Project description:Background biology: Global warming has accelerated in recent decades, with the Arctic warming 2–3 times faster than the global average. As a result boreal species are expanding into the Arctic, at a pace reflecting environmental warming. Nevertheless, the poleward expansion of boreal marine species is restricted by their ability to tolerate low water temperatures, and in the case of intertidal species, sub-zero air temperatures during winter. In Greenland, however, the number of days with extreme sub-zero air temperatures has decreased by more than 50% since the 1950’s, suggesting that the low air temperature constraint is weakening. Although boreal intertidal species could potentially benefit from this warmer climate to establish populations in the Arctic, recent work has shown that local intertidal summer air temperatures in Greenland can exceed 36°C. This temperature is above the thermoregulatory capacity of many boreal intertidal species, including the highly abundant blue mussel Mytilus edulis. Therefore will further colonisation of M. edulis in Greenland be inhibited by the increasingly warm summer temperatures. Aim of experiment: Intertidal animals (Greenland blue mussel M. edulis) were sampled in situ on the first warm days of the year from the inner (warmer) and outer (cooler) regions of the Godthåbsfjorden around Nuuk (64°N) to examine the fjord temperature gradient effect. In addition, subtidal M. edulis were also collected and subjected to two acute temperature shocks of 22 and 32°C, which represented common and extreme summer air temperatures for intertidal habitats near Nuuk.
Project description:Marine intertidal organisms commonly face hypoxic stress during low tide emersion; moreover, eutrophic conditions and sediment nearness could lead to hypoxic phenomena; it is indeed important to understand the molecular processes involved in the response to hypoxia. In this study the molecular response of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas to prolonged hypoxia (2 mg O2 L-1 for 20 d) was investigated under experimental conditions. A transcriptomic approach was employed using a cDNA microarray of 9058 C. gigas clones to highlight the genetic expression patterns of the Pacific oyster under hypoxic conditions. Lines of oysters resistant (R) and susceptible (S) to summer mortality were used in this study. This is the first study employing microarrays to characterize the genetic markers and metabolic pathways responding to hypoxic stress in C. gigas.
Project description:This experiment was designed to enable the identification of field mortality sensitive Pacific oysters while also permitting the repetitive, non-lethal sampling of tissue from identifiable individual oysters. These samples have been difficult to obtain because pre-mortality phenotypes are obscured by the presence of an outer shell which occludes all views of body tissues. Additionally, mortality triggers have not been identified and there is need to better characterize the pathophysiology preceding mortality. 300 three year old oysters were sampled on 6 dates from May to October, 2008 from their grow out site at Totten Inlet, WA, USA. 100-200ul of hemolymph was withdrawn from the adductor muscle and preserved for possible mRNA analysis by microarray. At the end of the summer, mortality phenotypes were assigned to individuals (alive vs. dead/mortality). Gene expression profiles from screened mortality individuals showed up-regulation of a set of 124/11904 ESTs within one month of death that were not usually found in the alive individuals. This indicates that the path to death in oysters occurs over several days and maybe weeks, and is a molecularly coordinated response in which the hemolymph is involved. Gene expression predictors of survival fate could be developed from this data set.
Project description:Summer mortality of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is the result of a complex interaction between oysters, their environment and pathogens. Heredity appears to be a major factor determining the sensitivity of oysters to summer mortality, allowing resistant (R) and susceptible (S) lines to be produced. We conducted genome-wide expression profiling of R and S gonads during the 3-month period preceding a summer mortality event using a 9K cDNA microarray that we designed. This transcriptional analysis provides new indications to define markers for Quantitative Trait Loci searches and functional studies, and evaluates the potential role of each gene in the resistance to summer mortality
Project description:Summer mortality of Crassostrea gigas is the result of a complex interaction between oysters, their environment and pathogens. A large genetic basis and a high heritability were demonstrated for the observed variation in resistance to summer mortality, which offered the possibility to develop lines of oysters that were resistant (R) or susceptible (S) to summer mortality. Previously, genome-wide expression profiling of R and S oyster gonads highlighted reproduction and antioxidant defense as constitutive pathways that operate differentially between these two lines. Here, we show that signaling in innate immunity also operates differentially between these lines and we postulated that it is at the main origin of their difference of survival in the field. From the already published microarray data, we employed an ANOVA analysis that reveals a specific “immune” profile at the date preceding the mortality. In addition, we conducted a microarray profiling of two other tissues, gills and muscle, that also showed an over-representation of the immune genes (46%) among the selected genes. Eleven genes were pinpointed to be simultaneously differentially expressed between R and S lines in the three tissues. Among them, ten are related to “Immune Response”. The kinetics of their mRNA levels appeared clearly different between lines and suggests that in environment, R oysters had the capacity to modulate signaling in innate immunity whereas S oysters did not. This study enhances our understanding of the complex summer mortality syndrome and provides candidates of interest for further functional and genetics studies.
