Environmental factors influence cross-talk between a heat shock protein and an oxidative stress protein modification in the lizard Gallotia galloti

PLoS One. 2024 Mar 12;19(3):e0300111. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300111. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Better understanding how organisms respond to their abiotic environment, especially at the biochemical level, is critical in predicting population trajectories under climate change. In this study, we measured constitutive stress biomarkers and protein post-translational modifications associated with oxidative stress in Gallotia galloti, an insular lizard species inhabiting highly heterogeneous environments on Tenerife. Tenerife is a small volcanic island in a relatively isolated archipelago off the West coast of Africa. We found that expression of GRP94, a molecular chaperone protein, and levels of protein carbonylation, a marker of cellular stress, change across different environments, depending on solar radiation-related variables and topology. Here, we report in a wild animal population, cross-talk between the baseline levels of the heat shock protein-like GRP94 and oxidative damage (protein carbonylation), which are influenced by a range of available temperatures, quantified through modelled operative temperature. This suggests a dynamic trade-off between cellular homeostasis and oxidative damage in lizards adapted to this thermally and topologically heterogeneous environment.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Heat-Shock Proteins*
  • Lizards*
  • Oxidative Stress
  • Protein Carbonylation
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational

Substances

  • Heat-Shock Proteins

Grants and funding

EG, PBA and KWV were supported by the Leeds-York-Hull Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) Panorama under grant NE/S007458/1 https://panorama-dtp.ac.uk/ KWV acknowledges funding by the European Union (ERC, MolStressH2O, 101044202). https://erc.europa.eu/homepage AZ fieldwork was funded by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (project num. 28014 02/SAICT/2017) and by ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (programme P1-0255). This work was also funded by MINECO/ERDF (CGL2015-67789-C2-1-P) and FCT (CEECIND/04084/2017). AZ acknowledges funding by ARIS under project grant J1-2466 during article writing. There was no additional external funding received during this study.