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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Conserv. Sci.
Sec. Animal Conservation
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2024.1425484
This article is part of the Research Topic Long-Term Research on Avian Conservation Ecology in the Age of Global Change and Citizen Science View all articles

Comparative Gene Expression Responses to Babesia Infection and Oil Contamination in a Seabird

Provisionally accepted
Carlos W. Esperanza Carlos W. Esperanza 1*Rachel C. Quock Rachel C. Quock 2Rebecca S. Duerr Rebecca S. Duerr 3Scott W. Roy Scott W. Roy 1Ravinder N. Sehgal Ravinder N. Sehgal 1
  • 1 San Francisco State University, San Francisco, United States
  • 2 California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, United States
  • 3 International Bird Rescue, Fairfield, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The common murre (Uria aalge) is a species of seabird particularly vulnerable to several environmental stressors. Here, we investigated the common murre's transcriptomic responses to the conditions of oil contamination and Babesia infection. Changes in gene expression were characterized using whole transcriptomes assembled from blood samples of naturally infected and environmentally contaminated birds undergoing rehabilitation. 194 shared genes were found to be differentially expressed in response to both parasitic infection and oil contamination. Notable genes were ANXA2, LY96, and LY96, each of which may play a role in the immune response by mediating the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis then determined what biological functions were most affected by each condition. Results showed that infection and contamination both elicited significant changes in expression of genes related to stress response, immune response, and inflammatory response. Expression changes in response to contamination were also related to lipid transport and localization. The large amount of overlap in the gene expression changes to infection and oil contamination may indicate a generalized stress response by the host, and the lipid metabolism response may be specific to contamination. These results provide new insights into the molecular processes involved in the common murre's response to environmental stress and have important implications for the conservation and management of this and other seabird species.

    Keywords: seabird, RNA sequencing, differential expression analysis, Oil contamination, Babesia, Gene Expression, environmental stressors

    Received: 29 Apr 2024; Accepted: 26 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Esperanza, Quock, Duerr, Roy and Sehgal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Carlos W. Esperanza, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.