Arctic charr exposed to acute thermal stress

ABSTRACT: Arctic charr is an especially attractive aquaculture species given that it features the desirable tissue traits of other salmonids, but can be bred and grown at inland freshwater tank farms year round. It is therefore of interest to develop upper temperature tolerant (UTT) strains of Arctic charr to increase the robustness of the species in the face of climate change, as well as to enable production in more southern regions. We conducted an acute temperature trial to identify temperature tolerant and intolerant Arctic charr individuals. Specifically, approximately 200 fish were transferred to an experimental tank (diameter: 1.86 m, depth 50 cm) and left to acclimate for 48 h at ambient temperature. After acclimation, 10 fish were removed to act as a control group, then water that had been diverted through a heat exchanger was added to the flow-through system to increase the water temperature in the tank by 6°C/h until it reached 22°C, then 0.5°C every 30 min until the water reached 25°C, the observed lethal temperature for these fish. When the water temperature reached 25°C, the temperature was held constant and the fish were closely monitored for signs of stress. The first and last 10 individuals to show loss of balance were quickly removed from the tank for sampling, thus representing the 5% least and most temperature tolerant fish, respectively. A reference design microarray study was then performed with the cGRASP 32K microarray using six samples from each group (Intolerant, Tolerant, Control) to identify genes differentially expressed between groups. The results of this study will feed into an ongoing Arctic charr marker-assisted selection based broodstock development program, and may contribute to population-based conservation initiatives for salmonids in general.

ORGANISM(S): Salmo salar Salvelinus alpinus

PROVIDER: GSE26306 | GEO | 2011/06/01

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA136745

REPOSITORIES: GEO