Effect of Mussel’s Gender and Size on a Stress Response Biomarker

Abstract

In mussels, stress signals such as heat, osmotic shock and hypoxia lead to the activation of the phosphorylated p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (pp38-MAPK). This stress activated protein has been efficiently used as a biomarker to several natural and anthropogenic stresses. However, what has not been tested is whether differences in gender or size can affect the response of this biomarker. The present study tested whether there was variation in the expression of pp38-MAPK in mussels Perna perna of different gender and size classes when exposed to natural stress conditions, such as air exposure. The results show that gender does not affect the expression of pp38-MAPK. However, size does have an effect, where mussels smaller than 6.5 cm displayed significantly (p<0.05) lower levels of pp38-MAPK when compared to those larger than 7 cm. Mussels are one of the most used bioindicator species and the use of biomarkers to determine the health status of an ecosystem has been greatly increasing over the years. The present study highlights the importance of using mussels of similar size classes when performing experiments using stress-related biomarkers.

Resistance to Genotoxic Stresses in Arctica islandica, the Longest Living Noncolonial Animal: Is Extreme Longevity Associated With a Multistress Resistance Phenotype?

“…Yet, all animals in the study could be classified as young sexually mature adults below the maximum asymptotic size attained for each of the species. Although all animals were deemed sexually mature, we did not control for sex or reproductive status, however, a review of the literature provides little evidence of any indication of gender effects on susceptibility to stress in bivalves (79,80). Additionally at Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, we have analyzed the ages of more than 1,000 individuals from a specific population of a islandica and found no significant difference in longevity between the sexes (unpublished data).…”

Seasonal and annual variations in physiological and biochemical responses from transplanted marine bioindicator species Mytilus spp. during a long term field exposure experiment

“…Regarding the correlation to specific biomarker (Bebianno et al, 2000) could not detect an impact of sex on the concentrations of metallothioneins as well did (Zilberberg et al, 2011) for a map-kinase.…”

HSP70 in Gills and Hepatopancreas of Mangrove Crabs Ucides cordatus: Comparison between Contaminated and Pristine Environments

“…For the analysis of HSP 70 levels, ELISA assays were performed in triplicate using an adapted immunoassay protocol [20,21]. The extracts (100 µL, containing 50 µg of total proteins) were added to 96-well plates (Corning Costar, 96-well EIA/RIA Assay Microplate) and incubated for 24 h, 1 h in an orbital shaker, and the remaining time in a refrigerator at 4 • C. After this period, all the solution on the plate was discarded, and three washes with PBS solution containing 0.05% Tween-20 (PBS-T) were performed for 1 min each.…”