Meeting Abstract
This study investigated the molecular phenotypes of a warm-adapted population of a typically cold-adapted species. A unique population of threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from Baja California, Mexico (LaBoRo) are surviving and breeding at temperatures near 30 degrees Celsius, a temperature that is close to the upper thermal limit for this species. Understanding how this warm-adapted population functions at high temperatures at the molecular level may give insight into the mechanisms that have allowed for their survival and the potential for other populations to adapt to increasing temperatures. We created a spectral library for the livers of four populations of threespine sticklebacks (N=24), using data dependent acquisition (DDA) proteomics. The spectral library was used to set up a validated target list of proteins that were then quantified using data-independent acquisition (DIA) quantitative proteomics. LaBoRo livers were compared using DIA quantitative proteomics to those of three cold-adapted populations: a resident marine population (Bodega Harbor, CA), a freshwater population (Lake Solano, CA), and an anadromous population (Anchorage, AK). Four separate comparisons between six LaBoRo threespine sticklebacks and six fish from each of the other three groups were made and population-specific protein expression patterns identified (N=96). This study highlights liver proteins that are consistently found at higher abundance in the LaBoRo population and thus may be important for heat adaptation. Our study lays the groundwork for highly accurate quantification of proteome-wide G. aculeatus liver protein differences by DIA quantitative proteomics. Funded by NSF Grant IOS-1355098.
