Hollings Marine Laboratory

Lipidomics is an emerging field with great promise for biomarker and mechanistic studies due to lipids diverse biological roles. Clinical research applying lipidomics is drastically increasing, with research methods and tools developed for clinical applications equally promising for wildlife studies. Limited research to date has applied lipidomics, especially of the intact lipidome, to wildlife studies. Therefore, we examine the application of lipidomics for in situ studies on Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) in Loskop Dam, South Africa. Wide-scale mortality events of aquatic life associated with an environmentally-derived inflammatory disease, pansteatitis, have occurred in this area. The lipidome of adipose tissue (n = 31) and plasma (n = 51) from tilapia collected from Loskop Dam were characterized using state of the art liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Lipid profiles reflected pansteatitis severity and were significantly different between diseased and healthy individuals. Over 13 classes of lipids associated with inflammation, cell death, and/or oxidative damage were upregulated in pansteatitis-affected adipose tissue, including ether-lipids, short-chained triglyceride oxidation products, sphingolipids, and acylcarnitines. Ceramides showed a 1000-fold increase in the most affected adipose tissues and were sensitive to disease severity. In plasma, triglycerides were found to be downregulated in pansteatitis-affected tilapia. Intact lipidomics provided useful mechanistic data and possible biomarkers of pansteatitis. Lipids pointed to upregulated inflammatory pathways, and ceramides serve as promising biomarker candidates for pansteatitis. As comprehensive coverage of the lipidome aids in the elucidation of possible disease mechanisms, application of lipidomics could be applied to the understanding of other environmentally-derived inflammatory conditions, such as those caused by obesogens.

The quality of data generated for the analysis of environmental samples is critical to State and Federal regulatory agencies to ensure that decisions based upon the amounts of contaminants in environmental samples are truly protective of public health. The quality and validation of these measurements using the approved analytical methodology could be significantly enhanced by incorporating certified reference materials as part of the quality control protocols, yet this has not been widely implemented. Data from certified reference materials can provide critical information that can impact assessments regarding data use that is unavailable by other means. Using the analysis of Cr(vi) in soil extracts as the test case, some of the issues surrounding the use of certified reference materials for environmental applications are discussed in this paper, including the relative cost, and the availability and applicability regarding element coverage and content.

This paper describes the development of a distortion control ‘Toolbox’ that can be used to mitigate distortion in thin-structured ship design and fabrication. Highlights of the NSRP project entitled, “Distortion Control ‘Toolbox’ for Lightweight Ship Structures” are presented. The different points of view used to develop distortion reduction recipes include: historic evidence-based approaches obtained from an extensive literature survey, development of ideal states which quantify the best result that can be expected, identification of factors that affect distortion and the relative strength (contribution) of each effect on the final distorted shape, business case and costs for reducing distortion, and a shipyard perspective on what can be done to reduce distortion.

The metabolomic fingerprints of a protected sea turtle species have been investigated for the first time using a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics approach. We emphasized method development of optimal plasma filtration conditions (filter type, washing techniques, extract stability) for green turtles and other organisms, while also using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Material 1950 (SRM 1950) Metabolites in Human Plasma for quality control. We surveyed the blood plasma metabolomic fingerprints of Hawaiian green sea turtles representing a wide range of physiological conditions that include varying disease states, behavioral conditions, and locales. The turtles sampled were free-swimming (n=5 from Hualalai on the west coast of the island of Hawaii), basking (n=7 from Hualalai), free-swimming tumor-free (n=3 from Kapoho, east coast of Hawaii), or freeswimming afflicted with external tumors (n=5 from Kapoho) caused by the disease, fibropapillomatosis (FP). The metabolomic profiles and the specific metabolites that differed among individual turtles are discussed. This optimized tool and the annotated metabolic profiles will benefit future investigations into the behavioral and disease conditions of the green turtle. Keywords: Blood filtration, fibropapillomatosis, Hawaiian green sea turtle, metabolic fingerprint, metabolomics, NMR, protected species, plasma, SRM 1950.

In an effort to establish a DNA sequence based checklist of the highly diverse chondrichthyan fauna of Taiwan, we sequenced the mitochondrial NADH2 gene of 257 freshly sampled specimens of Taiwanese chondrichthyans, which were identified to species level by experts in the field. The newly generated sequences were analysed in the context of an already published phylogeny based on NADH2 sequences of chondrichthyans to identify taxonomically interesting lineages as well as enhancing the already published phylogeny with species hitherto not included. Results show a number of noteworthy findings indicating distinct population differences or cryptic diversity and enhance published data with 22 new species not analyzed so far. Our study may be helpful for further taxonomic work on the Taiwanese chrondrichthyan fauna.

The oil spill resulting from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform initiated immediate concern for marine wildlife, including common bottlenose dolphins in sensitive coastal habitats. To evaluate potential sublethal effects on dolphins, health assessments were conducted in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, an area that received heavy and prolonged oiling, and in a reference site, Sarasota Bay, Florida, where oil was not observed. Dolphins were temporarily captured, received a veterinary examination, and were then released. Dolphins sampled in Barataria Bay showed evidence of hypoadrenocorticism, consistent with adrenal toxicity as previously reported for laboratory mammals exposed to oil. Barataria Bay dolphins were 5 times more likely to have moderate-severe lung disease, generally characterized by significant alveolar interstitial syndrome, lung masses, and pulmonary consolidation. Of 29 dolphins evaluated from Barataria Bay, 48% were given a guarded or worse prognosis, and 17% were considered poor or grave, indicating that they were not expected to survive. Disease conditions in Barataria Bay dolphins were significantly greater in prevalence and severity than those in Sarasota Bay dolphins, as well as those previously reported in other wild dolphin populations. Many disease conditions observed in Barataria Bay dolphins are uncommon but consistent with petroleum hydrocarbon exposure and toxicity.