Better Transcriptomic Stability and Broader Transcriptomic Thermal Response Range Drive the Greater Thermal Tolerance in a Global Invasive Turtle Relative to Native Turtle

Abstract

Greater thermal tolerance of invasive species benefits their survival and spread under extreme climate events, especially under global warming. Revealing the mechanisms underlying the interspecific differences in thermal tolerance between invasive and native species can help understand the invasion process and predict potential invaders. Here, we link the changes in global transcriptomics and antioxidant defense at multiple temperatures with the differences in thermal limits in the juveniles of a successful globally invasive turtle, Trachemys scripta elegans, and a native turtle in China, Mauremys reevesii. The two species show different thermal tolerances and have co-existed in habitats with the risk of overheating. The majority of the transcriptional response to thermal stress is conserved in the two turtle species, including protein folding or DNA damage responses activated under relatively moderate thermal stress and regulation of the cell cycle and apoptosis during severe thermal stress. Greater thermal tolerance of T. scripta elegans can be associated with a more stable global transcriptome during thermal stress, except for necessary stress responses, and a broader thermal range of continuous up-regulation of the core mechanisms promoting survival under thermal stress, mainly protein folding and negative regulation of apoptosis. Under extreme hot conditions, the opposite change trends of genes involved in survival mechanisms during thermal stress between invasive and native turtles can be due to differences in energy turnover. The present study provides insights into the mechanisms of physiological differences between invasive and native species given global transcriptional changes and helps understand successful invasion and predict potential invasive species.

Keywords

freshwater turtles / interspecific differences / invasive species / thermal tolerance / transcriptomic changes

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2025 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.