Meeting Abstract
Microclimate differences within heterogeneous habitats, such as the rocky intertidal zone, have the potential to shape population-level responses to changing environmental conditions. However, the relationship between temporal and spatial variation in microclimate and inter-individual physiological variation remains poorly resolved. Here, we use a population of rocky intertidal zone mussels, Mytilus californianus, to investigate the interaction between microclimate and biochemical/physiological responses. We have previously shown that stressful conditions promote high inter-individual variation in antioxidant capacity; conversely, relatively benign conditions correspond with higher inter-individual variation in oxidative damage. This mismatch between “defense” and “damage” may have roots within strategies at the biochemical network level and result from maintaining a window of sublethal damage with variable defense. For this study mussels originated from either wave-protected or wave-exposed sites, after a common garden, and after outplant to either low or high intertidal field sites. From extracted gill tissue, the de novo transcriptome was mapped using Bowtie, annotated with BLAST2GO, and assembled in Trinity. Proteins were identified based on the transcriptome and quantified using Scaffold. Differential variability was calculated using the median absolute deviation, and investigated for potential dependency on differential expression results. Resulting correlation networks for both differential expression and variability were analyzed in Cytoscape. Using these transcriptomic and proteomic approaches, we can explore whether highly variable networks, or key regulators thereof, are possible avenues of selection under stressful environmental conditions.
