Ocean acidification alters the transcriptomic response in the nervous system of Aplysia californica during reflex behaviour

Abstract

Ocean acidification (OA) has numerous impacts on marine organisms including behaviour. While behaviours are controlled in the neuro system, its complexity makes linking behavioural impairments to environmental change difficult. Here we use a neurological model Aplysia californica with well-studied simple neuro system and behaviours. By exposing Aplysia to current day ([~]500 {micro}atm) or near-future CO2 conditions ([~]1100 {micro}atm), we test the effect of OA on their tail withdrawal reflex (TWR) and the underlying neuromolecular response of the pleural-pedal ganglia, responsible for the behaviour. Under OA, Aplysia relax tails faster due to increased sensorin-A expression, an inhibitor of mechanosensory neurons. We further investigate how OA affects habituation, which produced a "sensitization-like" behaviour and affected vesicle transport and stress response, revealing an influence of OA on neuronal and behavioural outputs associated with learning. Finally, we test whether GABA-mediated neurotransmission is involved in impaired TWR, but exposure to gabazine did not restore normal behaviour and provoked little molecular response, rejecting the involvement in TWR impairment. Instead, vesicular transport and cellular signalling link other neurotransmitter processes directly with TWR impairment. Our study shows effects of OA on neurological tissue parts that control for behaviour revealing the neurological mechanisms when faced with OA.