Global depression in gene expression as a response to rapid thermal changes in vent mussels |
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Authors: | Isabelle Boutet Arnaud Tanguy Dominique Le Guen Patrice Piccino Stéphane Hourdez Pierre Legendre Didier Jollivet |
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Institution: | 1.Laboratoire Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin, BP 74, Université Pierre et Marie Curie—Paris VI, 29680, Roscoff cedex, France;2.Station Biologique de Roscoff, Equipe GAME, BP 74, CNRS UMR 7144, Place Georges Teissier 29682, Roscoff cedex, France;3.Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, CP 6128 Succ ‘Centre-Ville’, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada |
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Abstract: | Hydrothermal vent mussels belonging to the genus Bathymodiolus are distributed worldwide and dominate communities at shallow Atlantic hydrothermal sites. While organisms inhabiting coastal ecosystems are subjected to predictable oscillations of physical and chemical variables owing to tidal cycles, the vent mussels sustain pronounced temperature changes over short periods of time, correlated to the alternation of oxic/anoxic phases. In this context, we focused on the short-term adaptive response of mussels to temperature change at a molecular level. The mRNA expression of 23 genes involved in various cell functions of the vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus was followed after heat shocks for either 30 or 120 min, at 25 and 30°C over a 48 h recovery period at 5°C. Mussels were genotyped at 10 enzyme loci to explore a relationship between natural genetic variation, gene expression and temperature adaptation. Results indicate that the mussel response to increasing temperature is a depression in gene expression, such a response being genotypically correlated at least for the Pgm-1 locus. This suggests that an increase in temperature could be a signal triggering anaerobiosis for B. azoricus or this latter alternatively behaves more like a ‘cold’ stenotherm species, an attribute more related to its phylogenetic history, a cold seeps/wood fall origin. |
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Keywords: | temperature adaptation genotype mRNA expression metabolic depression Bathymodiolus azoricus |
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