Thermal acclimation results in persistent phosphoproteome changes in the freshwater planarian Crenobia alpina (Tricladida: Planariidae).

Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying thermal tolerance of aquatic invertebrates can inform predictions about the effects of thermal regime changes on these species. While gene expression and protein abundance changes underlie compensatory responses, little is known about the role of post-translational modifications as thermal tolerance mechanisms. To test the hypothesis that protein phosphorylation changes in response to thermal acclimation, we studied the phosphoproteome of the freshwater planarian Crenobia alpina.

Effects of thermal acclimation on the proteome of the planarian Crenobia alpina from an alpine freshwater spring.

Species' acclimation capacity and their ability to maintain molecular homeostasis outside ideal temperature ranges will partly predict their success following climate change-induced thermal regime shifts. Theory predicts that ectothermic organisms from thermally stable environments have muted plasticity, and that these species may be particularly vulnerable to temperature increases. Whether such species retained or lost acclimation capacity remains largely unknown.

Trends in the Application of "Omics" to Ecotoxicology and Stress Ecology.

Our ability to predict and assess how environmental changes such as pollution and climate change affect components of the Earth's biome is of paramount importance. This need positioned the fields of ecotoxicology and stress ecology at the center of environmental monitoring efforts. Advances in these interdisciplinary fields depend not only on conceptual leaps but also on technological advances and data integration.

Abiotic and past climatic conditions drive protein abundance variation among natural populations of the caddisfly Crunoecia irrorata.

Deducing impacts of environmental change on species and the populations they form in nature is an important goal in contemporary ecology. Achieving this goal is hampered by our limited understanding of the influence of naturally occurring environmental variation on the molecular systems of ecologically relevant species, as the pathways underlying fitness-affecting plastic responses have primarily been studied in model organisms and under controlled laboratory conditions. Here, to test the hypothesis that proteome variation systematically relates to variation in abiotic conditions, we establish such relationships by profiling the proteomes of 24 natural populations of the spring-dwelling caddisfly Crunoecia irrorata.