Dai Tianmei, Wang Yusheng, Shen Xiaona, Lü Zhichuang, Wan Fanghao, Liu Wanxue
Key Laboratory of Forest Bio-Resources and Integrated Pest Management for Higher Education in Hunan Province, College of Forestry, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Key Laboratory for Prevention and Control of Invasive Alien Species of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Aug 1;26(15):7466. doi: 10.3390/ijms26157466.
Global warming and anthropogenic climate change are projected to expand the geographic distribution and population abundance of ectothermic species and exacerbate the biological invasion of exotic species. DNA methylation, as a reversible epigenetic modification, could provide a putative link between the phenotypic plasticity of invasive species and environmental temperature variations. We assessed and interpreted the epigenetic mechanisms of invasive and indigenous species' differential tolerance to thermal stress through the invasive species Mediterranean (MED) and the indigenous species AsiaII3. We examine their thermal tolerance following exposure to heat and cold stress. We found that MED exhibits higher thermal resistance than AsiaII3 under heat stress. The fluorescence-labeled methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism (F-MSAP) results proved that the increased thermal tolerance in MED is closely related to DNA methylation changes, other than genetic variation. Furthermore, the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting analysis of DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) suggested that increased expression of Dnmt3 regulates the higher thermal tolerance of female MED adults. A mechanism is revealed whereby DNA methylation enhances thermal tolerance in invasive species. Our results show that the Dnmt-mediated regulation mechanism is particularly significant for understanding invasive species' successful invasion and rapid adaptation under global warming, providing new potential targets for controlling invasive species worldwide.
预计全球变暖和人为气候变化将扩大变温动物的地理分布和种群数量，并加剧外来物种的生物入侵。DNA甲基化作为一种可逆的表观遗传修饰，可能在入侵物种的表型可塑性与环境温度变化之间提供一种假定的联系。我们通过入侵物种地中海实蝇（MED）和本地物种亚洲II3评估并解释了入侵物种和本地物种对热应激的不同耐受性的表观遗传机制。我们研究了它们在暴露于热应激和冷应激后的耐热性。我们发现，在热应激下，地中海实蝇比亚洲II3表现出更高的耐热性。荧光标记的甲基化敏感扩增多态性（F-MSAP）结果证明，地中海实蝇耐热性的提高与DNA甲基化变化密切相关，而非遗传变异。此外，对DNA甲基转移酶（Dnmts）的定量实时聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）和蛋白质印迹分析表明，Dnmt3表达的增加调节了雌性地中海实蝇成虫的更高耐热性。揭示了一种DNA甲基化增强入侵物种耐热性的机制。我们的结果表明，Dnmt介导的调控机制对于理解入侵物种在全球变暖下的成功入侵和快速适应尤为重要，为全球控制入侵物种提供了新的潜在靶点。
