Cactus Mouse Reproductive Supression

Genomic and transcriptomic resources utilized within the context of evolutionary biology provide incontrovertibly powerful approaches to explore the genetic mechanisms for organismal adaptations to extreme environments. This study adds to this rapidly expanding body of adaptive biology research by utilizing differential gene expression analyses to explore the impacts of acute dehydration on male reproduction in the desert-specialized cactus mouse (Peromyscus eremicus). Specifically, we exposed 22 male P. eremicus to either hydrated or dehydrated treatment conditions, and we mapped the testes transcripts to a high quality cactus mouse testes transcriptome to generate count data for differential expression analyses. We analyzed this count data with three alternative statistical methodologies and report the degree of concordance between these differential expression results.