spatially- and tempospatially-stressed spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) vs control spider mites (Tetranychus urticae)

In this study, we profiled the transcriptional changes in a polyphagous spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, after adaptation to spatial and tempospatial stress. We show heritable down-regulation of genes encoding for core enzymes involved in the citric acid and gluconeogenesis/glycolyse pathways (glucose 6-phosphatase among others). Additionally, we observe heritable transcriptional changes in amino acid pathways (methionine, tyrosine and phenylalanine) and in laterally acquired genes from bacteria (cobalamin-independent methionine synthase). By similiar study results in other organisms, we argue that these heritable transcriptional changes (partially) underpin the changed life history traits observed in our experimental evolution set-up. We have two comparisons, first; spatially-stressed mites (SPA) vs control mites (HOM), in 3 biological replications and second; tempospatially-stressed mites (TEM) vs control mites (HOM) in 3 biological replications. The labeled cRNA samples were pooled and hybdrized to a custom Sureprint genome wide G3 Gene Expression 8x60K microarray. Data was extracted by Agilent Feature Extraction software (using protocol GE2_107_SEP09). Limma was used for the pre-processing and final statistical analysis of the data.