As oceans warm due to climate change, dissolved oxygen concentrations are declining causing some marine animals to suffer from hypoxic stress, or stress due to insufficient oxygen levels. However, whales and dolphins, which dive to deep depths to forage for food and hold their breaths for long periods of time, tolerate a lack of oxygen all the time and can provide an excellent model to discover the genetic basis of hypoxia tolerance.

Understanding hypoxia tolerance has applications for both marine and human health. Oxygen deprivation in human tissues causes mass cell death in heart attacks and strokes; hypoxic conditions are also a driving force in cancer metastasis. Illuminating the genetic responses to hypoxia across species can improve our management of these human health issues.

This project team analyzed hypoxia tolerance in marine mammals from different angles, including by examining genetic variation using RAD-sequencing and sequencing of the mitochondrial control region, and by analyzing gene regulation data to characterize how different genetic pathways respond to hypoxia. Their work created baseline data with a wide array of applications.

Timing

Spring 2020 – Spring 2021

Team Outputs

Genetics of Oxygen Deprivation in Marine Mammals and Humans (2021 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Virtual Showcase)

Learning from Whales: Identifying Key Genes in Genetic Pathway Responses to Low Oxygen (poster by Larry Zheng, Elizabeth Bock and Raksha Doddabele)

Using Genetics to Understand Population Structure of Inshore and Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) (poster by Samantha Townsend, Nikki Shintaku, Nicola Quick, Tom Schultz, Jason Somarelli, Jillian Wisse, Ashley Blawas, Elizabeth Bock, Raksha Doddabele, Giselle Wang and Larry Zheng)

See related team, Learning from Whales: Oxygen, Ecosystems and Human Health (2021-2022).

Image: Sperm whale diving, by Bernard Spragg NZ, public domain