Revealing plastic and genetic underpinnings of heat tolerance
Hall, Alison
Hall, Alison
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Abstract
Marine invertebrate populations exhibit varying capacities to withstand rising environmental temperature, but the genetic basis of this differential tolerance remains an important area of investigation. Plasticity can be a valuable tool in the arsenal of an animal trying to maintain physiological function under rapidly changing conditions and can be an important contributor to thermal tolerance. Developmental plasticity describes the phenomenon when environmental conditions experienced during development induce a change in phenotype. In this work, I quantify the effect that developmental temperature has on adult upper lethal temperature in a marine copepod Acartia tonsa. To understand potential genomic mechanisms underlying these changes, I test for differences in gene expression between animals developed under ambient temperature (18c), and ones developed under elevated temperature (22c). This approach improves understanding of phenotypic variation of upper thermal tolerance limits and identify gene expression changes that may underlie the functional basis of acclimation in copepods.
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Graduate
Date
2023-01-01