Gene expression in the phenotypically plastic Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus): A focus on growth and ossification at early stages of development.

Samantha V. Beck,Skúli Skúlason,Ehsan P. Ahi,Camille A. Leblanc,Zophonías O. Jónsson,Katja Räsänen,Bjarni K. Kristjánsson

doi:10.1111/ede.12275

Abstract

Gene expression during development shapes the phenotypes of individuals. Although embryonic gene expression can have lasting effects on developmental trajectories, few studies consider the role of maternal effects, such as egg size, on gene expression. Using qPCR, we characterize relative expression of 14 growth and/or skeletal promoting genes across embryonic development in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus). We test to what extent their relative expression is correlated with egg size and size at early life‐stages within the study population. We predict smaller individuals to have higher expression of growth and skeletal promoting genes, due to less maternal resources (i.e., yolk) and prioritization of energy toward ossification. We found expression levels to vary across developmental stages and only three genes (Mmp9, Star, and Sgk1) correlated with individual size at a given developmental stage. Contrary to our hypothesis, expression of Mmp9 and Star showed a non‐linear relationship with size (at post fertilization and hatching, respectively), whilst Sgk1 was higher in larger embryos at hatching. Interestingly, these genes are also associated with craniofacial divergence of Arctic charr morphs. Our results indicate that early life‐stage variation in gene expression, concomitant to maternal effects, can influence developmental plasticity and potentially the evolution of resource polymorphism in fishes.

Highlights

The ability of individuals to respond to environmental heterogeneity largely depends upon changes in gene expression, framed by physiological, behavioral, and anatomic constraints (Taugbøl, Arntsen, Østbye, & Vøllestad, 2014)
When examining gene co-expression across all developmental stages (Figure S1), we find very few weakly co-expressed at PF, which increases at E stage where more growth-related genes are co-expressed than genes involved in skeletogenesis
Our results provide evidence for dynamic variation in expression of important genes related to growth and skeletogenesis across early life-stages

Summary

Introduction

The ability of individuals to respond to environmental heterogeneity largely depends upon changes in gene expression, framed by physiological, behavioral, and anatomic constraints (Taugbøl, Arntsen, Østbye, & Vøllestad, 2014). Such interactions between genes and environment are most often realized through development, providing phenotypic variation upon which natural selection can act During early stages of development, an organism's phenotype tends to be malleable (Hoverman & Relyea, 2007) The effects of such developmental plasticity often persist through to the adult phenotype (Gabriel, 2006; Godfrey, Lillycrop, Burdge, Gluckman, & Hanson, 2007; Holoch & Moazed, 2015) and may facilitate rapid. Examining patterns of gene expression across developmental stages can provide a powerful approach to unveiling mechanisms involved in phenotypic diversification, and its role in evolution (Aubin-Horth & Renn, 2009; Schneider, Li, Meyer, & Gunter, 2014)

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