Gene expression differences consistent with water loss reduction underlie desiccation tolerance of natural Drosophila populations

作者：Vivien Horváth, Sara Guirao‐Rico, Judit Salces-Ortiz, Gabriel E. Rech, Llewellyn Green, Eugenio Aprea, Mirco Rodeghiero, Gianfranco Anfora, Josefa González · 发表于：BMC Biology · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1186/s12915-023-01530-4 · 被引用次数：17 · 研究领域：Physiological and biochemical adaptations、Tardigrade Biology and Ecology、Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms

BACKGROUND: Climate change is one of the main factors shaping the distribution and biodiversity of organisms, among others by greatly altering water availability, thus exposing species and ecosystems to harsh desiccation conditions. However, most of the studies so far have focused on the effects of increased temperature. Integrating transcriptomics and physiology is key to advancing our knowledge on how species cope with desiccation stress, and these studies are still best accomplished in model organisms. RESULTS: Here, we characterized the natural variation of European D. melanogaster populations across climate zones and found that strains from arid regions were similar or more tolerant to desiccation compared with strains from temperate regions. Tolerant and sensitive strains differed not only in their transcriptomic response to stress but also in their basal expression levels. We further showed that gene expression changes in tolerant strains correlated with their physiological response to desiccation stress and with their cuticular hydrocarbon composition, and functionally validated three of the candidate genes identified. Transposable elements, which are known to influence stress response across organisms, were not found to be enriched nearby differentially expressed genes. Finally, we identified several tRNA-derived small RNA fragments that differentially targeted genes in response to desiccation stress. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our results showed that basal gene expressio...