No abstract

The role of oxygen in regulating patterns of gene expression in mammalian development, physiology, and pathology has received increasing attention, especially after the discovery of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), a transcription factor that has been likened to a "master switch" in the transcriptional response of mammalian cells and tissues to low oxygen. At present, considerably less is known about the molecular responses of nonmammalian vertebrates and invertebrates to hypoxic exposure. Because many animals live in aquatic habitats that are variable in oxygen tension, it is relevant to study oxygen-dependent gene expression in these animals. The purpose of this review is to discuss hypoxia-induced gene expression in fishes from an evolutionary and ecological context. Recent studies have described homologs of HIF in fish and have begun to evaluate their function. A number of physiological processes are known to be altered by hypoxic exposure of fish, although the evidence linking them to HIF is less well developed. The diversity of fish presents many opportunities to evaluate if inter- and intraspecific variation in HIF structure and function correlate with hypoxia tolerance. Furthermore, as an aquatic group, fish offer the opportunity to examine the interactions between hypoxia and other stressors, including pollutants, common in aquatic environments. It is possible, if not likely, that results obtained by studying the molecular responses of fish to hypoxia will find parallels in the oxygen-dependent responses of mammals, including humans. Moreover, novel responses to hypoxia could be discovered through studies of this diverse and species-rich group.

Metazoans rely on aerobic energy production, which requires an adequate oxygen supply. During reduced oxygen supply (hypoxia), the most profound changes in gene expression are mediated by transcription factors known as hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs). HIF alpha proteins are commonly posttranslationally regulated by prolyl-4-hydroxylase (PHD) enzymes, which are direct "sensors" of cellular oxygen levels. We examined the molecular evolution of the metazoan PHD-HIF oxygen-sensing system by constructing complete phylogenies for PHD and HIF alpha genes and used computational tools to characterize the molecular changes underlying the functional divergence of PHD and HIF alpha duplicates. The presence of PHDs in metazoan genomes predates the emergence of HIF alphas. Our analysis revealed an unexpected diversity of PHD genes and HIF alpha sequence characteristics in invertebrates, suggesting that the simple oxygen-sensing systems of Caenorhabditis and Drosophila may not be typical of other invertebrate bilaterians. We studied the early vertebrate evolution of the system by sequencing these genes in early-diverging cartilaginous fishes, elasmobranchs. Cartilaginous fishes appear to have three paralogs of both PHD and HIF alpha. The novel sequences were used as outgroups for a detailed molecular analysis of PHD and HIF alpha duplicates in a major air-breathing vertebrate lineage, the mammals, and a major water-breathing vertebrate lineage, the teleosts. In PHDs, functionally divergent amino acid sites were detected near the HIF alpha-binding channel and beta2beta3 loop that defines its substrate specificity. In HIF alphas, more functional divergence was found in teleosts than in mammals, especially in the HIF-1 alpha PAS domain and HIF-2 alpha oxygen-dependent degradation (ODD) domains, which interact with PHDs. Overall, in the vertebrates, elevated substitution rates in the HIF-2 alpha N-terminal ODD domain, together with a functional divergence associated with the known differences in PHD2 versus PHD1/3 substrate specificity, have contributed to the tighter oxygen-sensitive regulation of HIF-1 alpha than that of HIF-2 alpha.

Evidence implicating differential gene expression as a significant driver of evolutionary novelty continues to accumulate, but our understanding of the underlying sources of variation in expression, both environmental and genetic, is wanting. Heritability in particular may be underestimated when inferred from genetic mapping studies, the predominant “genetical genomics” approach to the study of expression variation. Such uncertainty represents a fundamental limitation to testing for adaptive evolution at the transcriptomic level. By studying the inheritance of expression levels in 10,495 genes (10,527 splice variants) in a threespine stickleback pedigree consisting of 563 individuals, half of which were subjected to a thermal treatment, we show that 74–98% of transcripts exhibit significant additive genetic variance. Dominance variance is also prevalent (41–99% of transcripts), and genetic sources of variation seem to play a more significant role in expression variance in the liver than a key environmental variable, temperature. Among-population comparisons suggest that the majority of differential expression in the liver is likely due to neutral divergence; however, we also show that signatures of directional selection may be more prevalent than those of stabilizing selection. This predominantly aligns with the neutral model of evolution for gene expression but also suggests that natural selection may still act on transcriptional variation in the wild. As genetic variation both within- and among-populations ultimately defines adaptive potential, these results indicate that broad adaptive potential may be found within the transcriptome.

We investigated how physiological stress in an area-sensitive old-growth forest passerine, the Eurasian treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), is associated with forest fragmentation and forest structure. We found evidence that the concentrations of plasma corticosterone in chicks were higher under poor food supply in dense, young forests than in sparse, old forests. In addition, nestlings in large forest patches had lower corticosterone levels and a better body condition than in small forest patches. In general, corticosterone levels were negatively related to body condition and survival. We also found a decrease in corticosterone levels within the breeding season, which may have been a result of an increase in food supply from the first to the second broods. Our results suggest that forest fragmentation may decrease the fitness of free-living individual treecreepers.