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Gene expression signatures between Limia perugiae (Poeciliidae) populations from freshwater and hypersaline habitats, with comparisons to other teleosts.

Authors :
Elizabeth J Wilson
Nick Barts
John L Coffin
James B Johnson
Carlos M Rodríguez Peña
Joanna L Kelley
Michael Tobler
Ryan Greenway
Source :
PLoS ONE, Vol 19, Iss 12, p e0315014 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2024.

Abstract

Salinity gradients act as strong environmental barriers that limit the distribution of aquatic organisms. Changes in gene expression associated with transitions between freshwater and saltwater environments can provide insights into organismal responses to variation in salinity. We used RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) to investigate genome-wide variation in gene expression between a hypersaline population and a freshwater population of the livebearing fish species Limia perugiae (Poeciliidae). Our analyses of gill gene expression revealed potential molecular mechanisms underlying salinity tolerance in this species, including the enrichment of genes involved in ion transport, maintenance of chemical homeostasis, and cell signaling in the hypersaline population. We also found differences in gene expression patterns associated with cell-cycle and protein-folding processes between the hypersaline and freshwater L. perugiae. Bidirectional freshwater-saltwater transitions have occurred repeatedly during the diversification of fishes, allowing for broad-scale examination of repeatable patterns in evolution. Therefore, we compared transcriptomic variation in L. perugiae with other teleosts that have made freshwater-saltwater transitions to test for convergence in gene expression. Among the four distantly related population pairs from high- and low-salinity environments that we included in our analysis, we found only ten shared differentially expressed genes, indicating little evidence for convergence. However, we found that differentially expressed genes shared among three or more lineages were functionally enriched for ion transport and immune functioning. Overall, our results-in conjunction with other recent studies-suggest that different genes are involved in salinity transitions across disparate lineages of teleost fishes.

Subjects

Subjects :
Medicine
Science

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19326203
Volume :
19
Issue :
12
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
PLoS ONE
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.4b0e49057e144438e5e0ae1e0dd7599
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0315014&type=printable