Bisulfite Sequencing with Daphnia Highlights a Role for Epigenetics in Regulating Stress Response to Microcystis through Preferential Differential Methylation of Serine and Threonine Amino Acids
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Little is known about the influence that environmental stressors may have on genome-wide methylation patterns, and to what extent epigenetics may be involved in environmental stress response. Yet, studies of methylation patterns under stress could provide crucial insights on stress response and toxicity pathways. Here, we focus on genome-wide methylation patterns in the microcrustacean Daphnia magna, a model organism in ecotoxicology and risk assessment, exposed to the toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa. Bisulfite sequencing of exposed and control animals highlighted differential methylation patterns in Daphnia upon exposure to Microcystis primarily in exonic regions. These patterns are enriched for serine/threonine amino acid codons and genes related to protein synthesis, transport and degradation. Furthermore, we observed that genes with differential methylation corresponded well with genes susceptible to alternative splicing in response to Microcystis stress. Overall, our results suggest a complex mechanistic response in Daphnia characterized by interactions between DNA methylation and gene regulation mechanisms. These results underscore that DNA methylation is modulated by environmental stress and can also be an integral part of the toxicity response in our study species.
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
Awards: STRESS FLEA-B: How to live in a mosaic of stressors - an ecological genomics approach on the water flea Daphnia, Aquatic systems under multiple stress: a new paradigm for integration aquaculture and ecotoxicology research., Development of a mechanistic proof-of-concept to improve chemical toxicity evaluation for aquatic populations in a multi-stress context., G371715657, Cracking the Code of Adaptive Evolution (deCODE)
OpenAlex ID: W2561659980