Experience-mediated transcriptional memory correlates with hypoxia resistance in the nervous system of the sea hare .

Current therapeutics for hypoxic/ischemic brain damage can benefit from insights resulting from the study of hypoxia/anoxia resistant organisms. Hypoxia resistance, however, is not a common feature in mammalian models. Being naturally exposed to hypoxic/anoxic conditions, the sea hare could become a very useful model for the study of hypoxia resistance.

DNA methylation correlates with transcriptional noise in response to elevated pCO in the eastern oyster ().

Ocean acidification significantly affects marine calcifiers like oysters, warranting the study of molecular mechanisms like DNA methylation that contribute to adaptive plasticity in response to environmental change. However, a consensus has not been reached on the extent to which methylation modules gene expression, and in turn plasticity, in marine invertebrates. In this study, we investigated the impact of pCO on gene expression and DNA methylation in the eastern oyster, .

Tissue explants as tools for studying the epigenetic modulation of the GH-IGF-I axis in farmed fish.

Somatic growth in vertebrates is mainly controlled by the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) axis. The role of epigenetic mechanisms in regulating this axis in fish is far from being understood. This work aimed to optimize and evaluate the use of short-term culture of pituitary and liver explants from a farmed fish, the gilthead seabream , for studying epigenetic mechanisms involved in GH/IGF-I axis regulation.

Symbiont shuffling induces differential DNA methylation responses to thermal stress in the coral Montastraea cavernosa.

Algal symbiont shuffling in favour of more thermotolerant species has been shown to enhance coral resistance to heat-stress. Yet, the mechanistic underpinnings and long-term implications of these changes are poorly understood. This work studied the modifications in coral DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism involved in coral acclimatization, in response to symbiont manipulation and subsequent heat stress exposure.

Application of an Improved Chloroform-Free Lipid Extraction Method to Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) Lipidomics Assessments.

Lipids are excellent biomarkers for assessing coral stress, although staghorn coral data (Acropora cervicornis) is lacking. Lipid extraction is the most critical step in lipidomic assessments, usually performed using carcinogenic solvents. Efficient alternative using less toxic methods, such as the BUME method using butanol and methanol as extraction solvents, have not been applied to coral lipidomics evaluations.

Coral epigenetic responses to nutrient stress: Histone H2A.X phosphorylation dynamics and DNA methylation in the staghorn coral .

Nutrient pollution and thermal stress constitute two of the main drivers of global change in the coastal oceans. While different studies have addressed the physiological effects and ecological consequences of these stressors in corals, the role of acquired modifications in the coral epigenome during acclimatory and adaptive responses remains unknown. The present work aims to address that gap by monitoring two types of epigenetic mechanisms, namely histone modifications and DNA methylation, during a 7-week-long experiment in which staghorn coral fragments ( were exposed to nutrient stress (nitrogen, nitrogen + phosphorus) in the presence of thermal stress.