Blubber proteome response to repeated ACTH administration in a wild marine mammal

Publication date: Available online 22 November 2019Source: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and ProteomicsAuthor(s): Jared Deyarmin, Ryan Hekman, Cory Champagne, Molly McCormley, Alicia Stephan, Daniel Crocker, Dorian Houser, Jane KhudyakovAbstractWhile the response to acute stress is adaptive in nature, repeated or chronic stress can impact an animal's fitness by depleting its energy stores and suppressing immune function and reproduction. This can be especially deleterious for species that rely on energy reserves to fuel key life history stages (e.g. reproduction), already experience physiological extremes (e.g. fasting), and/or have undergone significant population declines, such as many marine mammals. However, identifying chronically stressed individuals is difficult due to the practical challenges to sample collection from large aquatic animals and a paucity of information on downstream consequences of the stress response. We previously simulated repeated stress by ACTH administration in a model marine mammal, the northern elephant seal, and showed that changes in blubber gene expression, but not circulating cortisol levels, could distinguish between single and repeated responses to ACTH. Here, we profiled changes in the proteome of the same blubber cell population and identified a set of differentially expressed proteins that included extracellular matrix components, heat shock and mitochondrial proteins, metabolic enzymes, and metabolite transp...
Source: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and Proteomics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research