Project description:Marine intertidal organisms commonly face hypoxic stress during low tide emersion; moreover, eutrophic conditions and sediment nearness could lead to hypoxic phenomena; it is indeed important to understand the molecular processes involved in the response to hypoxia. In this study the molecular response of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas to prolonged hypoxia (2 mg O2 L-1 for 20 d) was investigated under experimental conditions. A transcriptomic approach was employed using a cDNA microarray of 9058 C. gigas clones to highlight the genetic expression patterns of the Pacific oyster under hypoxic conditions. Lines of oysters resistant (R) and susceptible (S) to summer mortality were used in this study. This is the first study employing microarrays to characterize the genetic markers and metabolic pathways responding to hypoxic stress in C. gigas. For the microarray analysis oysters were sampled at days 0, 2, 10, and 20 after the beginning of hypoxia. On each date, the digestive gland from 6 oysters was dissected, pooled, and stored at -80°C in Extract-All Reagent (Eurobio) at a concentration of 1 mL/50 mg tissue until total RNA was extracted. For each condition (hypoxia and normoxia) and oyster line (R and S), 4 pools were sampled (biological replicates) for a total of 56 pools during the 4 days of sampling. Furthermore, the entire tissue from 10 wild oysters was collected, pooled, and homogenized in Extract-all Reagent (Eurobio) to constitute a single total RNA sample to use as a reference in all slide hybridizations and Real-Time PCR analyses. Five ?g of total RNA were directly labeled by reverse transcription using the Direct ChipShot Direct Labeling and Clean-Up Kit (Promega). The samples were labeled with Cyanine-5 (Cy5). The reference samples were labeled with Cyanine-3 (Cy3) in separate tubes following the same protocol. The Cy3-labeled cDNAs were pooled and re-divided to obtain a homogeneous reference sample. cDNA samples and references were evaporated in a SpeedVac and mixed into a single pool in equimolar amounts with the Chip Hybe hybridization buffer (Ventana Discovery). Hybridization was performed using a Ventana automatic hybridization station (Ventana Discovery).
Project description:To elucidate how does the gene expression profiles of whole transcriptome of P.fucata response to seawater acidification and warming, we have employed microarray as a tool to identify gene responses in these stress.The pearl oysters were added into the tanks with the maintaining conditions of temperature 25 °C and 31 °C, acidity pH7.8 and pH7.5, salinity 33‰ in recirculating seawater. The temperatures and pH values in the studies were near future levels and predicted for 2100 and 2300.
Project description:Summer mortality of Crassostrea gigas is the result of a complex interaction between oysters, their environment and pathogens. A large genetic basis and a high heritability were demonstrated for the observed variation in resistance to summer mortality, which offered the possibility to develop lines of oysters that were resistant (R) or susceptible (S) to summer mortality. Previously, genome-wide expression profiling of R and S oyster gonads highlighted reproduction and antioxidant defense as constitutive pathways that operate differentially between these two lines. Here, we show that signaling in innate immunity also operates differentially between these lines and we postulated that it is at the main origin of their difference of survival in the field. From the already published microarray data, we employed an ANOVA analysis that reveals a specific “immune” profile at the date preceding the mortality. In addition, we conducted a microarray profiling of two other tissues, gills and muscle, that also showed an over-representation of the immune genes (46%) among the selected genes. Eleven genes were pinpointed to be simultaneously differentially expressed between R and S lines in the three tissues. Among them, ten are related to “Immune Response”. The kinetics of their mRNA levels appeared clearly different between lines and suggests that in environment, R oysters had the capacity to modulate signaling in innate immunity whereas S oysters did not. This study enhances our understanding of the complex summer mortality syndrome and provides candidates of interest for further functional and genetics studies. For microarray analysis, R and S oysters were sampled three times (dates 1 to 3: May 25, June 6, and June 20, respectively). On each date, 3 replicates of 8 oysters were sampled from each line (R and S) for three tissues (gonad, muscle and fills) and all the samples prepared for total RNA extraction. Furthermore, the entire tissues of 10 wild oysters were collected, pooled and homogenized to constitute a single total RNA sample for use as a reference in all slide hybridizations and RT-PCR analysis. For microarray hybridizations, 5µg of total RNA were directly labeled by reverse transcription and then purified using the Direct ShipShot Labeling kit (Promega). This reaction was performed for each of the 18 samples, with Cy5 (red) incorporation. The reference sample was Cy3-labeled (green) in 18 separate tubes following the same protocol. The 18 Cy3-labeled cDNAs were next pooled, and then divided once more into 18 samples to obtain a homogeneous reference. Equimolar amounts of cDNA samples and cDNA reference labeled with Cy5 and Cy3, respectively, were SpeedVac evaporated and mixed into a single pool with the hybridization buffer (ChipHyb™ hybridization buffer, Ventana Discovery, Tucson, AZ, USA). They were then co-hybridized on the same microarray slide, in a Ventana hybridization station (Ventana Discovery, Tucson, AZ, USA). The data submitted here correspond to the mean of the three replicates for each line and each date, representing 18 samples.
