How does the snakeheadChanna argussurvive in air? The combined roles of the suprabranchial chamber and physiological regulations during aerial respiration

Abstract

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that the aerial survival of the northern snakehead is involved not only with suprabranchial chamber respiration but also with physiological regulations. The aerial survival time and oxygen consumption rate (VO2) were determined in snakeheads with either normal or injured suprabranchial organs. Some hematological and biochemical parameters were assessed during aerial exposure. The results showed that resting VO2 decreased when switching from water to air in both the control and the suprabranchial organ-injured fish, with decreases of 22.4% and 23.5%, respectively. Resting VO2 in air was not different between the control and the suprabranchial organ-injured fish. The red blood cell (RBC) count and hemoglobin concentration showed no marked changes, while RBC size increased when exposed to air. The liver lactate concentration remained unchanged, and the white muscle lactate concentration decreased when switching from water to air. The blood ammonia concentration tended to increase during aerial respiration. These results suggest that the aerial survival of the snakehead is positively associated with a combination of factors, including respiration of suprabranchial organs and other accessory organs, depressed metabolic demands and increased oxygen transport, and negatively associated with the accumulation of blood ammonia but not anaerobic metabolism.

Effect of hypoxic stress on the glycolytic pathway of Onchidium reevesii

“…Tissue hypoxia results from insu cient oxygen supply, and its serious consequences vary with the degree and environment of hypoxia (Li et al, 2018). Persistent hypoxia is incompatible with normal biological function, so multicellular organisms have evolved solutions to hypoxia at the physical scale and cellular level, include both direct processes (such as oxidative phosphorylation down-regulation and inhibition of fatty acid desaturation) and indirect processes, such as altered expression of hypoxiasensitive transcription factors (Cai et al, 2014;Duan et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2014). This study found that the expression of OrGLUT-1 was signi cantly up-regulated in the CNS and hepatopancreas of O.reevesii.…”

The Complete Mitogenomes of Two Species of Snakehead Fish (Perciformes: Channidae): Genome Characterization and Phylogenetic Analysis

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“…Although these predictions are explicit, several synbranchiform traits suggest they may have elevated dispersal ability relative to other freshwater fishes, complicating the interpretation of these scenarios. These traits include their ability to tolerate hypoxic aquatic environments using a variety of adaptations for breathing air from the water's surface via air‐breathing organs (Tate et al., 2017), and the ability of some species to traverse over land (Das, 1928; Duan et al., 2018; Hughes & Munshi, 1979; Ishimatsu & Itazawa, 1981).…”