Meeting Abstract
Mechanisms of the cellular stress response (CSR) are generally conserved, and thus thermal stress typically induces similar suites of genes (e.g., hsps) across a wide range of organisms. However, physiological changes associated with thermal acclimation that lead to shifts in the temperature at which the CSR is induced have the potential to be more varied across taxa, especially as they may be related to differences in eurythermality, thermal optima, respiratory physiology and capacity to avoid oxidative stress. We examined transcriptomic differences associated with acclimation to temperatures at and below the CSR induction in pancrustacean taxa including the water flea Daphnia pulex (Branchiopoda), a caddisfly Dicosmoecus gilvipes (Hexapoda), three stoneflies Pteronarcys princeps, Hesperoperla pacifica and Calineuria californica (Hexapoda), two porcelain crabs Petrolisthes cinctipes and Petrolisthes manimaculis (Decapoda), and the red king crab Paralithodes camtschaticus (Decapoda). Our analyses seek to identify genes that are differentially expressed with the same general thermal dependence to make some inferences about fundamental characteristics of pancrustacea, and genes that have lineage specific responses to temperature to look for physiological diversification across the pancrustacea. Specifically, we will test the hypotheses that (1) at critical temperatures a similar suite of CSR genes will be differentially expressed across taxa, but that (2) the genes differentially expressed at temperatures just below those required for induction of the CSR will differ among taxa in a manner related to the evolutionary history or respiratory strategy of each taxon (e.g., whether they are from lineages that are terrestrial or aquatic, or from lineages that are eurythermal vs. stenothermal).
