How widespread is preparation for oxidative stress in the animal kingdom

Abstract It is well known that many anoxia/hypoxia tolerant species when exposed to anoxia/hypoxia respond by increasing the activity/expression of antioxidant enzymes and/or glutathione levels—a phenomenon called “preparation for oxidative stress” (POS). This phenomenon was also observed during freezing exposure, severe dehydration, aerial exposure of water-breathing animals and estivation. However, as far as we know, there is no analysis available of the prevalence of POS among animal species. A major problem is the very definition of POS, since many animal species show both increases and decreases of antioxidants during low oxygen stress and estivation. Therefore, we established three different criteria; from inclusive to restrictive and analyzed how widespread the POS phenomenon is in the animal kingdom. We analyzed all available papers in several databases about the modulation of antioxidant defenses during oxygen deprivation or estivation. Based on the magnitude of change (as % change) during the specific low oxygen stresses or estivation, we classified each species as POS-positive, POS-negative or POS-neutral, considering the three different criteria. The prevalence of POS-positive animals (102 species from 8 phyla) was stress-dependent: in estivation and dehydration it was 91–100%, while in hypoxia it was 37.5–53%, depending on the criteria. In the case of air exposure, anoxia and freezing the proportions of POS-positive species were 54–77%, 64–77% and 75–86%, respectively. Overall, the prevalence of POS was 58 to 68% when all stresses and all species were analyzed together. The results indicate the key importance of POS as a survival strategy of animals exposed to freezing, dehydration and estivation, and, to a lesser extent, to oxygen deprivation itself (i.e. hypoxia and anoxia).