Project description:Among terrestrial ectotherms, hibernation is a common response to extreme cold temperatures and is associated with reduced physiological rates, including immunity. When winter wanes and temperatures increase, so too do vital rates of both ectothermic hosts and their parasites. Due to metabolic scaling, if parasite activity springs back faster than host immune functions then cold seasons and transitions between cold and warm seasons may represent periods of vulnerability for ectothermic hosts. Understanding host regulation of physiological rates at seasonal junctions is a first step toward identifying thermal mismatches between hosts and parasites. Here we show that immune gene expression is responsive to transitions into and out of the cold season in a winter-adapted amphibian, the wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus), and that frogs experienced parasitism by at least two nematode species throughout the entirety of the cold season. In both splenic and skin tissues, we observed a decrease in immune gene expression going from fall to winter, observed no changes between winter and emergence from hibernation, and observed increases in immune gene expression after hibernation ended. At all timepoints, differentially expressed genes from spleens were more highly enriched for immune system processes than those from ventral skin, especially with respect to terms related to adaptive immune processes. Infection with nematode lungworms was also associated with upregulation of immune processes in the spleen. We suggest that rather than being a period of stagnation, during which physiological processes and infection potential cease, the cold season is immunologically dynamic, requiring coordinated regulation of many biological processes, and that the reemergence period may be an important time during which hosts invest in preparatory immunity.
Project description:Intertidal zone organisms can experience transient freezing temperatures during winter low tides, but their extreme cold tolerance mechanisms are not known. Petrolisthes cinctipes is a temperate mid-high intertidal zone crab species that can experience wintertime habitat temperatures below the freezing point of seawater. We examined how cold tolerance changed during the initial phase of thermal acclimation to cold and warm temperatures, as well as the persistence of cold tolerance during long-term thermal acclimation. Thermal acclimation for as little as 6 hours at 8˚C enhanced crab tolerance during a 1h exposure to -2°C relative to crabs acclimated to 18˚C. Potential mechanisms for this enhanced tolerance were elucidated using cDNA microarrays to probe for differences in gene expression in cardiac tissue of warm and cold acclimated crabs during the first day of thermal acclimation. No changes in gene expression were detected until 12h of thermal acclimation. Genes strongly upregulated in warm acclimated crabs represented immune response and extracellular / intercellular processes, suggesting that warm acclimated crabs had a generalized stress response and may have been remodelling tissues or altering intercellular processes. Genes strongly upregulated in cold acclimated crabs included many that are involved in glucose production suggesting that cold acclimation involves increasing intracellular glucose as a cryoprotectant. Structural cytoskeletal proteins were also strongly represented among the genes upregulated in only cold acclimated crabs. There were no consistent changes in composition or the level of unsaturation of membrane phospholipid fatty acids with cold acclimation, which suggests that neither short- nor long-term changes in cold tolerance are mediated by changes in membrane fatty acid composition. Overall, our study demonstrates that initial changes in cold tolerance are likely not regulated by transcriptomic responses, but that gene expression-related changes in homeostasis begin within 12 hours – the length of a tidal cycle. all array data and raw images archived at the Porcelain Crab Array Database (http://array.sfsu.edu) n=264 specimens were divided into warm (18°C, n=96), cold (8°C, n=96), and control (13°C, n=72) acclimation groups. Crabs were sampled from the 13°C group at 0 h (the start of the experiment) and 24 h, the termination of the experiment. Crabs were sampled from the warm and cold acclimation groups at 6, 12, 18, and 24 hours following the start of thermal acclimation. At each time point, heart tissue from n=16 crabs from each group was dissected, flash frozen and stored at −80°C. A pooled total aRNA sample was prepared for each group by mixing equal quantities of total RNA from n=5 individuals in each group in order to have the same amount of biological diversity within each pooled RNA sample. For microarray hybridizations we used n=25 slides in an incomplete loop design where each sample was hybridized n=5 times, 2-3 times labelled with each Cy dye
Project description:CAMTA3 is known to be involved in regulation of induction of early cold-responsive genes, CBF1 and CBF2 at cold conditions and of suppression of SA production at warm temperature. Considering a functional redundancy of CAMTA family members in both warm and cold conditions, high-order of camta mutants, camta double and triple mutants, were generated and used to determined the effects of their regulation using microarray analysis. Global gene expression profile of WT and camta mutants was compared with the plants at warm temperature or at cold condition, 4°C for 24 hrs.
Project description:CAMTA3 is known to be involved in regulation of induction of early cold-responsive genes, CBF1 and CBF2 at cold conditions and of suppression of SA production at warm temperature. Considering a functional redundancy of CAMTA family members in both warm and cold conditions, high-order of camta mutants, camta double and triple mutants, were generated and used to determined the effects of their regulation using microarray analysis.
Project description:SARST-V1 method was used to asses the effect of live yeast on the microbial population of the rumen of cows fed an acidogenic diet 3 cows were used in 3 by 3 latin-square design with 3 periods. In each period animals received either 0.5g/d of yeast, 5g/d of yeast or none. Rumen microbiota was analysed using the SARST-V1 method for each period.
Project description:A healthy rumen is crucial for normal growth and improved production performance of ruminant animals. Rumen microbes participate in and regulate rumen epithelial function, and the diverse metabolites produced by rumen microbes are important participants in rumen microbe-host interactions. SCFAs, as metabolites of rumen microbes, have been widely studied, and propionate and butyrate have been proven to promote rumen epithelial cell proliferation. Succinate, as an intermediate metabolite in the citric acid cycle, is a final product in the metabolism of certain rumen microbes, and is also an intermediate product in the microbial synthesis pathway of propionate. However, its effect on rumen microbes and rumen epithelial function has not been studied. It is unclear whether succinate can stimulate rumen epithelial development. Therefore, in this experiment, Chinese Tan sheep were used as experimental animals to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the rumen microbiota community structure and rumen epithelial transcriptome, to explore the role of adding succinate to the diet in the interaction between the rumen microbiota and host.
Project description:St (common potato) is a freezing sensitive species unable to cold acclimate. The close wild relative Sc is freezing tolerant and able to cold acclimate. Here we compare the cold transcriptome of these two species with different levels of freezing tolerance. We also identify the putative CBF regulons by comparing the transcriptomes of wild type plants with that of 35S::AtCBF3 transgenic lines in both species. Plants were grown in 16:8 photoperiod. Eight hours after dawn, plants were either transfered to cold or kept in the warn. Wild type S. tuberosum and S. commersonii were grown at 2oC for 2h, 24h and 7 days. Wild type plants grown under warm temperatures for 2h was used as control for 2h cold samples; wild type warm grown plants for 24h were used as controls for 24h and 7 days cold samples. Under warm conditions, S. commersonii 35S::AtCBF3 lines were compared to S. commersonii wild type plants (same thing was done for S. tuberosum).
Project description:In DCD organ donation one of the significant problems for the organ is the inflammatory response due to ischaemia reperfusion injury caused by warm ischaemia prior to retrieval followed by warm reoxygenation upon transplantation. We developed a model where a DCD kidney was retrieved and preserved using hypothermic machine perfusion with cold University of Wisconsin solution with/without the addition of heparinoids low molecular weight heparin and pentosan polysulfate (PPS) followed by warm oxygenated perfusion with modified Krebs-Henseleit buffer to simulate early ischaemia reperfusion injury (IRI). The donor rats consisted of a control group cold perfusion group compared to warm perfusion and groups treated with either low molecular weight heparin or PPS to assess their activity in ameliorating IRI. We used equimolar pooled RNA samples from each group to perform an exploratory microarray experiment