Project description:The invasive marine mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis has displaced the native congener Mytilus trossulus from central and southern California, but the native species remains dominant at more northerly sites that have high levels of freshwater input. To determine the extent to which interspecific differences in physiological tolerance to low salinity might explain limits to the invasive species’ biogeography, we used an oligonucleotide microarray to compare the transcriptional responses of these two species to an acute decrease in salinity. Among 6,777 genes on the microarray, 117 genes showed significant changes that were similar between species, and 12 genes showed significant species-specific responses to salinity stress. Osmoregulation and cell cycle control were important aspects of the shared transcriptomic response to salinity stress, whereas the genes with species-specific expression patterns were involved in mRNA splicing, polyamine synthesis, exocytosis, translation, cell adhesion, and cell signaling. Forty-five genes that changed expression significantly during salinity stress also changed expression during heat stress, but the direction of change in expression was typically opposite for the two forms of stress. These results (i) provide insights into the role of changes in gene expression in establishing physiological tolerance to acute decreases in salinity, and (ii) indicate that transcriptomic differences between M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus in response to salinity stress are subtle and involve only a minor fraction of the overall suite of gene regulatory responses. Two species (Mytilus galloprovincialis, Mytilus trossulus), hypo-osmotic shock for four hours (850 mOs/kg), one control group (1000 mOs/kg) sampled at the end of the treatment exposure (850 mOs/kg), one control group (1000 mOs/kg) sampled at the beginning. Biological replicates: 6 in each treatment group, 6 in each control group. Heterologous and homologous hybridization to a microarray constructed from Mytilus californianus and Mytilus galloprovincialis sequences. A reference design that used separate pools of reference RNA for each species was employed. Reference amplified RNA (aRNA) was created for each species by pooling RNA before and after amplification. The reference pool was made up of RNA from six different samples: two base-line control samples from the beginning of the experiment, two treatment samples from the end of the four-hour hypo-osmotic exposure, and two time-control samples from the end of the four-hour exposure time. To accurately compare the transcriptomes of Mytilus galloprovincialis and M. trossulus, we chose to develop a common microarray format that could be used for both species. This microarray design consisted of probe sequences generated from the out-group species, M. californianus. M. trossulus and M. galloprovincialis are approximately 7.5 million years divergent from M. californianus, yet only 3.5 million years divergent from each other (Seed, 1992). Therefore, heterologous hybridization to the microarray allowed us to compare transcriptional responses of M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus without the inherent sequence biases that would result from a microarray that was designed from sequences of either M. galloprovincialis or M. trossulus. A limited number of sequences (556) from ESTs from M. galloprovincialis that matched M. californianus ESTs were included on the microarray to test for the effects of sequence mismatches. Only probes that performed well for both M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus were used in our analyses. In order to determine significant changes in expression, we conducted a two-way ANOVA, in which salinity and species were modeled as fixed effects, and focused on genes that were significant for the salinity effect or the species x temperature interaction. We ignored the species term from the ANOVA as this effect could have highlighted genes that differentially bound to probes on the microarray due to differences in sequence homology, thus not reflecting true differences in gene expression. In accordance with statistical convention, all genes with a significant species x temperature interaction were deemed not to have significant temperature effects, even if the temperature term from the ANOVA had a low P-value. All genes with FDR-corrected (Benjamini and Hochberg, 1995) P-values less than 0.05 were considered significant. Analyses were conducted in the R statistical programming environment (R Development Core Team, 2009).
Project description:[original Title] Transcriptomic responses to heat-stress in invasive and native blue mussels (genus Mytilus): molecular correlates of invasive success. Invasive species are increasingly prevalent in marine ecosystems worldwide. Although many studies have examined the ecological effects of invasives, little is known about physiological mechanisms that might contribute to invasive success. The mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, a native of the Mediterranean Sea, is a successful invader on the central and southern coasts of California, where it has largely displaced the native congener, Mytilus trossulus. It has been previously shown that thermal responses of several physiological traits may underlie the capacity of M. galloprovincialis to out-compete M. trossulus in warm habitats. To elucidate possible differences in stress-induced gene expression between these congeners, we developed an oligonucleotide microarray with 8,874 probes representing 4,488 different genes that recognized mRNAs of both species. In acute heat-stress experiments, 1,531 of these genes showed temperature-dependent changes in gene expression that were highly similar in the two congeners. In contrast, 96 genes showed species-specific responses to heat-stress, functionally characterized by their involvement in oxidative stress, proteolysis, energy metabolism, ion transport, cell signaling, and cytoskeletal reorganization. The gene that showed the biggest difference between the species was the gene for the molecular chaperone small heat shock protein 24, which was highly induced in M. galloprovincialis and showed only a small change in M. trossulus. These different responses to acute heat-stress may help to explain—and predict—the invasive success of M. galloprovincialis in a warming world.