Parker D J, Vesala L, Ritchie M G, Laiho A, Hoikkala A, Kankare M
1] Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Fife, UK [2] Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
BioMediTech, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
Heredity (Edinb). 2015 Jul;115(1):13-21. doi: 10.1038/hdy.2015.6. Epub 2015 Feb 11.
For many organisms the ability to cold acclimate with the onset of seasonal cold has major implications for their fitness. In insects, where this ability is widespread, the physiological changes associated with increased cold tolerance have been well studied. Despite this, little work has been done to trace changes in gene expression during cold acclimation that lead to an increase in cold tolerance. We used an RNA-Seq approach to investigate this in two species of the Drosophila virilis group. We found that the majority of genes that are differentially expressed during cold acclimation differ between the two species. Despite this, the biological processes associated with the differentially expressed genes were broadly similar in the two species. These included: metabolism, cell membrane composition, and circadian rhythms, which are largely consistent with previous work on cold acclimation/cold tolerance. In addition, we also found evidence of the involvement of the rhodopsin pathway in cold acclimation, a pathway that has been recently linked to thermotaxis. Interestingly, we found no evidence of differential expression of stress genes implying that long-term cold acclimation and short-term stress response may have a different physiological basis.
对于许多生物来说，随着季节性寒冷的到来而进行冷驯化的能力对其适应性具有重大影响。在昆虫中，这种能力很普遍，与耐寒性增强相关的生理变化已得到充分研究。尽管如此，关于冷驯化过程中导致耐寒性增加的基因表达变化的研究却很少。我们使用RNA测序方法在果蝇属的两个物种中对此进行了研究。我们发现，在冷驯化过程中差异表达的大多数基因在这两个物种之间存在差异。尽管如此，两个物种中与差异表达基因相关的生物学过程大致相似。这些过程包括：代谢、细胞膜组成和昼夜节律，这在很大程度上与先前关于冷驯化/耐寒性的研究一致。此外，我们还发现了视紫红质途径参与冷驯化的证据，该途径最近与趋温性有关。有趣的是，我们没有发现应激基因差异表达的证据，这意味着长期冷驯化和短期应激反应可能有不同的生理基础。
