SUMMARY The cellular response to stress relies on the rapid induction of genes encoding proteins involved in preventing and repairing macromolecular damage incurred as a consequence of environmental insult. To increase our understanding of the scope of this response, a cDNA microarray, consisting of 9207 cDNA clones, was used to monitor gene expression changes in the gill and white muscle tissues of a eurythermic fish, Gillichthys mirabilis(Gobiidae) exposed to ecologically relevant heat stress. In each tissue, the induction or repression of over 200 genes was observed. These genes are associated with numerous biological processes, including the maintenance of protein homeostasis, cell cycle control, cytoskeletal reorganization,metabolic regulation and signal transduction, among many others. In both tissues, the molecular chaperones, certain transcription factors and a set of additional genes with various functions were induced in a similar manner;however, the majority of genes displayed tissue-specific responses. In gill,thermal stress induced the expression of the major structural components of the cytoskeleton, whereas these same genes did not respond to heat in muscle. In muscle, many genes involved in promoting cell growth and proliferation were repressed, perhaps to conserve energy for repair and replacement of damaged macromolecules, but a similar repression was not observed in the gill. Many of the observed changes in gene expression were similar to those described in model species whereas many others were unexpected. Measurements of the concentrations of the protein products of selected genes revealed that in each case an induction in mRNA synthesis correlated with an increase in protein production, though the timing and magnitude of the increase in protein was not consistently predicted by mRNA concentration, an important consideration in assessing the condition of the stressed cell using transcriptomic analysis.

Ectothermic species like fishes differ greatly in the thermal ranges they tolerate; some eurythermal species may encounter temperature ranges in excess of 25°C, whereas stenothermal species in polar and tropical waters live at essentially constant temperatures. Thermal specialization comes with fitness trade-offs and as temperature increases due to global warming, the physiological basis of specialization and thermal plasticity has become of great interest. Over the past 50 years, comparative physiologists have studied the physiological and molecular differences between stenothermal and eurythermal fishes. It is now well known that many stenothermal fishes have lost an inducible heat shock response (HSR). Recent advances in transcriptomics have now made it possible to examine genome-wide changes in gene expression (GE) in non-model ecologically important fish, broadening our view beyond the HSR to regulation of genes involved in hundreds of other cellular processes. Here, we review the major findings from transcriptomic studies of extreme eurythermal and stenothermal fishes in response to acute and long-term exposure to temperature, both time scales being critically important for predicting climate change responses. We consider possible molecular adaptations that underlie eurythermy and stenothermy in teleosts. Furthermore, we highlight the challenges that still face the field of comparative environmental genomics and suggest fruitful paths of future investigation.

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patterns, in hepatocytes from T. bernacchii. Hsp70 mRNA was detected, as was heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) with DNA-binding activity. However, exposure to elevated temperature and to chemical inducers of the heat shock response failed to increase Hsp70 mRNA levels, HSF1 activity or the concentration of any size class of Hsps. These results suggest that Hsps, inducible in nearly every other species, are expressed constitutively in the coldadapted T. bernacchii.