Expression data from porcelain crabs following heat or cold stress

Porcelain crabs, Petrolisthes cinctipes, live in the marine intertidal zone and routinely experience thermal stress. Genes involved in heat shock responses are generally upregulated following heat stress, differentially expressed genes are involved in different cellular functions. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying responses to thermal stress and identified distinct classes of up-regulated and down-regulated genes during this process. Crabs were collected from the field and returned to the laboratory where they were given a heat or cold stress or held under control conditions for the period of time during the thermal stress.