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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Artículo científico |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41936807/ |
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Table of Contents:
- Microplastic pollution and thermal increase alter cellular stress responses and microbiomes in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic fish. Nualart C, Daniela Schwob, Guillaume Orlando, Julieta Paschke, Kurt Guerreiro, Pedro M McCormick, Stephen D Cheng, Chi-Hing Christina Vargas-Chacoff, Luis Animals Antarctic Regions Microplastics Water Pollutants, Chemical Microbiota Stress, Physiological Fishes Gastrointestinal Microbiome Antarctic and sub-Antarctic fishes of the genus Harpagifer inhabit extreme environments and face emerging anthropogenic stressors, including plastic pollution and warming. While each factor is known to affect fish physiology, their acute combined impacts on molecular responses and host-microbe interactions remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the immediate (24 h) transcriptional response of stress-related genes heat shock protein 70 (hsp70), S100 calcium binding protein (s100), High Mobility Group 1 box (hmg1b), E3 Ubiquitin Ligases (E3), and BCL2 Associated X (Bax) and gut microbiome diversity in H. antarcticus (King George Island, Antarctica) and H. bispinis (Punta Arenas, Chile) exposed to elevated temperature (TI), PVC microplastics (MP), or their combination (TI + MP). Both stressors altered gene transcription in a tissue- and species-specific manner, suggesting a synergistic stress response under combined treatment. Temperature rise consistently modulated stress markers, while acute PVC exposure intensified apoptotic signaling. Notably, species-specific patterns emerged: H. bispinis showed a more pronounced induction of pro-apoptotic pathways, whereas H. antarcticus maintained a higher induction of protective chaperones within this short temporal window. At the microbial level, while community-wide diversity metrics remained statistically stable, an exploratory analysis revealed increased inter-individual variability and the enrichment of specific stress-tolerant bacterial taxa. These results reveal that acute warming and microplastic exposure interactively disturb host, cellular homeostasis, with distinct transcriptional plasticity across closely related species. Our study provides mechanistic insights into the early physiological challenges faced by Notothenioids, highlighting the importance of coupling molecular biomarkers with microbiome analyses to assess the initial stages of response in cold-adapted fishes to environmental change.