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Sex- and developmental-specific transcriptomic analyses of the Antarctic mite, Alaskozetes antarcticus, reveal transcriptional shifts underlying oribatid mite reproduction

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Abstract

The oribatid mite Alaskozetes antarcticus, one of the most abundant terrestrial invertebrates in Antarctica, survives extreme temperature fluctuation and desiccation, and thrives in the short growing season characteristic of this polar environment. Several aspects of the mite’s ecology and physiology are well studied, but little is known about its reproduction. In this study, we utilize sex- and development-specific next-generation RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses to identify differentially regulated transcripts underlying reproduction of A. antarcticus. Pairwise comparisons between males, females, and tritonymphs revealed more than 4000 enriched transcripts based on different transcriptional levels among sexes and developmental stages. More than 500 of these enriched transcripts were differentially upregulated over 1000-fold. Many of the highly enriched and sex-specific transcripts were previously uncharacterized or have no known orthology. Of the transcripts identified, gene ontology-based analyses linked the transcriptional distinctions to differences in reproduction, chemosensation, and stress response. Our comparative approach allowed us to determine sexually dimorphic transcript expression in A. antarcticus. We anticipate that this study will provide a baseline to better understand the mechanisms that underlie reproduction in both polar and non-polar oribatid mites.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF PLR 1341385 and NSF PLR 1341393 with partial support for equipment in DEB-1654417) and the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agricultural Grant (2016-67012-24652). We are grateful for the hard work and assistance of the support staff at Palmer Station and the CCHMC Sequencing Core.

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Author notes

  1. Hannah E. Meibers and Geoffrey Finch have contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Hannah E. Meibers, Geoffrey Finch, Robert T. Gregg, Sierra Glenn, Keavash D. Assani, Emily C. Jennings, Benjamin Davies, Andrew J. Rosendale, Christopher J. Holmes & Joshua B. Benoit

  2. Department of Biology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

    J. D. Gantz & Richard E. Lee Jr.

  3. Departments of Entomology and Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Drew E. Spacht & David L. Denlinger

  4. Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology and Divisions of Biomedical Informatics and Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Matthew T. Weirauch

  5. Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Matthew T. Weirauch

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Correspondence to Joshua B. Benoit.

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Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1. Primers used for PCR and qPCR analyses. Electronic supplementary material 1 (XLSX 13 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 2. List of contigs with enriched expression in males at 20-fold expression compared to tritonymphs and females. Electronic supplementary material 6 (XLSX 1035 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM3_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 3. List of contigs with enriched expression in females at 20-fold expression compared to tritonymphs and males. Electronic supplementary material 7 (XLSX 47 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM4_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 4. List of contigs with enriched expression in tritonymphs at 20-fold expression compared to females and males. Electronic supplementary material 8 (XLSX 67 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM5_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 5. Gene ontology analyses with Blast2GO for contigs enriched within the males compared to tritonymphs and females based on data from Online Resource 2. Electronic supplementary material 9 (XLSX 64 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM6_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 6. Gene ontology analyses with Blast2GO for contigs enriched within females compared to tritonymphs and males based on data from Online Resource 3. Electronic supplementary material 10 (XLSX 13 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM7_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 7. Gene ontology analyses with Blast2GO for contigs enriched within tritonymphs compared to males and females based on data from Online Resource 4. Electronic supplementary material 11 (XLSX 11 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM8_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 8. Contigs matching transcription factors with two-fold higher expression in males compared to females and tritonymphs. Electronic supplementary material 12 (XLSX 18 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM9_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 9. Contigs matching transcription factors with two-fold higher expression in females compared to males and tritonymphs. Electronic supplementary material 13 (XLSX 20 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM10_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 10. Female-specific contigs identified by overlapping sex-specific RNA-seq analyses between the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini and the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis. Electronic supplementary material 2 (XLSX 45 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM11_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 11. Male-specific contigs identified by overlapping sex-specific RNA-seq analyses between the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini and the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis. Electronic supplementary material 3 (XLSX 20 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM12_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 12. Male-specific contigs identified by overlapping orthology analyses between Ixodes scapularis (Gulia-Nuss et al. 2016), Metaseiulus occidentalis (Hoy et al. 2016), Sarcoptes scabiei (Rider et al. 2015), Tetranychus urticae (Grbić et al. 2011), and Varroa destructor (Cornman et al. 2010). Electronic supplementary material 4 (XLSX 225 kb)

300_2018_2427_MOESM13_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 13. Female-specific contigs identified by overlapping orthology analyses between Ixodes scapularis (Gulia-Nuss et al. 2016), Metaseiulus occidentalis (Hoy et al. 2016), Sarcoptes scabiei (Rider et al. 2015), Tetranychus urticae (Grbić et al. 2011), and Varroa destructor (Cornman et al. 2010). Electronic supplementary material 5 (XLSX 16 kb)

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Meibers, H.E., Finch, G., Gregg, R.T. et al. Sex- and developmental-specific transcriptomic analyses of the Antarctic mite, Alaskozetes antarcticus, reveal transcriptional shifts underlying oribatid mite reproduction. Polar Biol 42, 357–370 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2427-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2427-x

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