title: Adverse Husbandry of Maraena Whitefish Directs the Immune System to Increase Mobilization of Myeloid Cells and Proinflammatory Responses.
abstract: Adverse life circumstances evoke a common "conserved transcriptional response to adversity" (CTRA) in mammalian leukocytes. To investigate whether this pattern is preserved in lower vertebrates, maraena whitefish (Coregonus maraena) were exposed for 9 days to different stocking densities: ~10 kg/m3(low density), ~33 kg/m3(moderate), ~60 kg/m3(elevated), and ~100 kg/m3(high). Transcriptome profiling in the liver and kidney of individuals from each group suggested that crowding conditions activate stress-related signaling and effector pathways. Remarkably, about one-quarter of the genes differentially expressed under crowding conditions were involved in the activation of immune pathways such asacute-phase responseandinterleukin/TNF signalingattended by the simultaneous reduction of antiviral potency. Network analysis confirmed the complex interdigitation of immune- and stress-relevant pathways with interleukin-1 playing a central role. Antibody-based techniques revealed remarkable changes in the blood composition of whitefish and demonstrated the correlation between increasing stocking densities and elevated number of myeloid cells together with the increased phagocytic activity of peripheral blood leukocytes. In line with current studies in mammals, we conclude that crowding stress triggers in whitefish hallmarks of a CTRA, indicating that the stress-induced molecular mechanisms regulating the immune responses not only are conserved within mammals but were established earlier in evolution.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany; Department of Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Tomáš
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Korytář
authors.affiliation: Fish Genetics Unit, Institute for Genome Biology, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) , Dummerstorf , Germany.
authors.forename: Mareen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nipkow
authors.affiliation: Fish Genetics Unit, Institute for Genome Biology, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) , Dummerstorf , Germany.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Altmann
authors.affiliation: Fish Genetics Unit, Institute for Genome Biology, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) , Dummerstorf , Germany.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goldammer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health , Greifswald-Insel Riems , Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Köllner
authors.affiliation: Fish Genetics Unit, Institute for Genome Biology, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) , Dummerstorf , Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rebl
keywords: interleukins; leukocytes; lower vertebrates; salmonid fish; stocking density; transcriptome; welfare