Pubblicazione scientifica

Hypoxia causes transgenerational impairments in reproduction of fish

FILONE TECNOLOGICO	TEMA
trasformazione e commercializzazione

RIASSUNTO

Hypoxia is amongst the most widespread and pressing problems in aquatic environments. Here we demonstrate that fish (Oryzias melastigma) exposed to hypoxia show reproductive impairments (retarded gonad development, decrease in sperm count and sperm motility) in F1 and F2 generations despite these progenies (and their germ cells) having never been exposed to hypoxia. We further show that the observed transgenerational reproductive impairments are associated with a differential methylation pattern of specific genes in sperm of both F0 and F2 coupled with relevant transcriptomic and proteomic alterations, which may impair spermatogenesis. The discovered transgenerational and epigenetic effects suggest that hypoxia might pose a dramatic and long-lasting threat to the sustainability of fish populations. Because the genes regulating spermatogenesis and epigenetic modifications are highly conserved among vertebrates, these results may also shed light on the potential transgenerational effects of hypoxia on other vertebrates, including humans.

DATA

Data di pubblicazione: 04/07/2016

AUTORI

WANG SIMON YUAN
LAU KAREN
LAI KENG-PO
ZHANG JIANG-WEN
TSE ANNA CHUNG-KWAN
LI JING-WOEI
TONG YIN
CHAN TING-FUNG
WONG CHRIS KONG-CHU
CHIU JILL MAN-YING
AU DORIS WAI-TING
WONG ALICE SZE-TSAI
KONG RICHARD YUEN-CHONG
WU RUDOLF SHIU-SUN

RIVISTA

Nature Communications, 7, 12114

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