responding to the parasite I. multifiliis. Our results provide tools to link innate and adaptive immune elements in the process and present basic information which will be useful in the future studies related to immunoprophylaxis.

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Otolith chemistry indicates recent worsened Baltic cod condition is linked to hypoxia exposure.

Publications

Otolith chemistry indicates recent worsened Baltic cod condition is linked to hypoxia exposure.

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