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Sex-specific responses to cold in a very cold-tolerant, northern Drosophila species.

ABSTRACT: Organisms can plastically alter resource allocation in response to changing environmental factors. For example, in harsh conditions, organisms are expected to shift investment from reproduction toward survival; however, the factors and mechanisms that govern the magnitude of such shifts are relatively poorly studied. Here we compared the impact of cold on males and females of the highly cold-tolerant species Drosophila montana at the phenotypic and transcriptomic levels. Although both sexes showed similar changes in cold tolerance and gene expression in response to cold treatment, indicating that the majority of changes are concordant between the sexes, we identified a clear reduction in sexually dimorphic gene expression, suggesting that preparing for the colder season involves reducing investment in sex-specific traits. This reduction was larger in males than females, as expected if male sexual traits are more condition-dependent than female traits, as predicted by theory. Gene expression changes were primarily associated with shifts in metabolic profile, which likely play a role in increasing cold tolerance. Finally, we found that the expression of immune genes was reduced following cold treatment, suggesting that reduced investment in costly immune function may be important in helping flies survive colder periods.

SUBMITTER: Parker DJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8182794 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundRice grain production is susceptible to a changing environment that imposes both biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Cold episodes are becoming more frequent in the last years and directly affect rice yield in areas with a temperate climate. Rice is particularly susceptible to cold stress during the reproductive phase, especially in anthers during post-meiotic stages which, in turn, affect pollen production. However, a number of rice cultivars with a certain degree of tolerance to cold have been described, which may represent a good breeding resource for improvement of susceptible commercial varieties. Plants experiencing cold stress activate a molecular response in order to reprogram many metabolic pathways to face these hostile conditions.ResultsHere we performed RNA-seq analysis using cold-stressed post-meiotic anther samples from a cold-tolerant, Erythroceros Hokkaido (ERY), and a cold-susceptible commercial cultivar Sant'Andrea (S.AND). Both cultivars displayed an early common molecular response to cold, although the changes in expression levels are much more drastic in the tolerant one. Comparing our datasets, obtained after one-night cold stress, with other similar genome-wide studies showed very few common deregulated genes, suggesting that molecular responses in cold-stressed anthers strongly depend on conditions and the duration of the cold treatments. Cold-tolerant ERY exhibits specific molecular responses related to ethylene metabolism, which appears to be activated after cold stress. On the other hand, S.AND cold-treated plants showed a general downregulation of photosystem I and II genes, supporting a role of photosynthesis and chloroplasts in cold responses in anthers, which has remained elusive.ConclusionsOur study revealed that a number of ethylene-related transcription factors, as putative master regulators of cold responses, were upregulated in ERY providing promising candidates to confer tolerance to susceptible cultivars. Our results also suggest that the photosynthesis machinery might be a good target to improve cold tolerance in anthers. In summary, our study provides valuable candidates for further analysis and molecular breeding for cold-tolerant rice cultivars.

Project description:Malassezia is a genus of medically-important, lipid-dependent yeasts that live on the skin of warm-blooded animals. The 17 described species have been documented primarily on humans and domestic animals, but few studies have examined Malassezia species associated with more diverse host groups such as wildlife. While investigating the skin mycobiota of healthy bats, we isolated a Malassezia sp. that exhibited only up to 92% identity with other known species in the genus for the portion of the DNA sequence of the internal transcribed spacer region that could be confidently aligned. The Malassezia sp. was cultured from the skin of nine species of bats in the subfamily Myotinae; isolates originated from bats sampled in both the eastern and western United States. Physiological features and molecular characterisation at seven additional loci (D1/D2 region of 26S rDNA, 18S rDNA, chitin synthase, second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, ?-tubulin, translation elongation factor EF-1?, and minichromosome maintenance complex component 7) indicated that all of the bat Malassezia isolates likely represented a single species distinct from other named taxa. Of particular note was the ability of the Malassezia sp. to grow over a broad range of temperatures (7-40 °C), with optimal growth occurring at 24 °C. These thermal growth ranges, unique among the described Malassezia, may be an adaptation by the fungus to survive on bats during both the host's hibernation and active seasons. The combination of genetic and physiological differences provided compelling evidence that this lipid-dependent yeast represents a novel species described herein as Malassezia vespertilionis sp. nov. Whole genome sequencing placed the new species as a basal member of the clade containing the species M. furfur, M. japonica, M. obtusa, and M. yamatoensis. The genetic and physiological uniqueness of Malassezia vespertilionis among its closest relatives may make it important in future research to better understand the evolution, life history, and pathogenicity of the Malassezia yeasts.

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Sex-specific responses to cold in a very cold-tolerant, northern Drosophila species.

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