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Plastic and Heritable Variation in Shell Thickness of the Intertidal Gastropod Nucella lapillus Associated with Risks of Crab Predation and Wave Action, and Sexual Maturation

The intertidal snail Nucella lapillus generally has thicker shells at sites sheltered from wave action, where crabs are abundant and pose a high risk of predation, than at exposed sites where crabs are rare. We studied two populations showing the opposite trend. We reciprocally transplanted snails b...

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Autores principales: Pascoal, Sonia, Carvalho, Gary, Creer, Simon, Mendo, Sonia, Hughes, Roger
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3521725/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23272221
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052134
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author Pascoal, Sonia
Carvalho, Gary
Creer, Simon
Mendo, Sonia
Hughes, Roger
author_facet Pascoal, Sonia
Carvalho, Gary
Creer, Simon
Mendo, Sonia
Hughes, Roger
author_sort Pascoal, Sonia
collection PubMed
description The intertidal snail Nucella lapillus generally has thicker shells at sites sheltered from wave action, where crabs are abundant and pose a high risk of predation, than at exposed sites where crabs are rare. We studied two populations showing the opposite trend. We reciprocally transplanted snails between field sites and measured shell length, width and lip thickness of those recaptured 12 months later. Snails transplanted to the sheltered site grew larger than sheltered-site residents, which in turn grew larger than transplants to the exposed site. Relative shell-lip thickness was greater in residents at the exposed site than at the sheltered site. Transplants from shelter to exposure developed relatively thicker shells than their controls and relatively thinner shells from exposure to shelter. Progeny of the two populations were reared for 12 months in a common garden experiment presenting effluent from crabs feeding on broken conspecifics as the treatment and fresh sea-water as the control. The crab-effluent treatment decreased foraging activity, concomitantly reducing cumulative somatic growth and reproductive output. Juveniles receiving crab-effluent grew slower in shell length while developing relatively thicker shell lips than controls, the level of response being similar between lineages. F(2) progeny of the exposed-site lineage showed similar trends to the F(1)s; sheltered-site F(2)s were too few for statistical analysis. At sexual maturity, shell-lip thickness was greater in snails receiving crab-effluent than in controls, indicating plasticity, but was also greater in the exposed-site than in the sheltered-site lineage, indicating heritable variation, probably in degree of sexual thickening of the shell lip. Results corroborate hypotheses that ‘defensive’ shell thickening is a passive consequence of starvation and that heritable and plastic control of defensive shell morphology act synergistically. Shell thickening of juveniles was similar between lineages, contrary to hypotheses predicting differential strengths of plasticity in populations from low- or high-risk habitats.
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spelling pubmed-35217252012-12-27 Plastic and Heritable Variation in Shell Thickness of the Intertidal Gastropod Nucella lapillus Associated with Risks of Crab Predation and Wave Action, and Sexual Maturation Pascoal, Sonia Carvalho, Gary Creer, Simon Mendo, Sonia Hughes, Roger PLoS One Research Article The intertidal snail Nucella lapillus generally has thicker shells at sites sheltered from wave action, where crabs are abundant and pose a high risk of predation, than at exposed sites where crabs are rare. We studied two populations showing the opposite trend. We reciprocally transplanted snails between field sites and measured shell length, width and lip thickness of those recaptured 12 months later. Snails transplanted to the sheltered site grew larger than sheltered-site residents, which in turn grew larger than transplants to the exposed site. Relative shell-lip thickness was greater in residents at the exposed site than at the sheltered site. Transplants from shelter to exposure developed relatively thicker shells than their controls and relatively thinner shells from exposure to shelter. Progeny of the two populations were reared for 12 months in a common garden experiment presenting effluent from crabs feeding on broken conspecifics as the treatment and fresh sea-water as the control. The crab-effluent treatment decreased foraging activity, concomitantly reducing cumulative somatic growth and reproductive output. Juveniles receiving crab-effluent grew slower in shell length while developing relatively thicker shell lips than controls, the level of response being similar between lineages. F(2) progeny of the exposed-site lineage showed similar trends to the F(1)s; sheltered-site F(2)s were too few for statistical analysis. At sexual maturity, shell-lip thickness was greater in snails receiving crab-effluent than in controls, indicating plasticity, but was also greater in the exposed-site than in the sheltered-site lineage, indicating heritable variation, probably in degree of sexual thickening of the shell lip. Results corroborate hypotheses that ‘defensive’ shell thickening is a passive consequence of starvation and that heritable and plastic control of defensive shell morphology act synergistically. Shell thickening of juveniles was similar between lineages, contrary to hypotheses predicting differential strengths of plasticity in populations from low- or high-risk habitats. Public Library of Science 2012-12-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3521725/ /pubmed/23272221 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052134 Text en © 2012 Pascoal et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pascoal, Sonia
Carvalho, Gary
Creer, Simon
Mendo, Sonia
Hughes, Roger
Plastic and Heritable Variation in Shell Thickness of the Intertidal Gastropod Nucella lapillus Associated with Risks of Crab Predation and Wave Action, and Sexual Maturation
title Plastic and Heritable Variation in Shell Thickness of the Intertidal Gastropod Nucella lapillus Associated with Risks of Crab Predation and Wave Action, and Sexual Maturation
title_full Plastic and Heritable Variation in Shell Thickness of the Intertidal Gastropod Nucella lapillus Associated with Risks of Crab Predation and Wave Action, and Sexual Maturation
title_fullStr Plastic and Heritable Variation in Shell Thickness of the Intertidal Gastropod Nucella lapillus Associated with Risks of Crab Predation and Wave Action, and Sexual Maturation
title_full_unstemmed Plastic and Heritable Variation in Shell Thickness of the Intertidal Gastropod Nucella lapillus Associated with Risks of Crab Predation and Wave Action, and Sexual Maturation
title_short Plastic and Heritable Variation in Shell Thickness of the Intertidal Gastropod Nucella lapillus Associated with Risks of Crab Predation and Wave Action, and Sexual Maturation
title_sort plastic and heritable variation in shell thickness of the intertidal gastropod nucella lapillus associated with risks of crab predation and wave action, and sexual maturation
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3521725/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23272221
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052134
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