Biomaterial Database

Paternal hypoxia exposure primes offspring for increased hypoxia resistance. 2022

Alexandria Ragsdale, and Oscar Ortega-Recalde, and Ludovic Dutoit, and Anne A Besson, and Jolyn H Z Chia, and Tania King, and Shinichi Nakagawa, and Anthony Hickey, and Neil J Gemmell, and Timothy Hore, and Sheri L Johnson

Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

In a time of rapid environmental change, understanding how the challenges experienced by one generation can influence the fitness of future generations is critically needed. Using tolerance assays and transcriptomic and methylome approaches, we use zebrafish as a model to investigate cross-generational acclimation to hypoxia. We show that short-term paternal exposure to hypoxia endows offspring with greater tolerance to acute hypoxia. We detected two hemoglobin genes that are significantly upregulated by more than 6-fold in the offspring of hypoxia exposed males. Moreover, the offspring which maintained equilibrium the longest showed greatest upregulation in hemoglobin expression. We did not detect differential methylation at any of the differentially expressed genes, suggesting that other epigenetic mechanisms are responsible for alterations in gene expression. Overall, our findings suggest that an epigenetic memory of past hypoxia exposure is maintained and that this environmentally induced information is transferred to subsequent generations, pre-acclimating progeny to cope with hypoxic conditions.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000064	Acclimatization	Adaptation to a new environment or to a change in the old.	Acclimation
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D000860	Hypoxia	Sub-optimal OXYGEN levels in the ambient air of living organisms.	Anoxia,Oxygen Deficiency,Anoxemia,Deficiency, Oxygen,Hypoxemia,Deficiencies, Oxygen,Oxygen Deficiencies
D015027	Zebrafish	An exotic species of the family CYPRINIDAE, originally from Asia, that has been introduced in North America. Zebrafish is a model organism for drug assay and cancer research.	Brachydanio rerio,Danio rerio,B. rerio,D. rerio,Zebra Fish,Zebra Fishes,Zebra danio,Zebrafishes,D. rerios,Fishes, Zebra,Zebra danios,danio, Zebra
D044127	Epigenesis, Genetic	A genetic process by which the adult organism is realized via mechanisms that lead to the restriction in the possible fates of cells, eventually leading to their differentiated state. Mechanisms involved cause heritable changes to cells without changes to DNA sequence such as DNA METHYLATION; HISTONE modification; DNA REPLICATION TIMING; NUCLEOSOME positioning; and heterochromatization which result in selective gene expression or repression.	Epigenetic Processes,Epigenetic Process,Epigenetics Processes,Genetic Epigenesis,Process, Epigenetic,Processes, Epigenetic,Processes, Epigenetics
D018812	Paternal Exposure	Exposure of the male parent, human or animal, to potentially harmful chemical, physical, or biological agents in the environment or to environmental factors that may include ionizing radiation, pathogenic organisms, or toxic chemicals that may affect offspring.	Exposure, Paternal,Exposures, Paternal,Paternal Exposures