Advances in research on the evolutionary mechanism of oyster adaptation

Advances in research on the evolutionary mechanism of oyster adaptation

Advances in research on adaptive evolutionary mechanisms of oysters

Recently, the reporter learned from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that the shellfish genetics and evolution R&D team of the Institute has made new breakthroughs in the study of the evolutionary mechanism of oyster adaptation to high temperature
.

The related research paper "Non-coding mutations and transcriptional plasticity promote the thermal adaptability of oysters through energy metabolism" was published online in "Molecular Biology and Evolution"

Chinese Academy of Sciences

In recent years, global climate change has intensified and extreme weather has occurred frequently, posing a serious threat to the survival and reproduction of marine life
.

Genetic variation and plasticity response are two important mechanisms in the process of biological adaptive evolution

Team members told reporters that genetic differentiation and phenotypic plasticity are two important driving forces of evolution, and their relationship has always been a hot and difficult point in the field of adaptation to evolution
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Pacific oyster and Fujian oyster are dominant species in the intertidal zone naturally distributed in the north and south of China.

The study found that southern Fujian oysters showed higher adaptive expression plasticity, and the selected genes also served as environmental response genes, which showed stronger genetic variation characteristics in non-coding regions
.

Southern oysters have stronger ATP (adenosine triphosphate) synthesis and fatty acid decomposition capabilities; northern oysters have stronger ATP consumption and fatty acid synthesis capabilities, which indicates that the energy compensation between fatty acid and ATP metabolism is exerted in the oysters and Fujian oysters adapting to the north-south environment.

The research results reveal the important role of energy distribution mediated by non-coding region variation and gene expression plasticity in high temperature adaptation, providing an important reference for predicting the potential of marine organisms to adapt to climate change, and laying a foundation for the creation of excellent new germplasm The theoretical basis
.

Predicting the potential of marine organisms to adapt to climate change provides an important reference, and at the same time lays a theoretical foundation for the creation of excellent new germplasm
.

In recent years, the research team has used Crassostrea gigas-intertidal zone as a research system to reveal the evolution and mechanism of oyster adaptation on different time and space scales
.

The series of achievements the team has achieved in this field are of great significance for comprehensively analyzing the formation mechanism of marine biological diversity at different levels represented by oysters, deepening the understanding and utilization of marine resources, and promoting the development of the field of adaptation and evolution of marine organisms at home and abroad

This research was co-funded by the National Key Research and Development Program, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Pilot Project, the Outstanding Youth Fund of the Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, the Postdoctoral Fund and the Key Deployment Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences University Science Center
.

(Source: China Science News, Liao Yang and Wang Min)

Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences

Related paper information: https://doi.

https://doi.
org/10.
1093/molbev/msab241