Evolutionary adaptation to different thermal environments via transcriptional regulation

Populations of the teleost fish Fundulus heteroclitus are subjected to the clinical variation in environmental temperatures that occurs along the eastern seacoast of North America. In concordance with this change in temperature is the clinal variation in the enzyme concentration of the heart-type lactate dehydrogenase (LDH-B; E.C.1.1.1.27). Previously we have shown that the compensating change in the LDH-B enzyme concentration is due to a change in the amount of LDH-B mRNA, but we did not define whether this was due to differences in mRNA stability or to differences in rate of transcription. The results presented here help clarify the molecular mechanism responsible for the variation in Ldh-B gene expression: the rate of transcription from the Ldh-B locus is significantly different between populations, and this difference is responsible for the compensatory change in LDH-B enzyme concentration.