Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Thermal adaptation and plasticity in desert horned lizards

Auteur : Vladimirova, Sarah Ashley Marie

Université de soutenance : Miami University,

Grade : Master of Science, Biology 2021

Résumé
Ectotherms can respond to changing climate through behavioral plasticity, physiological plasticity, and adaption. Adaptive versus plastic responses to stimuli can affect gene expression. The desert horned lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos) inhabits climatic extremes : the Great Basin Desert where it can get below freezing for half of the year, and the Mojave Desert containing some of the hottest and driest places on Earth. I conducted a common garden experiment by dividing lizards from the Great Basin and Mojave deserts into three groups : cold treatment, hot treatment, and an unstressed group with access to a temperature gradient. After exposure for two weeks, I collected liver and brain tissue for RNA sequencing. Differential gene expression analyses showed that both origin (Great Basin versus Mojave) and treatment (temperature exposure) contributed to overall responses. The presence of genes differentially expressed by both origins in response to thermal stress indicates conserved, plastic responses. Further, a large portion of genes were differentially expressed as population-specific responses to thermal stress, indicative of adaptive mechanisms

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