Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT
Abstract: Transcriptomics reveals how abiotic and biotic factors influence the portion of the genome being transcribed from DNA into RNA, and is a useful tool to understand the impacts of climate change on marine organisms at a molecular level. We utilize transcriptomics to uncover the molecular consequences of increased temperature during larval development in American lobsters Homarus americanus. Although warmer temperatures associated with climate change accelerate rates of larval development, allowing for settlement to the benthos sooner, it remains unclear whether there are detrimental physiological trade-offs. To uncover these potential trade-offs, we examined how exposure to increased temperature regimes of 18 ℃ and 22 ℃ or current summer temperature of 16 ℃ immediately post-hatch and throughout larval development alters the transcriptome of postlarval American lobsters. Previously, we found that postlarvae reared at 16 ℃ vs. 22 ℃ had a total of 2,542 differentially expressed (DE) transcripts while lobsters reared at 16 ℃ vs. 18 ℃ had a total of 422 DE transcripts. Postlarvae reared at 16 °C significantly over-expressed transcripts affiliated with cuticle formation and the immune response up to 14.4- and 8.5-fold respectively, relative to those reared at both 18 °C and 22 °C, suggesting that increased metabolic rates under a warmer environment compromise the lobster immune defense system. Here, we further explore these potential trade-offs by analyzing how temperature influences transcripts affiliated with the cellular stress response in postlarvae. We found increased expression of transcripts annotated to components of the cellular stress response system in postlarvae reared at higher temperatures, including heat shock proteins, ubiquitin family proteins, apoptosis genes, proteases, and those associated with the oxidative stress responses. In contrast, transcripts associated with homeostasis regulation, cell differentiation, and signal transduction were found to be under-expressed at higher temperatures. These findings aid in understanding the challenges postlarval American lobsters may face in a changing ocean. Moreover, this study addresses various knowledge gaps in the fields of crustacean and marine biology, where sufficient ‘omics research is lacking.
lopez-anido_July27_poster-Rebecca-Lopez-AnidoLive Poster Session: Zoom Link
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT
Hi, thank you for your comments. Although the cellular stress response is a highly conserved system, I think there is great variation in thermal sensitivity amongst crustaceans, even those from the same region. For example, I would hypothesize that the cellular stress response system for barnacles would be much more robust than the cellular stress response system of American lobsters, barnacles have evolved to respond to dramatic environmental changes daily while lobsters are evolved to respond to seasonal changes only. I’m curious about how much variation there is in thermal sensitivity amongst different species of lobsters and even amongst different populations of the same species. Moreover, I’m very interested in the connections between cellular stress response, development, thermal sensitivity, evolution, and climate change.
Interesting and bad news for lobsters. Do you think the same holds true for other crustaceans?