Effects of diluted bitumen exposure on Atlantic salmon smolts: molecular and metabolic responses in relation to swimming performance

Abstract Canada’s oil sands industry continues to expand and the volume of diluted bitumen (dilbit) transported across North America is increasing, adding to spill risk and environmental contamination. Dilbit exposure is known to cause adverse effects in fish, but linking molecular and cellular changes with ecologically-relevant individual performance metrics is needed to better understand the potential consequences of a dilbit spill into the aquatic environment. Therefore, this study examined the effects of dilbit exposure on subcellular responses in cardiac and skeletal muscle in relation to swimming performance in a migratory fish species at risk of exposure, Atlantic salmon. Smolts were exposed subchronically to environmentally relevant concentrations of the water-soluble fraction of dilbit (WSFd) for 24 d, and then a subset of exposed fish underwent a depuration period of 7 or 14 d, for a total of 3 experimental time points. At each time point, repeat swimming performance was assessed using sequential critical swimming speed tests (Ucrit) separated by a 24 h rest period, and then several tissues were collected to determine biotransformation enzyme activation, energetic responses, and gene expression changes. Ucrit was unaffected in fish exposed to 67.9 μg/L total initial polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC), but fish showed a decreased reliance on lipid metabolism for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in the heart that was maintained through 7 d depuration. In contrast, Ucrit increased in fish exposed to 9.65 μg/L PAC, corresponding to an increased reliance on anaerobic metabolic pathways in cardiac and red skeletal muscle, with partial recovery after 7 d depuration. As expected, at both concentrations WSFd hepatic cyp 1A-mediated biotransformation reactions increased, as measured by EROD activity, which remained elevated for 7 d but not after 14 d depuration. Transcript abundance of cyp1a was also increased in muscle tissue and recovered by 14 d depuration. The expression of other stress-related genes increased in white muscle of dilbit-exposed fish, but were largely unchanged in cardiac and red muscle. The transcriptional profile of cardiac tissue was compared to that of sockeye salmon similarly exposed to WSFd in a previous experiment, and is provided in supplemental text. Combined, these results demonstrate that dilbit exposure alters gene expression and enzyme activities related to xenobiotic exposure, cellular stress, and muscle energetics in juvenile Atlantic salmon without impairing swimming performance, and that most of these changes are recoverable within 14 d depuration.