Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2025
08:11
Single-Animal, Single-Tube RNA Extraction for Comparison of Relative Transcript Levels via qRT-PCR in the Tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris
Published on: January 3, 2025
313
Complementary Roles for Differential Gene Expression and Differential Exon Use in the Heat Shock Response of an
Rujuta V Vaidya1, Isabelle P Neylan1, Maheshi Dassanayake1
1Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.
Integrative and Comparative Biology
|May 9, 2025
Summary
Organisms adapt to temperature changes through heat shock response (HSR), involving gene expression and exon usage. This study reveals temporal patterns in these responses in Tigriopus copepods, crucial for predicting climate change impacts.
Area of Science:
- Environmental adaptation
- Molecular biology
- Climate change biology
Background:
- Organismal distribution and persistence depend on adaptation to temperature variations.
- The heat shock response (HSR) is a conserved cellular mechanism involving molecular chaperones like heat shock proteins (HSPs).
- Cellular responses to heat shock can be quantitative (expression magnitude) or qualitative (differential exon usage), but their temporal dynamics are underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the temporal dynamics of both gene expression and exon usage changes during the heat shock response.
- To understand how these quantitative and qualitative changes evolve over time post-heat shock.
- To identify specific gene ontologies affected by these distinct response mechanisms.
Main Methods:
- A time-course experiment was conducted on Tigriopus californicus.
- Gene expression and exon usage were analyzed at four post-stress timepoints: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 24 hours.
- Bioinformatic analysis identified changes in gene expression and exon usage patterns.
Main Results:
- Both gene expression and exon usage changes were detected across all timepoints, with response magnitude decreasing over time.
- Heat shock primarily altered expression of genes related to chitin, heat shock proteins, growth, and differentiation.
- Peptidase genes showed both altered expression and exon usage, while metabolism and cytoskeletal genes mainly exhibited exon usage changes.
Conclusions:
- Ontology-specific response mechanisms highlight distinct temporal strategies in the heat shock response.
- Understanding the interplay between quantitative and qualitative gene expression changes is essential for predicting organismal adaptation to heat stress.
- These findings provide insights into the temporal landscape of HSR in Tigriopus and its implications for climate change resilience.
Related Concept Videos
02:32Exon Recombination
3.5K
The evolution of new genes is critical for speciation. Exon recombination, also known as exon shuffling or domain shuffling, is an important means of new gene formation. It is observed across vertebrates, invertebrates, and in some plants such as potatoes and sunflowers. During exon recombination, exons from the same or different genes recombine and produce new exon-intron combinations, which might evolve into new genes.
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon...
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon...
3.5K
02:27Background and Environment Affect Phenotype
6.4K
Although the genetic makeup of an organism plays a major role in determining the phenotype, there are also several environmental factors, such as temperature, oxygen availability, presence of mutagens, that can alter an organism’s phenotype.
An example of how genetic background affects phenotype can be seen in horses. The Extension gene in horses is responsible for their coat color. A wild-type gene (EE) produces black pigment in the coat, while a mutant gene (ee) produces red pigment. A...
An example of how genetic background affects phenotype can be seen in horses. The Extension gene in horses is responsible for their coat color. A wild-type gene (EE) produces black pigment in the coat, while a mutant gene (ee) produces red pigment. A...
6.4K
02:24Ribosome Profiling
3.4K
Ribosome profiling or ribo-sequencing is a deep sequencing technique that produces a snapshot of active translation in a cell. It selectively sequences the mRNAs protected by ribosomes to get an insight into a cell’s translation landscape at any given point in time.
Applications of ribosome profiling
Ribosome profiling has many applications, including in vivo monitoring of translation inside a particular organ or tissue type and quantifying new protein synthesis levels.
The technique...
Applications of ribosome profiling
Ribosome profiling has many applications, including in vivo monitoring of translation inside a particular organ or tissue type and quantifying new protein synthesis levels.
The technique...
3.4K
01:36What is Gene Expression?
8.3K
A gene is a stretch of DNA that serves as the blueprint for functional RNAs and proteins. Since DNA is comprised of nucleotides and proteins are comprised of amino acids, a mediator is required to convert the information encoded in DNA into proteins. This mediator is the messenger RNA (mRNA). mRNA copies the blueprint from DNA by a process called transcription. In eukaryotes, transcription occurs in the nucleus by complementary base-pairing with the DNA template. The mRNA is then...
8.3K
02:45Responses to Heat and Cold Stress
13.2K
Every organism has an optimum temperature range within which healthy growth and physiological functioning can occur. At the ends of this range, there will be a minimum and maximum temperature that interrupt biological processes.
13.2K
02:32Position-effect Variegation
6.3K
In 1928, a German botanist Emil Heitz observed the moss nuclei with a DNA binding dye. He observed that while some chromatin regions decondense and spread out in the interphase nucleus, others do not. He termed them euchromatin and heterochromatin, respectively. He proposed that the heterochromatin regions reflect a functionally inactive state of the genome. It was later confirmed that heterochromatin is transcriptionally repressed, and euchromatin is transcriptionally active chromatin.
6.3K