Understanding how organisms adapt to new environments is a key problem in evolution, yet it remains unclear whether phenotypic plasticity generally facilitates or hinders this process. Here we studied evolved and plastic responses to water-stress in lab-born descendants of wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) collected from desert and non-desert environments and measured gene expression and organismal phenotypes under control and water-stressed conditions. After many generations in the lab, desert mice consumed significantly less water than mice from other localities, indicating that this difference has a genetic basis. Under water-stress, desert mice maintained more weight than non-desert mice, and exhibited differences in blood chemistry related to osmoregulatory function. Gene expression in the kidney revealed evolved differences between mice from different environments as well as plastic responses between hydrated and dehydrated mice. Desert mice showed reduced expression plasticity under water-stress compared to non-desert mice. Importantly, non-desert mice under water-stress generally showed shifts towards desert-like expression, consistent with adaptive plasticity. Finally, we identify several co-expression modules linked to phenotypes of interest. These findings provide evidence for local adaptation after a recent invasion and suggest that adaptive plasticity may have facilitated colonization of the desert environment. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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家鼠的基因表达可塑性和沙漠适应

了解生物体如何适应新环境是进化中的一个关键问题，但目前尚不清楚表型可塑性通常会促进还是阻碍这一过程。在这里，我们研究了从沙漠和非沙漠环境中收集的野生家鼠（Mus musculus Domesticus）的实验室出生后代对水胁迫的进化和可塑性反应，并测量了在控制和水胁迫条件下的基因表达和生物表型。经过实验室中的许多代之后，沙漠小鼠消耗的水明显少于其他地区的小鼠，这表明这种差异具有遗传基础。在缺水的情况下，沙漠小鼠比非沙漠小鼠保持了更多的体重，并且表现出与渗透调节功能相关的血液化学差异。肾脏中的基因表达揭示了来自不同环境的小鼠之间的进化差异，以及水合和脱水小鼠之间的可塑性反应。与非沙漠小鼠相比，沙漠小鼠在水分胁迫下表现出表达可塑性降低。重要的是，水胁迫下的非沙漠小鼠通常表现出向沙漠样表达的转变，这与适应性可塑性一致。最后，我们确定了几个与感兴趣的表型相关的共表达模块。这些发现为最近的入侵后的局部适应提供了证据，并表明适应性可塑性可能促进了沙漠环境的殖民化。本文受版权保护。版权所有。