Fishing for mechanisms regulating senescence in

sockeye salmon
Steven Roberts
Tom Quinn
Leslie Jensen
Caroline Storer
photo: Foist
Salmon Senescence

• Rapid decline to death

• Alongside other complex physiological process

• Rates of senescence vary within population and across populations

• Arrival date to spawning ground correlates with rate of senescence

(Hendry et al 2003)

• Bear predation plays a role in driving rates

(Carlson et al 2007)
What physiological process regulate senescence?
Rationale

• Better understand how environmental change might effect senescence

physiology

• Determine other traits that could be impacted by selective pressures

• Model system for studying aging in other taxa

Preliminary Investigations
 Carlson and Quinn 2007

Preliminary Investigations

Hansen Creek

Small tributary of Lake Aleknagik

Nearly uniform top to bottom: 4m wide & 10cm deep riffles

Annual spawning population of 3,000 – 20,000 sockeye

Stream life annually averages below 10 days (usually 7-14)

Preliminary Investigations

Hansen Creek
Approach

• Sample fish (brain tissue)

• Select candidate genes

• Characterize gene expression patterns for select genes

Preliminary Investigations
relative gene expression

Cortisol axis
Preliminary Investigations
 Preliminary Investigations

Chaperones
relative gene expression
Preliminary Investigations

HSP70
relative protein
expression

*Liver
Preliminary Investigations
relative gene expression

olfaction repro

learning
immune
aging
Summary

• Baseline information on physiological changes between “arriving” and

senescent salmon

• Cortisol signaling declines temporally

• Molecular chaperone protein (HSP) is upregulated at senescence

• Molecules controlling “other” primary physiological process are differentially

expressed

• Receptor (NMDA) associated with aging and memory in other taxa declines in
senescence
Future direction

• Compare expression in populations with different rates of senescence

• Characterize corresponding protein expression levels

• Take a non-biased approach to identify differences (NGS, Differential Display)

• Explore genetic (SNP) and epigenetic (DNA methylation pattern) differences