Hypersalinity drives physiological and morphological changes in Limia perugiae (Poeciliidae).
Name
bio017277.pdf
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1.45 MB
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Resource type
Journal article
Date published
August 15, 2016
Abstract
A fundamental question in biology is how an organism's morphology and physiology are shaped by its environment. Here, we evaluate the effects of a hypersaline environment on the morphology and physiology of a population of livebearing fish in the genus Limia (Poeciliidae). We sampled from two populations of Limia perugiae (one freshwater and one hypersaline) in the southwest Dominican Republic. We evaluated relative abundance of osmoregulatory proteins using western blot analyses and used a geometric morphometric approach to evaluate fine-scale changes to size and shape. Our data show that gill tissue isolated from hypersaline fish contained approximately two and a half times higher expression of Na+/K+ ATPase proteins. We also show evidence for mitochondrial changes within the gills, with eight times more complex I and four times higher expression of ATP synthase within the gill tissue from the hypersaline population. The energetic consequences to Limia living in saline and hypersaline environments may be a driver for phenotypic diversity, reducing the overall body size and changing the relative size and shape of the head, as well as impeding the growth of secondary sex features among the males.
Creator (organisation)
Weaver, Pablo F.
Tello, Oscar
Krieger, Jonathan
Marmolejo, Arlen
Weaver, Kathleen F.
Garcia, Jerome V.
Cruz, Alexander
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
University of La Verne, United States | Faculty Research Grant |
University of Colorado Boulder, United States | Museum Research Grant - Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology departmental graduate student grant. |
Journal title
Biology Open
Volume
5
Issue
8
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Place of publication
London, UK
eISSN
2046-6390
Date accepted
June 22, 2016
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright