Ricerc@Sapienza

Anthropic activities are causing severe damages on the natural environment from climate change to habitat destruction. The animal’s first response to natural and anthropic environmental changes is behavioural and therefore behaviour can be considered a link between physiological and ecological processes. Water temperature is an important environmental parameter influencing the distribution and the health of fish and it plays acentral role in ectothermic animals affecting their physiology andbehaviour.

Water temperature is an important environmental parameter influencing the distribution and the health of fishes and it plays a central role in ectothermic animals. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of environmental temperature on the brain proteome and the behavioural responses in zebrafish, a widely used animal model for environmental “omics” studies. Adult specimens of wild-type zebrafish were kept at 18 °C, 34 °C and 26 °C (control) for 21 days.

Environmental temperature variations affect many properties and functions of biomolecules and structural components at the cellular level, and influence the animal physiology and behavior at the organism level. It is well accepted that the biochemical changes induced by temperature stress are attributed to gene expression modulations. The aim of this work was to understand the molecular mechanism and the behavioural responses correlated to temperature stress in zebrafish (Danio rerio), which is a widely used animal model for environmental genomics researches.