Widely rhythmic transcriptome in Calanus finmarchicus during the high Arctic summer solstice period
Laura Payton,
Lukas Hüppe,
Céline Noirot,
Claire Hoede,
Kim S. Last,
David Wilcockson,
Elizaveta Ershova,
Sophie Valière,
Bettina Meyer
Affiliations
Laura Payton
Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 26111, Germany; Section Polar Biological Oceanography, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, 27570, Germany; Corresponding author
Lukas Hüppe
Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 26111, Germany; Section Polar Biological Oceanography, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, 27570, Germany; Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) at the University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 26111, Germany
Céline Noirot
Plateforme bio-informatique GenoToul, MIAT, INRAE, UR875 Mathématiques et Informatique Appliquées Toulouse, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan, France
Claire Hoede
Plateforme bio-informatique GenoToul, MIAT, INRAE, UR875 Mathématiques et Informatique Appliquées Toulouse, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan, France
Kim S. Last
Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, Argyll PA37 1QA, UK
David Wilcockson
Institute of Biological, Environmental, and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3DA, UK
Elizaveta Ershova
Department for Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty for Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, 9037, Norway; Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 36 Nakhimova Avenue, Moscow, 117997, Russian Federation
Sophie Valière
Plateforme Génomique, INRAE US 1426 GeT-PlaGe, Centre INRAE de Toulouse Occitanie, 24 Chemin de Borde Rouge, Castanet-Tolosan cedex, Auzeville 31326, France
Bettina Meyer
Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 26111, Germany; Section Polar Biological Oceanography, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, 27570, Germany; Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) at the University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 26111, Germany; Corresponding author
Summary: Solar light/dark cycles and seasonal photoperiods underpin daily and annual rhythms of life on Earth. Yet, the Arctic is characterized by several months of permanent illumination (“midnight sun”). To determine the persistence of 24h rhythms during the midnight sun, we investigated transcriptomic dynamics in the copepod Calanus finmarchicus during the summer solstice period in the Arctic, with the lowest diel oscillation and the highest altitude of the sun's position. Here we reveal that in these extreme photic conditions, a widely rhythmic daily transcriptome exists, showing that very weak solar cues are sufficient to entrain organisms. Furthermore, at extremely high latitudes and under sea-ice, gene oscillations become re-organized to include <24h rhythms. Environmental synchronization may therefore be modulated to include non-photic signals (i.e. tidal cycles). The ability of zooplankton to be synchronized by extremely weak diel and potentially tidal cycles, may confer an adaptive temporal reorganization of biological processes at high latitudes.
