ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Comparative Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1657667
This article is part of the Research TopicImmune Adaptations in Aquatic Species: Defenses, Gene Diversity, and Environmental StressorsView all articles
Anthropogenic Noise Exposure Suppresses the Immune Response in Mytilus spp. Following Vibrio splendidus Challenge
Provisionally accepted
- 1Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- 2Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
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Anthropogenic noise is a growing environmental stressor in marine ecosystems, yet its effects on immune function in bivalves remain poorly understood. This study examined the transcriptional response of blue mussels, Mytilus spp., following exposure to ship noise for seven days, followed by a low-dose Vibrio splendidus bath challenge. Transcriptomic analysis at multiple time points post-noise exposure revealed only subtle changes in expression signatures which appeared to resolve at later time points. However, compared with the controls, mussels exposed to ship noise showed a reduced number of differentially expressed genes in their gill tissue following bacterial challenge. This indicated a suppressed immune response, as indicated by reduced expression of immune-related genes compared to controls.While bacterial burden and mortality did not significantly differ between noise-exposed and control groups, the proportion of GFP-tagged Vibrio splendidus colonies was higher in noiseexposed mussels. These findings contribute to a growing body of evidence that anthropogenic noise may impair immune function in bivalves, with implications for aquaculture and marine ecosystem health.
Keywords: Mussel (Mytilus spp.), Noise - exposure, stress response, transcriptomics (RNA sequencing), Vibrio splendidus, GFP labelling
Received: 01 Jul 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chapuis, Wale, Bailey, Farley, Bean and Regan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ambre Flora Chapuis, Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Tim Regan, Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
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