PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eugène Morin
AU  - Päivi Soppela
AU  - P. Yvan Chouinard
TI  - Thermal adaptation and fatty acid profiles of bone marrow and muscles in mammals: implications of a study of caribou (<em>Rangifer tarandus caribou</em>)
AID  - 10.1101/2022.05.04.490689
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.05.04.490689
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/05/04/2022.05.04.490689.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/05/04/2022.05.04.490689.full
AB  - Mammals have evolved several physiological mechanisms to cope with changes in ambient temperature. Particularly critical among them is the process of keeping cells in a fluid phase to prevent metabolic dysfunction. In this paper, we examine variation in the fatty acid composition of bone marrow and muscle tissues in the cold-adapted caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) to determine whether there are systematic differences in fatty acid profiles between anatomical regions that could potentially be explained by thermal adaptation. Our results indicate that the bone marrow and muscle tissues from the appendicular skeleton are more unsaturated than the same tissues in the axial skeleton, a finding that is consistent with physiological adaptation of the appendicular regions to thermal challenges. Because mechanisms of thermal adaptation appear to be widely shared among terrestrial mammals, we suggest that the same patterns may prevail in other species, possibly including humans.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.