Task 4

In Task 4, a series of respirometry, biochemical and transcriptomic assays will be carried out to understand the energetic costs and metabolic implications involved in farmed marine fish immunity, resilience to the pathogen Vibrio harveyi and overall homeostasis maintenance under the co-exposure to climate change-related stressors (marine heatwaves and hypoxia). Hence, three subtasks will be carried out:

4.1. Metabolic rate and aerobic scope

4.2. Physiological and metabolic biochemical parameters

4.3.  Transcriptome analysis and differential gene expression

The results obtained in this task are expected to provide a deeper understanding on the straight links between fish immune and metabolic pathways, confirming that the exposure to pathogens and abiotic stressors (marine heatwaves and/or hypoxia) implies great energetic costs and/or energy reallocation, thus, compromising fish growth and metabolism. Differential effects (i.e. up- or down-regulations of biomarkers and differentially expressed genes) are expected according to species/treatment.