Meeting Abstract
15.2 Wednesday, Jan. 4 Transcriptomic profiles of thermal acclimation in cardiac tissues of the porcelain crab, Petrolisthes cinctipes STILLMAN, JH; San Francisco State University stillmaj@sfsu.edu
The intertidal zone porcelain crab, Petrolisthes cinctipes, acclimates cardiac thermal performance (CTmax and CTmin) within the first days of transfer to warm and cold temperatures, and differences in tolerance to extreme cold are evidenced within hours of thermal acclimation. We have used a 25K unigene cDNA microarray to examine the kinetics of transcriptomic changes in porcelain crab cardiac tissues from 6h to 28d of acclimation to warm and cool temperatures. There were no differences observed until 12h of thermal acclimation, when cold acclimation caused strong upregulation of genes encoding glucose transport, transcriptional regulation, and cytoskeletal/structural modification. Early strong induction of genes in warm acclimated crabs included immune and stress response, protein synthesis and degradation, and extracellular and cuticular processes. Between 3-7 days of thermal acclimation both warm and cold acclimated specimens induced genes involving nucleic acid and chromatin regulation, and regulation of the proteome. Proteome associated genes induced in cold acclimated crabs were all involved in protein synthesis, whereas warm acclimated crabs induced genes involved with inhibition of proteases (58%), degradation of proteins (17%), and synthesis of proteins (25%). Cold acclimation for 3-7d also caused elevated expression of genes involving signal transduction, and oxidative phosphorylation. At 17d of thermal acclimation cold acclimated crabs induced genes involving protein synthesis, protein degradation, cytoskeletal genes, heat shock and chaperone proteins, and signal transduction genes, whereas there were few genes strongly upregulated in warm acclimated specimens. By 28d of acclimation there were smaller differences in transcript abundance between warm and cold acclimated specimens, suggesting that the acclimation process had reached its conclusion.