Project description:Summer mortality of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is the result of a complex interaction between oysters, their environment and pathogens. Heredity appears to be a major factor determining the sensitivity of oysters to summer mortality, allowing resistant (R) and susceptible (S) lines to be produced. We conducted genome-wide expression profiling of R and S gonads during the 3-month period preceding a summer mortality event using a 9K cDNA microarray that we designed. This transcriptional analysis provides new indications to define markers for Quantitative Trait Loci searches and functional studies, and evaluates the potential role of each gene in the resistance to summer mortality For microarray analysis, R and S oysters were sampled four times (dates 1 to 4: May 9, May 25, June 6, and June 20, respectively). On each date, 3 replicates of 8 oysters were sampled from each line (R and S) and the gonads prepared for total RNA extraction. Furthermore, the entire tissues of 10 wild oysters were collected, pooled and homogenized to constitute a single total RNA sample for use as a reference in all slide hybridizations and RT-PCR analysis. For microarray hybridizations, 5µg of total RNA were directly labeled by reverse transcription and then purified using the Direct ShipShot Labeling kit (Promega). This reaction was performed for each of the 24 gonad samples, with Cy5 (red) incorporation. The reference sample was Cy3-labeled (green) in 24 separate tubes following the same protocol. The 24 Cy3-labeled cDNAs were next pooled, and then divided once more into 24 samples to obtain a homogeneous reference. Equimolar amounts of cDNA samples and cDNA reference labeled with Cy5 and Cy3, respectively, were SpeedVac evaporated and mixed into a single pool with the hybridization buffer (ChipHyb™ hybridization buffer, Ventana Discovery, Tucson, AZ, USA). They were then co-hybridized on the same microarray slide, in a Ventana hybridization station (Ventana Discovery, Tucson, AZ, USA). The data submitted here correspond to the mean of the three replicates for each line and each date, representing 8 samples : gonad_resistant_date1 gonad_sensitive_date1 gonad_resistant_date2 gonad_sensitive_date2 gonad_resistant_date3 gonad_sensitive_date3 gonad_resistant_date4 gonad_sensitive_date4
Project description:The interplay between phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution has long been an important topic of evolutionary biology. This process is critical to our understanding of a species evolutionary potential in light of rapid climate changes. Despite recent theoretical work, empirical studies of natural populations, especially in marine invertebrates, are scarce. In this study, we investigated the relationship between adaptive divergence and plasticity by integrating genetic and phenotypic variation in Pacific oysters from its natural range in China. Genome resequencing of 371 oysters revealed unexpected fine-scale genetic structure that is largely consistent with phenotypic divergence in growth, physiology, thermal tolerance and gene expression across environmental gradient. These findings suggest that selection and local adaptation are pervasive and together with limited gene flow shape adaptive divergence. Plasticity in gene expression is positively correlated with evolved divergence, indicating that plasticity is adaptive and likely favored by selection in organisms facing dynamic environments such as oysters. Divergence in heat response and tolerance implies that the evolutionary potential to a warming climate differs among oyster populations. We suggest that trade-offs in energy allocation are important to adaptive divergence with acetylation playing a role in energy depression under thermal stress.