Data from: Thermal stress and predation risk trigger distinct transcriptomic responses in the intertidal snail Nucella lapillus

Thermal stress and predation risk have profound effects on rocky shore organisms, triggering changes in their feeding behavior, morphology, and metabolism. Studies of thermal stress have shown that underpinning such changes in several intertidal species are specific shifts in gene and protein expression (e.g., upregulation of heat-shock proteins). But relatively few studies have examined genetic responses to predation risk. Here, we use next-generation RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to examine the transcriptomic (mRNA) response of the snail Nucella lapillus to thermal stress and predation risk. We found that, like other intertidal species, N. lapillus displays a pronounced genetic response to thermal stress by upregulating many heat-shock proteins and other molecular chaperones. In contrast, the presence of a crab predator (Carcinus maenas) triggered few significant changes in gene expression in our experiment, and this response showed no significant overlap with the snail’s response to thermal stress. These different gene expression profiles suggest that thermal stress and predation risk could pose distinct and potentially additive challenges for N. lapillus and that genetic responses to biotic stresses such as predation risk might be more complex and less uniform across species than genetic responses to abiotic stresses such as thermal stress.

热应激与捕食风险对岩岸潮间带生物具有显著影响，可引发其取食行为、形态结构与代谢水平的改变。针对热应激的相关研究表明，在多种潮间带物种中，上述表型改变的分子基础为基因与蛋白质表达的特异性调控（例如热休克蛋白（heat-shock proteins）的上调表达）。但目前针对捕食风险引发的遗传响应的研究相对匮乏。本研究采用下一代RNA测序（RNA-seq）技术，探究滨螺（Nucella lapillus）在热应激与捕食风险下的转录组（mRNA）响应。研究结果显示，与其他潮间带物种类似，滨螺通过上调大量热休克蛋白（heat-shock proteins）与其他分子伴侣（molecular chaperones）的表达，对热应激产生显著的遗传响应。与之相反，本实验中蟹类捕食者普通滨蟹（Carcinus maenas）的存在仅触发了极少数显著的基因表达变化，且该响应与滨螺对热应激的遗传响应无显著重叠。上述不同的基因表达谱表明，热应激与捕食风险对滨螺可能构成截然不同且潜在具有叠加效应的生存挑战；同时，相较于热应激这类非生物胁迫的遗传响应，捕食风险等生物胁迫的跨物种遗传响应可能更为复杂，且物种间的一致性更低。