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The environmental cellular stress response: the intertidal as a multistressor model

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Cell Stress and Chaperones Aims and scope

Abstract

The wild poses a multifaceted challenge to the maintenance of cellular function. Therefore, a multistressor approach is essential to predict the cellular mechanisms which promote homeostasis and underpin whole-organism tolerance. The intertidal zone is particularly dynamic, and thus, its inhabitants provide excellent models to assess mechanisms underpinning multistressor tolerance. Here, we critically review our current understanding of the regulation of the cellular stress response (CSR) under multiple abiotic stressors in intertidal organisms and consider to what extent a multistressor approach brings us closer to understanding responses in the wild. The function of the CSR has been well documented in laboratory and field exposures with a view to understanding single-stressor thermal effects. Multistressor studies still remain relatively limited in comparison but have applied three main approaches: (i) laboratory application of multiple stressors in isolation, (ii) multiple stressors applied in combination, and (iii) field-based correlation of multiple stressors against the CSR. The application of multiple stressors in isolation has allowed the identification of putative, shared stress pathways but overlooks non-additive stressor interactions on the CSR. Combined stressor studies are relatively limited in number but already highlight variable effects on the CSR dependent upon stressor type, timing, and magnitude. Field studies have allowed the identification of responsive components of the CSR to various stressors in situ but are correlative, not causative. A combined approach involving laboratory multistressor studies linking the CSR to whole-organism tolerance as well as field studies is required if we are to understand the role of the CSR in the natural environment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jamie Oliver (BAS) for producing Fig. 1 and some of the graphics used in Fig. 2.

Funding

MC and MT are funded by the School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth. MSC is funded by NERC core funding to British Antarctic Survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Biology and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK

    Michael Collins & Manuela Truebano

  2. British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OET, UK

    Melody S. Clark

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  1. Michael Collins
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Correspondence to Michael Collins.

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Collins, M., Clark, M.S. & Truebano, M. The environmental cellular stress response: the intertidal as a multistressor model. Cell Stress and Chaperones 28, 467–475 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12192-023-01348-7

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