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Contrasting Population and Diet Influences on Gut Length of an Omnivorous Tropical Fish, the Trinidadian Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Phenotypic plasticity is advantageous for organisms that live in variable environments. The digestive system is particularly plastic, responding to changes in diet. Gut length is the result of a trade-off between maximum nutrient absorption and minimum cost for its maintenance and it can be influenc...

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Autores principales: Zandonà, Eugenia, Auer, Sonya K., Kilham, Susan S., Reznick, David N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4567299/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26360601
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136079
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author Zandonà, Eugenia
Auer, Sonya K.
Kilham, Susan S.
Reznick, David N.
author_facet Zandonà, Eugenia
Auer, Sonya K.
Kilham, Susan S.
Reznick, David N.
author_sort Zandonà, Eugenia
collection PubMed
description Phenotypic plasticity is advantageous for organisms that live in variable environments. The digestive system is particularly plastic, responding to changes in diet. Gut length is the result of a trade-off between maximum nutrient absorption and minimum cost for its maintenance and it can be influenced by diet and by evolutionary history. We assessed variation in gut length of Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) as a function of diet, season, ontogeny, and local adaptation. Populations of guppies adapted to different predation levels have evolved different life history traits and have different diets. We sampled guppies from sites with low (LP) and high predation (HP) pressure in the Aripo and Guanapo Rivers in Trinidad. We collected fish during both the dry and wet season and assessed their diet and gut length. During the dry season, guppies from HP sites fed mostly on invertebrates, while guppies in the LP sites fed mainly on detritus. During the wet season, the diet of LP and HP populations became very similar. We did not find strong evidence of an ontogenetic diet shift. Gut length was negatively correlated with the proportion of invertebrates in diet across fish from all sites, supporting the hypothesis that guppy digestive systems adapt in length to changes in diet. Population of origin also had an effect on gut length, as HP and LP fish maintained different gut lengths even in the wet season, when their diets were very similar and individuals in both types of populations fed mostly on detritus. Thus, both environment and population of origin influenced guppies gut length, but population of origin seemed to have a stronger effect. Our study also showed that, even in omnivorous fish, gut length adapted to different diets, being more evident when the magnitude of difference between animal and plant material in the diet was very large.
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spelling pubmed-45672992015-09-18 Contrasting Population and Diet Influences on Gut Length of an Omnivorous Tropical Fish, the Trinidadian Guppy (Poecilia reticulata) Zandonà, Eugenia Auer, Sonya K. Kilham, Susan S. Reznick, David N. PLoS One Research Article Phenotypic plasticity is advantageous for organisms that live in variable environments. The digestive system is particularly plastic, responding to changes in diet. Gut length is the result of a trade-off between maximum nutrient absorption and minimum cost for its maintenance and it can be influenced by diet and by evolutionary history. We assessed variation in gut length of Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) as a function of diet, season, ontogeny, and local adaptation. Populations of guppies adapted to different predation levels have evolved different life history traits and have different diets. We sampled guppies from sites with low (LP) and high predation (HP) pressure in the Aripo and Guanapo Rivers in Trinidad. We collected fish during both the dry and wet season and assessed their diet and gut length. During the dry season, guppies from HP sites fed mostly on invertebrates, while guppies in the LP sites fed mainly on detritus. During the wet season, the diet of LP and HP populations became very similar. We did not find strong evidence of an ontogenetic diet shift. Gut length was negatively correlated with the proportion of invertebrates in diet across fish from all sites, supporting the hypothesis that guppy digestive systems adapt in length to changes in diet. Population of origin also had an effect on gut length, as HP and LP fish maintained different gut lengths even in the wet season, when their diets were very similar and individuals in both types of populations fed mostly on detritus. Thus, both environment and population of origin influenced guppies gut length, but population of origin seemed to have a stronger effect. Our study also showed that, even in omnivorous fish, gut length adapted to different diets, being more evident when the magnitude of difference between animal and plant material in the diet was very large. Public Library of Science 2015-09-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4567299/ /pubmed/26360601 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136079 Text en © 2015 Zandonà 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
Zandonà, Eugenia
Auer, Sonya K.
Kilham, Susan S.
Reznick, David N.
Contrasting Population and Diet Influences on Gut Length of an Omnivorous Tropical Fish, the Trinidadian Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
title Contrasting Population and Diet Influences on Gut Length of an Omnivorous Tropical Fish, the Trinidadian Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
title_full Contrasting Population and Diet Influences on Gut Length of an Omnivorous Tropical Fish, the Trinidadian Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
title_fullStr Contrasting Population and Diet Influences on Gut Length of an Omnivorous Tropical Fish, the Trinidadian Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
title_full_unstemmed Contrasting Population and Diet Influences on Gut Length of an Omnivorous Tropical Fish, the Trinidadian Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
title_short Contrasting Population and Diet Influences on Gut Length of an Omnivorous Tropical Fish, the Trinidadian Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
title_sort contrasting population and diet influences on gut length of an omnivorous tropical fish, the trinidadian guppy (poecilia reticulata)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4567299/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26360601
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136079
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