Project description:Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes impose a severe global public health burden as primary vectors of multiple viral and parasitic pathogens. Under optimal environmental conditions, Aedes aegypti females have access to human hosts that provide blood proteins for egg development, conspecific males that provide sperm for fertilization, and freshwater that serves as an egg-laying substrate suitable for offspring survival. As global temperatures rise, Aedes aegypti females are faced with climate challenges, like intense droughts and intermittent precipitation, which create unpredictable and suboptimal conditions for the egg-laying step of their reproductive cycle. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes nonetheless show remarkable reproductive resilience, but how they achieve this is unknown. Here we show that under drought-like conditions simulated in the laboratory, mated, blood-fed Aedes aegypti females carrying mature eggs retain them in their ovaries for extended periods, while maintaining the viability of these eggs until they can be deposited in freshwater. Using transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of Aedes aegypti ovaries, we identify two previously uncharacterized genes – here named tweedledee and tweedledum – that show ovary-enriched, temporally-restricted expression during egg retention. These genes are mosquito-specific, linked within a syntenic locus, and rapidly evolving under positive selection, raising the possibility that they serve an adaptive function. Using loss-of-function mutagenesis to disrupt both genes, we show that, tweedledee and tweedledum, which encode secreted proteins, are specifically required for extended retention of viable eggs, such as during intermittent precipitation or drought. These results highlight an elegant example of taxon-restricted genes at the heart of an important adaptation that equips Aedes aegypti females with “insurance” to, when contextually appropriate, flexibly extend their reproductive sequence without losing reproductive capacity, thus allowing this species to exploit diverse and unpredictable habitats.

Project description:Global climate change increasingly polarizes environments, presenting unprecedented challenges to many organisms (Smol, 2012). Polarization occurs not only in the spatial dimension, producing greater desert drought and tropical rainfall, for example, but also in the temporal dimension by making a local environment more variable over time. Many organisms survive these fluctuating environmental conditions by manifesting multiple distinct phenotypes through developmental processes that enable phenotypic plasticity (Pigliucci et al., 2006; Parsons et al., 2011). As with early development, these processes are expected to strictly regulate gene expression to canalize phenotype, despite the genetic diversity within populations (Alberch, 1982; Riska, 1986, Pigliucci et al., 1996). For plasticity to evolve, natural selection must act on genes that regulate trait variation, e.g, those conferring norms of reaction to a specific set of conditions. Despite the importance of these reaction norms for coping with environmental challenges, the genetic framework underlying phenotypic plasticity remains poorly defined, making it impossible to study how they function, differ among natural populations, and evolve. Here we used arsenic, a chemical inhibitor of salinity acclimation, to identify genes involved in transforming the gill from its freshwater to its seawater architecture in the euryhaline teleost Fundulus heteroclitus. Linear model interaction terms associated with the combined effect of arsenic and salinity challenge revealed an antagonistic relationship between arsenic exposure and salinity acclimation Exposure to arsenic during salinity acclimation yielded gene expression values similar to those observed in unexposed fish that remained in a stable environment, demonstrating that arsenic prevents changes in gene expression that normally enable osmotic plasticity. The gene sets defined by the interaction terms showed reduced inter-individual variation, suggesting unusually tight control, consistent with the hypothesis that they participate in a canalized developmental response. Evidence that natural selection acts to preserve their canalized gene expression was obtained by referencing three populations that differ in their adaptive tolerance to salinity changes (Whitehead et al., 2011). Specifically, populations adapted to withstand the widest salinity range showed both reduced transcriptional variation in genes enabling gill plasticity and an increased osmoregulatory capacity, highlighted by more stable plasma chloride concentrations in response to an osmotic challenge. Finally, we observed significantly fewer associations between genes underlying trait variation and their transcriptional regulators compared to genes that responded to only arsenic or salinity. Collectively, our results demonstrate that phenotypic plasticity converges on a molecular solution that parallels early development, in which the expression of phenotypic plasticity genes and phenotypes are canalized in part by reducing trans-regulatory complexity. 36 Sample comparisons with fish gills exposed to freshwater, freshwater to seawater for 1 hour, freshwater to seawater for 1 hour with arsenic, freshwater to seawater for 24 hours, freshwater to seawater for 24 hours with arsenic, and freshwater with arsenic for 48 hours

