Abstract
Monitoring oxidative stress biomarkers has become a powerful and common tool to estimate organismal condition and response to endogenous and environmental factors. In the present study, we used round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) from non-native European populations, as a model species to test sex differences in oxidative stress biomarkers. Considering sex differences in reproductive investment, we hypothesized that males would display lower resistance to abiotic stress. Fish were exposed to a heat shock (temperature elevated by 10°C) for 1h, 6h, and 12h and catalase activity (CAT), reduced glutathione (GSH), total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were measured in liver and muscle tissues. Liver of males was significantly more responsive compared to liver of females in all tested parameters. GSH was found to be the most responsive to heat stress exposure in both sexes. The results supported our hypothesis that male reproductive investment (territoriality, courtship, and brood care) and likelihood of only a single spawning period in their lifetime influenced on higher sensitivity of their antioxidant defence. On the other hand, for females antioxidant defence is considered more important to survive the environmental changes and successfully reproduce in the next season. Our experiments exposed fish to acute thermal stress. Further research should determine the effects of exposure to chronic thermal stress to corroborate our understanding on sex differences in antioxidant defence in the round goby.
Highlights
Temperature is one of the key environmental factors affecting an organism’s physiological processes, especially in ectotherms, which adjust their metabolism to the ambient temperature
On the contrary to the pattern observed in the liver, male muscle tissues showed that it decreased from KC to KT2 (t# = 6.7964, P = 0.0004) and from KT1 to KT2 (t# = 4.5692, P# = 0.0035) with a sudden increase in value in the 12h treatment (KT3 > KT2, t# = 4.9291, P# = 0.0017)
Bagnyukova et al [25] suggested high sensitivity and thermoinactivation of catalase in Perccottus glenii Amur sleeper, but the results of our study showed activity of the enzyme, which did not decrease more than 15% below the control level
Summary
Temperature is one of the key environmental factors affecting an organism’s physiological processes, especially in ectotherms, which adjust their metabolism to the ambient temperature. Aquatic organisms are acclimated to daily and seasonal variations in temperature [1], sudden and unexpected increase can substantially influence their overall performance [2, 3]. This includes long-term challenges arising from climate change and from human-mediated thermal pollution, such as cooling water in thermal plant stations [4]. Sex biased response of round goby to acute heat shock (https://datadryad.org/stash/share/ 2QpSiudLFJSWThN8j-jFk8BZy_wig5GKTKqy21_ BAY8)
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