Transcriptional WGP involves DE and AS mechanisms
Since significant DE genes and AS genes show different transcriptional
patterns in acclimation treatments and life stages, we next explored the
relative contributions of AS and DE genes as well as their associated
ontology functions independently for the effects of acclimation
performed in the offspring (WGP) and the parental generation (TGP). For
WGP, we found that in addition to DE genes, AS genes account for a great
part of transcriptional plasticity. In larva samples, we found 1028 DE
genes and 1609 AS genes associated with WGP, while 611 DE genes and 507
AS genes are associated with WGP in adults (Figure 2c, 2d, and 3a). The
majority of these genes differ between mechanisms of transcriptional
change, with less than 4 % overlapping genes between DE and AS (Figure
2a). Similarly, the majority of genes responding to WGP differ
between life stages, as only 8 % of the genes responding to WGP
overlapped between larvae and adults (Figures 2c, 2d, and 3a).