Abstract
Desiccation tolerance is an essential survival trait, especially in tropical aquatic organisms that are vulnerable to severe challenges posed by hydroperiodicity patterns in their habitats, characterized by dehydration-rehydration cycles. Here, we report a novel role for glucosamine as a desiccation stress-responsive metabolite in the underexplored tropical aquatic midge, Chironomus ramosus. Using high- throughput liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QToF-MS) analysis, biochemical assays and gene expression studies, we confirmed that glucosamine was essential during the recovery phase in C. ramosus larvae. Additionally, we demonstrated that trehalose, a known stress-protectant was crucial during desiccation but did not offer any advantage to the larvae during recovery. Based on our findings, we emphasise on the collaborative interplay of glucosamine and trehalose in conferring overall resilience to desiccation stress and propose the involvement of the trehalose-chitin metabolic interface in insects as one of the stress-management strategies to potentiate recovery post desiccation through recruitment of glucosamine.
Highlights
Fluctuations in ambient environmental conditions can trigger a vast array of adaptive strategies in organisms
We have previously reported the impressive resilience of the larvae of a tropical midge species, Chironomus ramosus[15, 16] that are prone to daily fluctuations between wet and dry in their natural habitats (18.5551° N, 73.8618° E and 18.4818° N, 73.8296° E)
Being an understudied chironomid species, there is a dearth of information with regards to the desiccation biology of C. ramosus and the present study aims at the better understanding of its response to dehydration stress
Summary
Fluctuations in ambient environmental conditions can trigger a vast array of adaptive strategies in organisms. We demonstrated the critical role of trehalose, a well-established stress protectant which collaborates with glucosamine in larval desiccation tolerance in C. ramosus. We propose the trehalose-chitin metabolic interface in insects as one of the stress-management strategies to potentiate recovery from desiccation through recruitment of glucosamine.
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