Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Conservation Physiology

Department

Biological Sciences

ISSN

20511434

Volume

12

Issue

1

DOI

10.1093/conphys/coae075

First Page

1

Last Page

15

Publication Date

11-4-2024

Abstract

Animals in nature potentially experience multiple stressors, and those of anthropogenic origin are likely to be repeated or chronic. However, stress hormone levels are highly context-dependent and are not consistent predictors of chronic stress in wildlife. Profiling the downstream consequences of repeated stress responses, such as changes in metabolism or gene expression, may be more informative for predicting their individual-level health consequences and population-level impacts, which are key objectives for wildlife conservation. We previously found that in free-ranging juvenile elephant seals, the blubber transcriptome and proteome, but not cortisol levels, could distinguish between responses to single versus repeated stress axis stimulation. However, the blubber proteome response to stress was limited and mainly involved extra-cellular matrix proteins. In this study, we examined the plasma proteome response of four of the same animals to the repeated stress experiment, since multiple organs secrete proteins into the circulation, providing a readout of their activity and integration. We isolated plasma proteins, identified and quantified them using liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and compared their abundance between sampling times. We identified >200 proteins in plasma, of which 42 were altered in abundance, revealing complex protein dynamics in response to repeated stress challenges. These changes were delayed but sustained, suggesting that the plasma proteome may reflect longer term integration of multi-organ responses to recent, rather than immediate, challenges. Differentially abundant proteins included components of the osmoregulatory system, acute phase and complement proteins, organokines, apolipoproteins and hormone transport proteins, which coordinate physiological processes with significant implications for marine mammal health and may explain several aspects of marine mammal stress physiology, such as insulin resistance and high aldosterone levels. We identified several potentially novel biomarkers, such as AGT, HPX, TTR and APOA4, that may be useful for detecting recent and repeated stress exposure in marine mammals.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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