Environmental transcriptomics under heat stress: Can environmental RNA reveal changes in gene expression of aquatic organisms?

ABSTRACT: To safeguard biodiversity in a changing climate, taxonomic information about species turnover and insights into the health of organisms are required. Environmental DNA approaches are increasingly used for species identification, but cannot provide functional insights. Transcriptomic methods reveal the physiological states of macroorganisms, but are currently species-specific and require tissue sampling or animal sacrifice, making community-wide assessments challenging. Here, we test whether broad functional information (expression level of the transcribed genes) can be harnessed from environmental RNA (eRNA), which includes extra-organismal RNA from macroorganisms along with whole microorganisms. We exposed Daphnia pulex as well as phytoplankton prey and microorganism colonizers to control

SUBMITTER: Hechler RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12186723 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature