Physiological Genomics of Stress Responses in Longjaw Mudsuckers

The longjaw mudsucker, Gillichthys mirabilis, is a goby that inhabits sloughs and estuaries along the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, and the Gulf of California.  It is a hardy species and tolerates extended exposure to episodes of heat, cold, salinity and low oxygen stress.  In order to understand the molecular basis of this environmental tolerance we have conducted a series of gene expression profiling studies which sought to link the expression of genes with phenotypic adaptations to stress.  The hypoxia response of mudsuckers will be described in detail and will illustrate that the induction of specific genes can be correlated with changes in tissue morphology, metabolic status, and protein expression.  Efforts to create a reference set of cDNA sequences for mudsuckers will also be described.