Meeting Abstract
The relationship between animal growth and stress tolerance ability is complex, with evidence indicating antagonistic regulation of cellular processes which promote either high growth or tolerance. For example, breeding for improved growth rates in the tilapia species Oreochromis niloticus has inadvertently resulted in decreased tolerance to hypersaline water conditions. To examine changes in growth and stress tolerance at the cellular and tissue levels, high salinity acclimation challenges were conducted for three cichlid species, including the previously mentioned O. niloticus with reduced salinity tolerance, wild-type (WT) O. mossambicus which exhibit tolerance to salt concentrations greater than seawater, and WT Astatotilapia burtoni which exhibit low salinity tolerance. Three intestinal sections were sampled from salinity-challenged fish and from control fish maintained in freshwater, and used to establish a standardized data-independent acquisition (DIA) assay for label-free quantitative proteomics for a large number of proteins in each species. Spectral libraries created by data-dependent acquisition (DDA) and annotated using multiple search engines were used for DIA assay construction. Skyline and a sample training set were used for automated and manual assay curation to select and validate reproducible transitions and proteotypic peptides for protein quantitation. Salinity effects on intestinal protein expression patterns in each species were statistically evaluated and corresponding protein sets analyzed for gene ontology enrichment. The resulting data on salinity-dependent intestinal proteome dynamics provide insight into biochemical processes controlling growth and stress tolerance.
