Ecophysiological traits of highly mobile large marine predators inferred from nucleic acid derived indices

Nucleic acid-derived indices such as RNA/DNA ratios have been successfully applied as ecophysiological indicators to assess growth, nutritional condition and health status in marine organisms given that they provide a measure of tissue protein reserves, which is known to vary depending on changes in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2020-03, Vol.10 (1), p.4752, Article 4752
Main Authors: Alves, F., Dromby, M., Baptista, V., Ferreira, R., Correia, A. M., Weyn, M., Valente, R., Froufe, E., Rosso, M., Sousa-Pinto, I., Dinis, A., Dias, E., Teodósio, M. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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631/1647
631/92
Acids
Africa, Northern
Animals
Aquatic mammals
Aquatic Organisms - genetics
Aquatic Organisms - physiology
Atlantic Ocean
Biopsy
Bottle-Nosed Dolphin - genetics
Bottle-Nosed Dolphin - physiology
Cetacea
Delphinidae
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA - genetics
Dolphins & porpoises
Ecosystem
Ecosystem biology
Environmental changes
Female
Food Chain
Globicephala macrorhynchus
Habitats
Humanities and Social Sciences
Male
Marine mammals
Marine organisms
multidisciplinary
Nucleic acids
Physiology
Predators
Protein synthesis
Proteins
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA - genetics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Seasons
Sexing
Tursiops truncatus
Whales
Whales & whaling
Whales, Pilot - genetics
Whales, Pilot - physiology
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Summary:Nucleic acid-derived indices such as RNA/DNA ratios have been successfully applied as ecophysiological indicators to assess growth, nutritional condition and health status in marine organisms given that they provide a measure of tissue protein reserves, which is known to vary depending on changes in the environment. Yet, the use of these biochemical indices on highly mobile large predators is scarce. In this study, we tested the applicability of using nucleic acids to provide insights on the ecophysiological traits of two marine mammal species (common bottlenose dolphins and short-finned pilot whales) and explored potential related factors (species, sex, season, and residency pattern), using skin tissue (obtained from biopsy darts) of apparently healthy and adult free-ranging animals. Significantly higher RNA/DNA ratios were obtained for bottlenose dolphins (p 
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-61769-7