Comparative Transcriptome Analysis for Understanding Predator-Induced Polyphenism in the Water Flea Daphnia pulex.

ABSTRACT: The crustacean Daphnia pulex is one of the best model organisms for studying inducible defense mechanisms due to their inducible morphology in response to the predator Chaoborus larvae. In this study, multiple developmental stages of D. pulex were exposed to C. flavicans larvae and transcriptome profiles of samples from late embryo to fifth instar were sequenced by the RNA-seq technique to investigate the genetic background underlying inducible defenses. In comparison, differentially expressed genes between defensive and normal morphs were identified, including 908 genes in late embryo, 1383 genes in the first-third (1⁻3) instar, and 1042 genes in fourth-fifth (4⁻5) instar. Gene ontology enrichment analysis showed that structural constituents of the cuticle and

SUBMITTER: An H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6073494 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature