Shared Patterns of Gene Expression and Protein Evolution Associated with Adaptation to Desert Environments in Rodents

Desert specialization has arisen multiple times across rodents and is often associated with a suite of convergent phenotypes, including modification of the kidneys to mitigate water loss. However, the extent to which phenotypic convergence in desert rodents is mirrored at the molecular level is unknown. Here, we sequenced kidney mRNA and assembled transcriptomes for three pairs of rodent species to search for shared differences in gene expression and amino acid sequence associated with adaptation to deserts. We conducted phylogenetically independent comparisons between a desert specialist and a non-desert relative in three families representing similar to 70 million years of evolution. Overall, patterns of gene expression faithfully recapitulated the phylogeny of these six taxa providing a strong evolutionary signal in levels of mRNA abundance. We also found that 8.6% of all genes showed shared patterns of expression divergence between desert and non-desert taxa, much of which likely reflects convergent evolution, and representing more than expected by chance under a model of independent gene evolution. In addition to these shared changes, we observed many species-pair-specific changes in gene expression indicating that instances of adaptation to deserts include a combination of unique and shared changes. Patterns of protein evolution revealed a small number of genes showing evidence of positive selection, the majority of which did not show shared changes in gene expression. Overall, our results suggest that convergent changes in gene regulation play an important role in the complex trait of desert adaptation in rodents.