Abstract
Climate change substantially affects biodiversity around the world, especially in the Amazon region, which is home to a significant portion of the world’s biodiversity. Freshwater fishes are susceptible to increases in water temperature and variations in the concentrations of dissolved gases, especially oxygen and carbon dioxide. It is important to understand the mechanisms underlying the physiological and biochemical abilities of fishes to survive such environmental changes. In the present study, we applied RNA-Seq and de novo transcriptome sequencing to evaluate transcriptome alterations in tambaqui when exposed to five or fifteen days of the B1, A1B and A2 climate scenarios foreseen by the IPCC. The generated ESTs were assembled into 54,206 contigs. Gene ontology analysis and the STRING tool were then used to identify candidate protein domains, genes and gene families potentially responsible for the adaptation of tambaqui to climate changes. After sequencing eight RNA-Seq libraries, 32,512 genes were identified and mapped using the Danio rerio genome as a reference. In total, 236 and 209 genes were differentially expressed at five and fifteen days, respectively, including chaperones, energetic metabolism-related genes, translation initiation factors and ribosomal genes. Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that mitochondrion, protein binding, protein metabolic process, metabolic processes, gene expression, structural constituent of ribosome and translation were the most represented terms. In addition, 1,202 simple sequence repeats were detected, 88 of which qualified for primer design. These results show that cellular response to climate change in tambaqui is complex, involving many genes, and it may be controlled by different cues and transcription/translation regulation mechanisms. The data generated from this study provide a valuable resource for further studies on the molecular mechanisms involved in the adaptation of tambaqui and other closely related teleost species to climate change.
Highlights
Climate change, resulting mainly from increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, will affect all human activities and different ecosystems [1,2,3]
To characterize the transcriptional responses of genes affected by climate change in tambaqui, eight RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) libraries were built after five and fifteen days of exposure to the B1, A1B and A2 climate scenarios
We used the second most commonly farmed species in Brazil, and the most commonly farmed species in the Amazon, to investigate the main impacts of climate change on the regulation of gene expression in fish exposed to the B1, A1B and A2 climate scenarios foreseen by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the year 2100
Summary
Climate change, resulting mainly from increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, will affect all human activities and different ecosystems [1,2,3]. Various climate change scenarios have been proposed based on the intensity of human activities causing environmental degradation These scenarios provide plausible predictions in several key areas, such as the emissions of GHG and aerosols and environmental and socioeconomic conditions [2,3]. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), three main scenarios of climate are foreseen for the year 2100: B1 (soft), A1B (intermediate) and A2 (extreme). These scenarios may vary according to population growth, socioeconomic development and the use of fossil fuels or renewable energy [2]
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