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Adaptation responses of individuals to environmental changes in the ciliate Euplotes crassus

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Abstract

Although the response unit of living organisms to environmental changes is at the individual level, most experiments on the adaptation responses of ciliates have been conducted in batches, comprising multiple-individuals, due to their microscopic size. However, here, we confirmed that individuals undergo different division cycles in monocultures of Euplotes crassus. They also exhibited transcript variations of 4.63-fold in SSU and of 22.78- fold in Hsp70. Additionally, in salt-stressed E. crassus individuals, SSU transcripts of individuals varied by 6.92-fold at 27 psu, 8.69- fold at 32 psu, and 2.51-fold at 37 psu. However, the maximum difference in Hsp70 was only 4.23-fold under all conditions. These results suggest there may be different biological rhythms even in siblings derived from the same parent. It can also be inferred that various environmental factors have different effects on different E. crassus individuals. Therefore, to elucidate relationships between organism adaptations and environmental changes, studies at the individual level should be conducted with multi-individual approaches.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korean Bioinformation Center, Korea Research Institute Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon, 34141, Korea

    Se-Joo Kim

  2. Unit of Polar Genomics, Korea Polar Research Institute, KIOST, Incheon, 21990, Korea

    Jin-Hyoung Kim

  3. Deep-sea and Seabed Mineral Resources Research Center, KIOST, Ansan, 15627, Korea

    Se-Jong Ju

  4. Marine Biology Major, University of Science & Technology, Daejeon, 34113, Korea

    Se-Jong Ju

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  1. Se-Joo Kim
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  2. Jin-Hyoung Kim
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Correspondence to Se-Jong Ju.

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Kim, SJ., Kim, JH. & Ju, SJ. Adaptation responses of individuals to environmental changes in the ciliate Euplotes crassus . Ocean Sci. J. 52, 127–138 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12601-017-0014-7

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