Locust flight muscle: hypoxia-treated vs control

Background: Hypoxia can affect aerobic organisms profoundly. Biological responses to extreme hypoxia have been well studied. However, it is not well characterized how living organisms respond to mild hypoxia, and how they distinguish different levels of hypoxia. Results: We examined the transcriptional responses of locusts using microarrays to reveal their strategies to cope with mild hypoxia. Mitochondrial activities were systemically suppressed, mainly involving energy production and mitochondrial biogenesis. The functions of endoplasmic reticulum were activated to clear the dysfunctional proteins and rescue newly synthesized proteins. Glucose in cytosol was shunted from glycolysis to pentose phosphate pathway probably to tackle the oxidative stress by enhancing the production of reductive forces. Conclusions: Locusts’ responses to mild hypoxia differ from that to severe hypoxia . In severe hypoxia, glucose resources are shunted to glycolysis to produce ATP and tackle energy crisis; however, in mild hypoxia, they are diverted to produce reductive forces and deal with oxidative stress. Locusts are capable of distinguishing different levels of hypoxia and initiating proper defenses. Simulated 4km altitude hypoxia treatment vs. normoxia control;direct comparison on 6 separate microarrays; each microarray compares one biological replicate of treatment and control; each biological replicate contains 10 individuals