Molecular Responses to Thermal and Osmotic Stress in Arctic Intertidal Mussels (Mytilus edulis): The Limits of Resilience.
View / Open Files
Authors
Thyrring, Jakob
Harper, Elizabeth M
Sejr, Mikael K
Clark, Melody S
Publication Date
2022-01-15Journal Title
Genes (Basel)
ISSN
2073-4425
Publisher
MDPI AG
Volume
13
Issue
1
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Barrett, N. J., Thyrring, J., Harper, E. M., Sejr, M. K., Sørensen, J. G., Peck, L. S., & Clark, M. S. (2022). Molecular Responses to Thermal and Osmotic Stress in Arctic Intertidal Mussels (Mytilus edulis): The Limits of Resilience.. Genes (Basel), 13 (1) https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13010155
Abstract
Increases in Arctic temperatures have accelerated melting of the Greenland icesheet, exposing intertidal organisms, such as the blue mussel Mytilus edulis, to high air temperatures and low salinities in summer. However, the interaction of these combined stressors is poorly described at the transcriptional level. Comparing expression profiles of M. edulis from experimentally warmed (30 °C and 33 °C) animals kept at control (23‱) and low salinities (15‱) revealed a significant lack of enrichment for Gene Ontology terms (GO), indicating that similar processes were active under all conditions. However, there was a progressive increase in the abundance of upregulated genes as each stressor was applied, with synergistic increases at 33 °C and 15‱, suggesting combined stressors push the animal towards their tolerance thresholds. Further analyses comparing the effects of salinity alone (23‱, 15‱ and 5‱) showed high expression of stress and osmoregulatory marker genes at the lowest salinity, implying that the cell is carrying out intracellular osmoregulation to maintain the cytosol as hyperosmotic. Identification of aquaporins and vacuolar-type ATPase transcripts suggested the cell may use fluid-filled cavities to excrete excess intracellular water, as previously identified in embryonic freshwater mussels. These results indicate that M. edulis has considerable resilience to heat stress and highly efficient mechanisms to acclimatise to lowered salinity in a changing world.
Keywords
Climate change, Acclimation, Thermal tolerance, Salinity, Aquaporins, Blue mussel, Transcriptome, Cellular Stress Response, Freshening
Identifiers
PMC8774603, 35052494
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13010155
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/334254
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.
Recommended or similar items
The current recommendation prototype on the Apollo Repository will be turned off on 03 February 2023. Although the pilot has been fruitful for both parties, the service provider IKVA is focusing on horizon scanning products and so the recommender service can no longer be supported. We recognise the importance of recommender services in supporting research discovery and are evaluating offerings from other service providers. If you would like to offer feedback on this decision please contact us on: support@repository.cam.ac.uk