TY - JOUR
T1 - Seasonal adaptations of the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system of the dromedary camel
AU - Alim, Fatma Zohra Djazouli
AU - Romanova, Elena V.
AU - Tay, Yea Ling
AU - Rahman, Ahmad Yamin bin Abdul
AU - Chan, Kok Gan
AU - Hong, Kar Wai
AU - Rogers, Mark
AU - Southey, Bruce R.
AU - Greenwood, Michael P.
AU - Mecawi, Andre Souza
AU - Mustafa, Mohammad Rais
AU - Mahy, Nicole
AU - Campbell, Colin
AU - Antunes-Rodrigues, José
AU - Sweedler, Jonathan V.
AU - Murphy, David
AU - Hindmarch, Charles C.T.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Alim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - The “ship” of the Arabian and North African deserts, the one-humped dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) has a remarkable capacity to survive in conditions of extreme heat without needing to drink water. One of the ways that this is achieved is through the actions of the antidiuretic hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP), which is made in a specialised part of the brain called the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system (HNS), but exerts its effects at the level of the kidney to provoke water conservation. Interestingly, our electron microscopy studies have shown that the ultrastructure of the dromedary HNS changes according to season, suggesting that in the arid conditions of summer the HNS is in an activated state, in preparation for the likely prospect of water deprivation. Based on our dromedary genome sequence, we have carried out an RNAseq analysis of the dromedary HNS in summer and winter. Amongst the 171 transcripts found to be significantly differentially regulated (>2 fold change, p value <0.05) there is a significant over-representation of neuropeptide encoding genes, including that encoding AVP, the expression of which appeared to increase in summer. Identification of neuropeptides in the HNS and analysis of neuropeptide profiles in extracts from individual camels using mass spectrometry indicates that overall AVP peptide levels decreased in the HNS during summer compared to winter, perhaps due to increased release during periods of dehydration in the dry season.
AB - The “ship” of the Arabian and North African deserts, the one-humped dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) has a remarkable capacity to survive in conditions of extreme heat without needing to drink water. One of the ways that this is achieved is through the actions of the antidiuretic hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP), which is made in a specialised part of the brain called the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system (HNS), but exerts its effects at the level of the kidney to provoke water conservation. Interestingly, our electron microscopy studies have shown that the ultrastructure of the dromedary HNS changes according to season, suggesting that in the arid conditions of summer the HNS is in an activated state, in preparation for the likely prospect of water deprivation. Based on our dromedary genome sequence, we have carried out an RNAseq analysis of the dromedary HNS in summer and winter. Amongst the 171 transcripts found to be significantly differentially regulated (>2 fold change, p value <0.05) there is a significant over-representation of neuropeptide encoding genes, including that encoding AVP, the expression of which appeared to increase in summer. Identification of neuropeptides in the HNS and analysis of neuropeptide profiles in extracts from individual camels using mass spectrometry indicates that overall AVP peptide levels decreased in the HNS during summer compared to winter, perhaps due to increased release during periods of dehydration in the dry season.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0216679
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0216679
M3 - Article
C2 - 31211771
AN - SCOPUS:85066028726
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 14
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 6
M1 - e0216679
ER -