Transcriptome wide analyses reveal intraspecific diversity in thermal stress responses of a dominant habitat‐forming species

Transcriptome wide analyses reveal intraspecific diversity in thermal stress responses of a dominant habitat‐forming species

KR Nicastro, GA Pearson, X Ramos, V Pearson, CD McQuaid, GI Zardi. Transcriptome wide analyses reveal intraspecific diversity in thermal stress responses of a dominant habitat‐forming species. Scientific Reports 13 (1), 5645. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-32654-w

The impact of climate change on biodiversity has stimulated the need to understand environmental stress responses, particularly for ecosystem engineers whose responses to climate affect large numbers of associated organisms. Distinct species differ substantially in their resilience to thermal stress but there are also within-species variations in thermal tolerance for which the molecular mechanisms underpinning such variation remain largely unclear. Intertidal mussels are well-known for their role as ecosystem engineers. First, we exposed two genetic lineages of the intertidal mussel Perna perna to heat stress treatments in air and water. Next, we ran a high throughput RNA sequencing experiment to identify differences in gene expression between the thermally resilient eastern lineage and the thermally sensitive western lineage. We highlight different thermal tolerances that concord with their distributional ranges. Critically, we also identified lineage-specific patterns of gene expression under heat stress and revealed intraspecific differences in the underlying transcriptional pathways in response to warmer temperatures that are potentially linked to the within-species differences in thermal tolerance. Beyond the species, we show how unravelling within-species variability in mechanistic responses to heat stress promotes a better understanding of global evolutionary trajectories of the species as a whole in response to changing climate.

BOREA contact: Gerardo Zardi, chercheur, équipe ECOFUNC, Université de Caen Normandie

Légende/Picture title : Sample clustering. Multidimensional scaling of samples (15,725 transcripts passing edgeR expression filters) in 3 dimensions coloured by treatment (a) and lineage (b). Sample distances for the same data (c) with row annotations indicating treatment (green = “AIR”, grey = “CONTROL” and light blue = “WATER”) and column annotations indicating lineage (blue = “West” and orange = “East”).

Gerardo ZARDI's picture
Gerardo ZARDI
UCN Caen
Research assistant
ECOFUNC
University of Caen Normandy (UCN)
Published on 13 Jun 2023
Updated on 15 Jun 2023