Impacts of salt stress on locomotor and transcriptomic responses in the intertidal gastropod Batillaria attramentaria

Salinity is one of the most crucial environmental factors that structures biogeographic boundaries of aquatic organisms, affecting distribution, abundance, and behavior. However, the association between behavior and gene regulation underlying acclimation to changes in salinity remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of salinity stress on behavior (movement distance) and patterns of gene expression (using RNA-seq) of the intertidal gastropod Batillaria attramentaria. We examined responses to short- (1 hour) and long-term (30 day) acclimation to a range of salinities (43, 33 (control), 23, 13, and 3 Practical Salinity Units (PSU)). We found that the intertidal B. attramentaria is able to tolerate a broad range of salinity from 13 to 43 PSU, but not the acute low salinity of 3 PSU. Behavioral experiments showed that salt stress significantly influenced snails’ movement, with lower salinity resulting in shorter movement distance. Transcriptomic analyses reveale...