Meeting Abstract

66.6  Monday, Jan. 6 09:15  Gene expression associated with freeze tolerance in goldenrod gall fly, Eurosta solidaginis UDAKA, H*; LI, D; DENNIS, A.B.; SINCLAIR, B.J.; Western Univ, ON, Canada; Western Univ, ON, Canada; ETH Zürich & EAWAG, Switzerland; Western Univ, ON, Canada hudaka@uwo.ca

Temperature affects many physiological processes in insects, and insects in temperate and polar zones have developed overwintering strategies to survive winter sub-zero temperatures. Some insects cannot survive internal ice formation and the other ones can tolerant internal ice formation. The goldenrod gall fly, Eurosta solidaginis, overwinters as a prepupa and can survive both extra- and intra-cellular ice formation. The molecular mechanisms underlying this freeze tolerance are not well-understood. We used illumina high-throughput RNA sequencing to identify genes associated with the response to freezing stress. E. solidaginis prepupae were frozen at -12 ºC for 2 h and samples were collected after the cold treatment. Sequences obtained from all sampling points and control individuals were used for de novo transcriptome assembly, and transcription profiles were compared among control and cold treated samples. These comparisons will allow us to identify candidate genes associated with freeze tolerance, and to generate novel hypotheses about the physiological mechanisms underlying insect freeze tolerance.