Hypoxia impairs survival and alters immune and iron metabolism gene expression during shark early ontogeny

The global oxygen inventory has been declining worldwide, primarily due to climate change. The importance of oxygen for aerobic respiration and its homeostasis makes declining oxygen levels a concern, particularly during energy demanding lifecycle stages. The effects of low oxygen levels on neuroendocrine responses and immune competence of developing sharks were studied in the head and trunk tissues of early (EE; before pre-hatching) and late embryos (LE) of small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) under six days of deoxygenation (93 % O₂ of air saturation) and hypoxic conditions (26 % O₂). Catshark embryos were resilient to deoxygenation, with only a 10 % decline in survival compared to the control, and only the gene expression of melanotransferrin changed. Under hypoxia, growth was unaffected, but survival decreased by 31 % compared to the control in LE, highlighting an inadequate physiological response. Developmental stage affected the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (hif1a), iron metabolism and immune-related genes, pointing to critical response mechanisms. The EE stage had an optimised stress response under hypoxia compared to LE, with the upregulation of the hif1a gene. The lack of a protective response and compromised immune-related functions under hypoxia in LE raise concerns about species survival under climate change. These findings highlight the need for further research on the likely resilience of sharks to environmental challenges.