Project description:Drought is one of the most important environmental fluctuations affecting tree growth and survival. Therefore, understanding of physiological and transcriptomic responses of trees to this stress factor will make important contributions to forest health and productivity. Here, we report comparative physiological and microarray based transcriptome analysis between drought resistant (N.62.191) and drought-sensitive (N.03.368.A) black poplar genotypes under well-watered (WWP), moderate drought (MD), severe drought (SD) and post drought re-watering (PDR) conditions. In the study, sensitive genotype exhibited a drought escape strategy with lower leaf water potential, higher reactive oxygen production, complete leaf abscission and subsequent terminal shoot necrosis under drought stress. On the other hand, resistant genotype had a dehydration tolerance indicating highly delayed leaf abscission under drought and fast growing capacity during re-watering conditions. Gene ontology enrichment analysis attributed drought susceptibility of black poplar to significant up-regulation of genes functional in transcription regulation (AP2/ERF, NAC and WRKY), cell wall modification (Expansins), fatty acid metabolism (enoyl-ACP reductase, lipid transport protein particle), protein degradation (endopeptidases), ethylene synthesis (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate) and riboflavin synthesis (GTP cyclohydrolase II) under drought stress. Transcriptomic comparison indicated significant down-regulation of photosynthesis, electron transport and carbohydrate metabolism related genes under drought stress in sensitive genotype. Although, similar reduction in carbohydrate metabolism was also recorded for resistant genotype, genes related with photosynthesis and electron transport systems were not down regulated even under SD for this genotype. Resistant genotype specific up-regulation of small heat shock proteins (sHSP) and bark storage proteins revealed importance of protein protection and nitrogen remobilization under drought stress, respectively. This is the first study associating BSP production to delayed leaf abscission and drought tolerance in trees.

Project description:Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes impose a severe global public health burden as primary vectors of multiple viral and parasitic pathogens. Under optimal environmental conditions, Aedes aegypti females have access to human hosts that provide blood proteins for egg development, conspecific males that provide sperm for fertilization, and freshwater that serves as an egg-laying substrate suitable for offspring survival. As global temperatures rise, Aedes aegypti females are faced with climate challenges, like intense droughts and intermittent precipitation, which create unpredictable and suboptimal conditions for the egg-laying step of their reproductive cycle. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes nonetheless show remarkable reproductive resilience, but how they achieve this is unknown. Here we show that under drought-like conditions simulated in the laboratory, mated, blood-fed Aedes aegypti females carrying mature eggs retain them in their ovaries for extended periods, while maintaining the viability of these eggs until they can be deposited in freshwater. Using transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of Aedes aegypti ovaries, we identify two previously uncharacterized genes – here named tweedledee and tweedledum – that show ovary-enriched, temporally-restricted expression during egg retention. These genes are mosquito-specific, linked within a syntenic locus, and rapidly evolving under positive selection, raising the possibility that they serve an adaptive function. Using loss-of-function mutagenesis to disrupt both genes, we show that, tweedledee and tweedledum, which encode secreted proteins, are specifically required for extended retention of viable eggs, such as during intermittent precipitation or drought. These results highlight an elegant example of taxon-restricted genes at the heart of an important adaptation that equips Aedes aegypti females with “insurance” to, when contextually appropriate, flexibly extend their reproductive sequence without losing reproductive capacity, thus allowing this species to exploit diverse and unpredictable/chaotic/changing habitats.

Project description:Drought is one of the most important environmental fluctuations affecting tree growth and survival. Therefore, understanding of physiological and transcriptomic responses of trees to this stress factor will make important contributions to forest health and productivity. Here, we report comparative physiological and microarray based transcriptome analysis between drought resistant (N.62.191) and drought-sensitive (N.03.368.A) black poplar genotypes under well-watered (WWP), moderate drought (MD), severe drought (SD) and post drought re-watering (PDR) conditions. In the study, sensitive genotype exhibited a drought escape strategy with lower leaf water potential, higher reactive oxygen production, complete leaf abscission and subsequent terminal shoot necrosis under drought stress. On the other hand, resistant genotype had a dehydration tolerance indicating highly delayed leaf abscission under drought and fast growing capacity during re-watering conditions. Gene ontology enrichment analysis attributed drought susceptibility of black poplar to significant up-regulation of genes functional in transcription regulation (AP2/ERF, NAC and WRKY), cell wall modification (Expansins), fatty acid metabolism (enoyl-ACP reductase, lipid transport protein particle), protein degradation (endopeptidases), ethylene synthesis (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate) and riboflavin synthesis (GTP cyclohydrolase II) under drought stress. Transcriptomic comparison indicated significant down-regulation of photosynthesis, electron transport and carbohydrate metabolism related genes under drought stress in sensitive genotype. Although, similar reduction in carbohydrate metabolism was also recorded for resistant genotype, genes related with photosynthesis and electron transport systems were not down regulated even under SD for this genotype. Resistant genotype specific up-regulation of small heat shock proteins (sHSP) and bark storage proteins revealed importance of protein protection and nitrogen remobilization under drought stress, respectively. This is the first study associating BSP production to delayed leaf abscission and drought tolerance in trees. For Microarray experiment total RNA was isolated from the leaves randomly selected from two balck poplar seedlings (two biological replicates) for resistant and sensitive genotypes at well watered period (WWP), moderate drought (MD), severe drought (SD) and post drought rewatering (PDR) periods. For each water availability regime total isolated RNA was loaded onto two Affymetrix poplar Gene Chips for each genotype. Totally 16 Affymetrix poplar GeneChips (2 genotypes × 4 water availability regimes × 2 biological replicates) were used for transcriptional analysis.

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Molecular responses to freshwater limitation in the mangrove tree Avicennia germinans (Acanthaceae)

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