TY - JOUR
T1 - The transcriptomic signature of cold and heat stress in benthic foraminifera—Implications for range expansions of marine calcifiers
AU - Titelboim, Danna
AU - Thangarjan, Starlin
AU - Raposo, Débora
AU - Morard, Raphaël
AU - Kucera, Michal
AU - Ashckenazi-Polivoda, Sarit
AU - Almogi-Labin, Ahuva
AU - Herut, Barak
AU - Manda, Sneha
AU - Abramovich, Sigal
AU - Gold, David A.
AU - Abdu, Uri
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 British Ecological Society
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - Global warming permits range expansions of tropical marine species into mid-latitude habitats, where they are, however, faced with cold winter temperatures. Therefore, tolerance to cold temperatures may be the key adaptation controlling zonal range expansion in tropical marine species. Here we investigated the molecular and physiological response to cold and heat stress in a tropical symbiont-bearing foraminifera that has successfully invaded the Eastern Mediterranean. Our physiological measurements indicate thermal tolerance of the diatom symbionts but a decrease in growth for the foraminifera host under both cold and warm stress. The combined (‘holobiont’) transcriptome revealed an asymmetric response in short-term gene expression under cold versus warm stress. Cold stress induced major reorganization of metabolic processes, including regulation of genes involved in photosynthesis. Analyses limited to genes that are inferred to belong to the symbionts confirm that the observed pattern is due to changes in the regulation of photosynthesis-related genes and not due to changes in the abundance of the symbionts. In contrast to cold stress, far fewer genes change expression under heat stress and those that do are primarily related to movement and cytoskeleton. This implies that under cold stress, cellular resources are allocated to the maintenance of photosynthesis, and the key to zonal range shifts of tropical species could be the cold tolerance of the symbiosis. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
AB - Global warming permits range expansions of tropical marine species into mid-latitude habitats, where they are, however, faced with cold winter temperatures. Therefore, tolerance to cold temperatures may be the key adaptation controlling zonal range expansion in tropical marine species. Here we investigated the molecular and physiological response to cold and heat stress in a tropical symbiont-bearing foraminifera that has successfully invaded the Eastern Mediterranean. Our physiological measurements indicate thermal tolerance of the diatom symbionts but a decrease in growth for the foraminifera host under both cold and warm stress. The combined (‘holobiont’) transcriptome revealed an asymmetric response in short-term gene expression under cold versus warm stress. Cold stress induced major reorganization of metabolic processes, including regulation of genes involved in photosynthesis. Analyses limited to genes that are inferred to belong to the symbionts confirm that the observed pattern is due to changes in the regulation of photosynthesis-related genes and not due to changes in the abundance of the symbionts. In contrast to cold stress, far fewer genes change expression under heat stress and those that do are primarily related to movement and cytoskeleton. This implies that under cold stress, cellular resources are allocated to the maintenance of photosynthesis, and the key to zonal range shifts of tropical species could be the cold tolerance of the symbiosis. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
KW - biogeographical expansion
KW - cold temperature limitations
KW - global warming
KW - large benthic foraminifera
KW - thermal stress
KW - transcriptomic signature
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117622504&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1365-2435.13929
DO - 10.1111/1365-2435.13929
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85117622504
SN - 0269-8463
VL - 35
SP - 2679
EP - 2690
JO - Functional Ecology
JF - Functional Ecology
IS - 12
ER -