Transcriptome Expression of Biomineralization Genes in Littoraria flava Gastropod in Brazilian Rocky Shore Reveals Evidence of Local Adaptation

Autor(es)

Santos, Camilla A. ^[1] ; Sonoda, Gabriel G. ^[1] ; Cortez, Thaina ^[1] ; Coutinho, Luiz L. ^[2] ; Andrade, Sonia C. S. ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biociencias, Dept Genet & Biol Evolut, Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Ciencia Anim, Escola Super Agr Luiz de Queiroz ESALQ, Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION; v. 13, n. 4 APR 2021.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

Understanding how selection shapes population differentiation and local adaptation inmarine species remains one of the greatest challenges in the field of evolutionary biology. The selection of genes in response to environment-specific factors and microenvironmental variation often results in chaotic genetic patchiness, which is commonly observed in rocky shore organisms. To identify these genes, the expression profile of the marine gastropod Littoraria flava collected from four Southeast Brazilian locations in ten rocky shore sites was analyzed. In this first L. flava transcriptome, 250,641 unigenes were generated, and 24% returned hits after functional annotation. Independent paired comparisons between 1) transects, 2) sites within transects, and 3) sites from different transects were performed for differential expression, detecting 8,622 unique differentially expressed genes. Araca (AR) and Sao Joao (SJ) transect comparisons showed the most divergent gene products. For local adaptation, fitness-related differentially expressed genes were chosen for selection tests. Nine and 24 genes under adaptative and purifying selection, respectively, were most related to biomineralization in AR and chaperones in SJ. The biomineralization-genes perlucin and gigasin-6 were positively selected exclusively in the site toward the open ocean in AR, with sequence variants leading to pronounced protein structure changes. Despite an intense gene flow among L. flava populations due to its planktonic larva, gene expression patterns within transects may be the result of selective pressures. Our findings represent the first step in understanding how microenvironmental genetic variation is maintained in rocky shore populations and the mechanisms underlying local adaptation in marine species. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 15/20139-9 - Genética de paisagens marinha e avaliação de perfis de expressão em invertebrados marinhos na costa sudeste brasileira
• Beneficiário: Sónia Cristina da Silva Andrade
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Jovens Pesquisadores