The importance of adipose signalling to assess changes in wildlife health

Blubber is a specialised form of adipose carried by cetaceans for the primary purposes of thermoregulation and energy storage. It constitutes a large portion of animal mass, such that a “normal” cetacean would be considered “obese” by terrestrial mammal standards [1]. We have an understanding of the way terrestrial mammals use adipose tissue when placed under a calorie restriction challenge. In such circumstances, adipose will undergo mass reduction, and will also play a signalling role with widely ranging influences on the body and activity of the individual in order to minimise health impacts and promote the probability of survival. As adipose plays a more complex role in the physiology of cetaceans, we need to understand whether we can apply a terrestrial model to a model marine mammal species. Understanding the relationships between the model species is crucial to addressing increasing anthropogenic disturbances to marine mammals with the potential for repeated or prolonged foraging disruptions and calorie restriction challenges. If we want to understand the consequence of human-induced impacts to the health of dolphins, we need to understand how adipose tissue signalling responds to these caloric challenges.
This project will address this challenge using a unique set of data. First the student will develop an understanding of adipose signalling in mice, using transcriptomics network inference, placed under long-term calorie restriction (19 months), which decreases the onset of age-related diseases and increases lifespan [2]. The student will sample bottlenose dolphin adipose in a population off of the coast of South Carolina that has undergone a health assessment and had blubber sampled using dart biopsies. We have a good handle on health for those individuals [3]. In addition, the student will have the opportunity to join a large research project to assess the change in health of dolphins associated with Charleston harbour expansion. It will be then possible to have targeted adipose sampling from individuals with varied health and from different exposure treatment levels. As the adipose of dolphins is structurally differentiated, the student will determine how the adipose transcriptome changes in the different dolphin adipose regions using multiple biopsies from a managed-care dolphin population. Ultimately, this project will provide insight into the adipose transcriptome in a species in which adipose has a broader range of function compared to current model species, providing further insights in the role adipose plays in health.
This project provides a unique opportunity for the student to develop skills not only in complex and innovative techniques, but also in sophisticated physiological observations and dolphin health assessment skills. The student will gain multidisciplinary training in state-of-the-art laboratory techniques including RNAseq characterisation, bioinformatics, statistical modelling and physiological modelling. The School of Biological Sciences has a track record of excellence in training biologists and ecologists in analytical skills. This project will provide training in biomathematics, bioinformatics, and biostatistics required to deal with the challenges of this project. This will include attendance of SBS and CLSM courses in biostatistics and network science, as well attendance to external courses computational biology. The student will also have the opportunity to interact with other analysts in the University in the School of Natural and Computer Sciences. This training will be complemented with tutorials to develop new ways to deal with the objectives of the project with supervisors and members of their team, particularly in bioinformatics and network modelling. The student will also have opportunities to develop field health assessment techniques with ongoing work in the supervisory team. The team has complementary expertise in biomathematics, bioinformatics, network science, statistical hierarchical modelling, physiology, metabolism estimation, and phenotypic model development.