Locally adapted populations of a copepod species exhibit starkly different gene expression responses to different thermal environments

This study aimed at measuring transcriptome-wide gene expression in four populations of the copepod T. californicus. Populations were exposed to two different thermal regime, a variable 20-28 degree and a constant 20 degree followed by a one-time stress at 28 degrees. RNA was extracted at 20 and 28 degrees for all populations from all thermal regimes. Transcriptome-wide gene expression was measured, and differentially expressed genes were determined for all populations for the different temperature combinations. The results show that each populations responds to the changes in temperature in a drastically different manner (in terms of gene expression), which can have implications regarding the way these and other organisms will respond to climate change. Two southern and two northern populations of Tigriopus californicus were exposed to a variable 20-28 degree and a constant 20 degree followed by a one-time stress at 28 degrees. RNA was extracted at 20 and 28 degrees for all populations from all thermal regimes. mRNA profiles were generated by 100bp single end sequencing in the Illumina HiSeq 2000 and 2500, with one replicate per population per treatment.