Paper Reviewed
Tedeschi, J.N., Kennington, W.J., Tomkins, J.L., Berry, O., Whiting, S., Meekan, M.G. and Mitchell, N.J. 2016. Heritable variation in heat shock gene expression: a potential mechanism for adaptation to thermal stress in embryos of sea turtles. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2320.

Using the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) as a model, the seven Australian scientists employed quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to characterize variations in the expression response of heat-shock protein genes (hsp60, hsp70 and hsp90) that are involved in cellular stress responses to acute non-lethal heat shock. And in so doing they found significant variations in gene expression at both the clutch and population levels for some -- but not all -- hsp genes. And using pedigree information, they estimated the heritabilities of the expression response of the hsp genes to heat shock and demonstrated both maternal and additive genetic effects.

In commenting on their findings, Tedeschi et al. write that "this is the first evidence that the heat-shock response is heritable in sea turtles and operates at the embryonic stage," adding that it provides "strong evidence of molecular mechanisms for tolerating and/or adapting to higher incubation temperatures," which is something that would be needed for sea turtle embryos to survive and actually prosper in a globally-warming world.