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Functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail

Ampullariids are freshwater gastropods bearing a gill and a lung, thus showing different degrees of amphibiousness. In particular, Pomacea canaliculata (Caenogastropoda, Ampullariidae) is an obligate air-breather that relies mainly or solely on the lung for dwelling in poorly oxygenated water, for a...

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Autores principales: Rodriguez, Cristian, Prieto, Guido I., Vega, Israel A., Castro-Vazquez, Alfredo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6679647/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31396441
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7342
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author Rodriguez, Cristian
Prieto, Guido I.
Vega, Israel A.
Castro-Vazquez, Alfredo
author_facet Rodriguez, Cristian
Prieto, Guido I.
Vega, Israel A.
Castro-Vazquez, Alfredo
author_sort Rodriguez, Cristian
collection PubMed
description Ampullariids are freshwater gastropods bearing a gill and a lung, thus showing different degrees of amphibiousness. In particular, Pomacea canaliculata (Caenogastropoda, Ampullariidae) is an obligate air-breather that relies mainly or solely on the lung for dwelling in poorly oxygenated water, for avoiding predators, while burying in the mud during aestivation, and for oviposition above water level. In this paper, we studied the morphological peculiarities of the gill in this species. We found (1) the gill and lung vasculature and innervation are intimately related, allowing alternation between water and air respiration; (2) the gill epithelium has features typical of a transporting rather than a respiratory epithelium; and (3) the gill has resident granulocytes within intraepithelial spaces that may serve a role for immune defence. Thus, the role in oxygen uptake may be less significant than the roles in ionic/osmotic regulation and immunity. Also, our results provide a morphological background to understand the dependence on aerial respiration of Pomacea canaliculata. Finally, we consider these findings from a functional perspective in the light of the evolution of amphibiousness in the Ampullariidae, and discuss that master regulators may explain the phenotypic convergence of gill structures amongst this molluscan species and those in other phyla.
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spelling pubmed-66796472019-08-08 Functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail Rodriguez, Cristian Prieto, Guido I. Vega, Israel A. Castro-Vazquez, Alfredo PeerJ Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science Ampullariids are freshwater gastropods bearing a gill and a lung, thus showing different degrees of amphibiousness. In particular, Pomacea canaliculata (Caenogastropoda, Ampullariidae) is an obligate air-breather that relies mainly or solely on the lung for dwelling in poorly oxygenated water, for avoiding predators, while burying in the mud during aestivation, and for oviposition above water level. In this paper, we studied the morphological peculiarities of the gill in this species. We found (1) the gill and lung vasculature and innervation are intimately related, allowing alternation between water and air respiration; (2) the gill epithelium has features typical of a transporting rather than a respiratory epithelium; and (3) the gill has resident granulocytes within intraepithelial spaces that may serve a role for immune defence. Thus, the role in oxygen uptake may be less significant than the roles in ionic/osmotic regulation and immunity. Also, our results provide a morphological background to understand the dependence on aerial respiration of Pomacea canaliculata. Finally, we consider these findings from a functional perspective in the light of the evolution of amphibiousness in the Ampullariidae, and discuss that master regulators may explain the phenotypic convergence of gill structures amongst this molluscan species and those in other phyla. PeerJ Inc. 2019-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC6679647/ /pubmed/31396441 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7342 Text en © 2019 Rodriguez et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science
Rodriguez, Cristian
Prieto, Guido I.
Vega, Israel A.
Castro-Vazquez, Alfredo
Functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail
title Functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail
title_full Functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail
title_fullStr Functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail
title_full_unstemmed Functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail
title_short Functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail
title_sort functional and evolutionary perspectives on gill structures of an obligate air-breathing, aquatic snail
topic Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6679647/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31396441
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7342
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