About This Project

I am studying differential expression of heat shock protein 70 in various clonal lines of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). These clonal line vary in their level of domestication. Global climate change is raising water temperatures and understanding how this affects stress response in fish gives insight to effects in fitness.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are cellular machinery called chaperonins that allow cells to refold proteins misfolded by heat and other types of stress. They are transcriptionally regulated, meaning that they are only highly expressed during times of damaging stress (Sørensen, Kristensen et al. 2003 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1461-...). HSP70 is a commonly conserved sequence across most organisms, meaning that this stress response is typically across many types of organisms (Daugaard, Rohde et al. 2007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.febslet.2007.05.039).

What is the significance of this project?

Rainbow trout are an important fish both ecologically and economically. Understanding the fitness difference between commercially domesticated hatchery and wild type fish through heat response will allow us to predict the consequences of climate change on these sensitive populations.

What are the goals of the project?

We are trying to determine if there is differential expression of HSP70 among clonal lines of rainbow trout of varying levels of domestication. Fish were keep at a cold or hot temperature environment for several months and then tissues were collected until assays of gene expression levels can be performed. Determining whether such a difference exists will allow us to assess the physiological and ecological effects of domestication in Rainbow Trout.