Potential Effects of High Temperature and Heat Wave on Nanorana pleskei Based on Transcriptomic Analysis

Abstract

In the context of climate change, understanding how indigenous amphibians of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau react to stresses and their coping mechanisms could be crucial for predicting their fate and successful conservation. A liver transcriptome for Nanorana pleskei was constructed using high-throughput RNA sequencing, and its gene expression was compared with frogs acclimated under either room temperature or high temperature and also heat wave exposed ones. A total of 126,465 unigenes were produced, with 66,924 (52.92%) of them being annotated. Up to 694 genes were found to be differently regulated as a result of abnormal temperature acclimatization. Notably, genes belonging to the heat shock protein (HSP) family were down-regulated in both treated groups. Long-term exposure to high-temperature stress may impair the metabolic rate of the frog and trigger the body to maintain a hypometabolic state in an effort to survive challenging times. During heat waves, unlike the high-temperature group, mitochondrial function was not impaired, and the energy supply was largely normal to support the highly energy-consuming metabolic processes. Genes were more transcriptionally suppressed when treated with high temperatures than heat waves, and the body stayed in low-energy states for combating these long-term adverse environments to survive. It might be strategic to preserve initiation to executive protein activity under heat wave stress. Under both stress conditions, compromising the protection of HSP and sluggish steroid activity occurred in frogs. Frogs were more affected by high temperatures than by heat waves.

Effect of Heat Shock Treatment on the Virulence of Grass Carp Reovirus in Rare Minnow Gobiocypris rarus

“…Maintaining high-level HSR for a long period did not seem to be a reasonable choice for aquatic animals. In a study to evaluate the impacts of heat wave on the survival of frogs, compromising the protection of HSP in frogs was indeed considered a strategy for the frogs to maintain a low-energy state to survival [ 26 ].…”

Impact of rising temperature on physiological and biochemical alterations that affect the viability of blood cells in American bullfrog crossbreeds

“…Climate change is a phenomenon of long-term changes in the distribution of weather patterns [ 12 ]. The rise in temperature stands as a paramount indicator of climate change, and consequently leads to the occurrence of various extreme phenomena such as heat waves [ 13 ]. Climate change is one of the greatest problems threatening biodiversity and ecosystems in the 21st century, leading to the extinction of many species [ 14 ].…”

“…Amphibians are one of the most sensitive animal groups to changes in climatic conditions [ 13 , 14 , 18 , 19 ]. Like all amphibians, frogs are ectotherms, meaning that their body temperature changes with the temperature of the environment [ 20 , 21 ].…”