Functional genomics of adaptation to hypoxic cold-stress in high-altitude deer mice: Transcriptomic plasticity and thermogenic performance

Zachary A. Cheviron, Alex D. Connaty, Grant B. Mcclelland, Jay F. Storz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In species that are distributed across steep environmental gradients, adaptive variation in physiological performance may be attributable to transcriptional plasticity in underlying regulatory networks. Here we report the results of common-garden experiments that were designed to elucidate the role of regulatory plasticity in evolutionary adaptation to hypoxic cold-stress in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). We integrated genomic transcriptional profiles with measures of metabolic enzyme activities and whole-animal thermogenic performance under hypoxia in highland (4350 m) and lowland (430 m) mice from three experimental groups: (1) wild-caught mice that were sampled at their native elevations; (2) wild-caught/lab-reared mice that were deacclimated to low-elevation conditions in a common-garden lab environment; and (3) the F1 progeny of deacclimated mice that were maintained under the same low-elevation common-garden conditions. In each experimental group, highland mice exhibited greater thermogenic capacities than lowland mice, and this enhanced performance was associated with upregulation of transcriptional modules that influence several hierarchical steps in the O2 cascade, including tissue O2 diffusion (angiogenesis) and tissue O2 utilization (metabolic fuel use and cellular oxidative capacity). Most of these performance-related transcriptomic changes occurred over physiological and developmental timescales, suggesting that regulatory plasticity makes important contributions to fitness-related physiological performance in highland deer mice.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)48-62
Number of pages15
JournalEvolution
Volume68
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2014

Keywords

  • Ecological genomics
  • High-altitude adaptation
  • Hypoxia
  • Phenotypic flexibility
  • RNA-seq
  • Thermogenesis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Genetics
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

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