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Berisha H, Horváth G, Fišer Ž, Balázs G, Fišer C, Herczeg G. Sex-dependent increase of movement activity in the freshwater isopod Asellus aquaticus following adaptation to a predator-free cave habitat. Curr Zool 2023; 69:418-425. [PMID: 37614916 PMCID: PMC10443615 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoac063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 08/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Populations experiencing negligible predation pressure are expected to evolve higher behavioral activity. However, when sexes have different expected benefits from high activity, the adaptive shift is expected to be sex-specific. Here, we compared movement activity of one cave (lack of predation) and three adjacent surface (high and diverse predation) populations of Asellus aquaticus, a freshwater isopod known for its independent colonization of several caves across Europe. We predicted 1) higher activity in cave than in surface populations, with 2) the difference being more pronounced in males as they are known for active mate searching behavior, while females are not. Activity was assessed both in the presence and absence of light. Our results supported both predictions: movement activity was higher in the cave than in the surface populations, particularly in males. Relaxed predation pressure in the cave-adapted population is most likely the main selective factor behind increased behavioral activity, but we also showed that the extent of increase is sex-specific.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hajriz Berisha
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Biological Institute, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, Hungary H-1117
| | - Gergely Horváth
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Biological Institute, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, Hungary H-1117
- ELKH-ELTE-MTM Integrative Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, Hungary H-1117
| | - Žiga Fišer
- Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Gergely Balázs
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Biological Institute, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, Hungary H-1117
- ELKH-ELTE-MTM Integrative Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, Hungary H-1117
| | - Cene Fišer
- Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Gábor Herczeg
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Biological Institute, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, Hungary H-1117
- ELKH-ELTE-MTM Integrative Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, Hungary H-1117
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Rodas LR, Sarbu SM, Bancila R, Price D, Fišer Ž, Protas M. Standing genetic variation as a potential mechanism of novel cave phenotype evolution in the freshwater isopod, Asellus aquaticus. Evol Dev 2023; 25:137-152. [PMID: 36755467 DOI: 10.1111/ede.12428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2022] [Revised: 12/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
Novel phenotypes can come about through a variety of mechanisms including standing genetic variation from a founding population. Cave animals are an excellent system in which to study the evolution of novel phenotypes such as loss of pigmentation and eyes. Asellus aquaticus is a freshwater isopod crustacean found in Europe and has both a surface and a cave ecomorph which vary in multiple phenotypic traits. An orange eye phenotype was previously revealed by F2 crosses and backcrosses to the cave parent within two examined Slovenian cave populations. Complete loss of pigmentation, both in eye and body, is epistatic to the orange eye phenotype and therefore the orange eye phenotype is hidden within the cave populations. Our goal was to investigate the origin of the orange eye alleles within the Slovenian cave populations by examining A. aquaticus individuals from Slovenian and Romanian surface populations and Asellus aquaticus infernus individuals from a Romanian cave population. We found orange eye individuals present in lab raised surface populations of A. aquaticus from both Slovenia and Romania. Using a mapping approach with crosses between individuals of two surface populations, we found that the region known to be responsible for the orange eye phenotype within the two previously examined Slovenian cave populations was also responsible within both the Slovenian and the Romanian surface populations. Complementation crosses between orange eye Slovenian and orange eye Romanian surface individuals suggest that the same gene is responsible for the orange eye phenotype in both surface populations. Additionally, we observed a low frequency phenotype of eye loss in crosses generated between the two surface populations and also in the Romanian surface population. Finally, in a cave population from Romania, A. aquaticus infernus, we found that the same region is also responsible for the orange eye phenotype as the Slovenian cave populations and the Slovenian and Romanian surface populations. Therefore, we present evidence that variation present in the cave populations could originate from standing variation present in the surface populations and/or transgressive hybridization of different surface phylogenetic lineages rather than de novo mutations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lizet R Rodas
- Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Dominican University of California, San Rafael, California, USA
| | - Serban M Sarbu
- Department of Biospeleology and Karst Edaphobiology, "Emil Racoviţă" Institute of Speleology of Romanian Academy of Sciences, Bucharest, Romania.,Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Chico, California, USA
| | - Raluca Bancila
- Department of Biospeleology and Karst Edaphobiology, "Emil Racoviţă" Institute of Speleology of Romanian Academy of Sciences, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Devon Price
- Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Dominican University of California, San Rafael, California, USA
| | - Žiga Fišer
- Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Meredith Protas
- Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Dominican University of California, San Rafael, California, USA
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Affiliation(s)
- Moritz D. Lürig
- Department of Biology Lund University Lund Sweden
- Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution Eawag Kastanienbaum Switzerland
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Lafuente E, Lürig MD, Rövekamp M, Matthews B, Buser C, Vorburger C, Räsänen K. Building on 150 Years of Knowledge: The Freshwater Isopod Asellus aquaticus as an Integrative Eco-Evolutionary Model System. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.748212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Interactions between organisms and their environments are central to how biological diversity arises and how natural populations and ecosystems respond to environmental change. These interactions involve processes by which phenotypes are affected by or respond to external conditions (e.g., via phenotypic plasticity or natural selection) as well as processes by which organisms reciprocally interact with the environment (e.g., via eco-evolutionary feedbacks). Organism-environment interactions can be highly dynamic and operate on different hierarchical levels, from genes and phenotypes to populations, communities, and ecosystems. Therefore, the study of organism-environment interactions requires integrative approaches and model systems that are suitable for studies across different hierarchical levels. Here, we introduce the freshwater isopod Asellus aquaticus, a keystone species and an emerging invertebrate model system, as a prime candidate to address fundamental questions in ecology and evolution, and the interfaces therein. We review relevant fields of research that have used A. aquaticus and draft a set of specific scientific questions that can be answered using this species. Specifically, we propose that studies on A. aquaticus can help understanding (i) the influence of host-microbiome interactions on organismal and ecosystem function, (ii) the relevance of biotic interactions in ecosystem processes, and (iii) how ecological conditions and evolutionary forces facilitate phenotypic diversification.
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Lürig MD, Matthews B. Dietary-based developmental plasticity affects juvenile survival in an aquatic detritivore. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20203136. [PMID: 33593189 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.3136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental plasticity is ubiquitous in natural populations, but the underlying causes and fitness consequences are poorly understood. For consumers, nutritional variation of juvenile diets is probably associated with plasticity in developmental rates, but little is known about how diet quality can affect phenotypic trajectories in ways that might influence survival to maturity and lifetime reproductive output. Here, we tested how the diet quality of a freshwater detritivorous isopod (Asellus aquaticus), in terms of elemental ratios of diet (i.e. carbon : nitrogen : phosphorus; C : N : P), can affect (i) developmental rates of body size and pigmentation and (ii) variation in juvenile survival. We reared 1047 individuals, in a full-sib split-family design (29 families), on either a high- (low C : P, C : N) or low-quality (high C : P, C : N) diet, and quantified developmental trajectories of body size and pigmentation for every individual over 12 weeks. Our diet contrast caused strong divergence in the developmental rates of pigmentation but not growth, culminating in a distribution of adult pigmentation spanning the broad range of phenotypes observed both within and among natural populations. Under low-quality diet, we found highest survival at intermediate growth and pigmentation rates. By contrast, survival under high-quality diet survival increased continuously with pigmentation rate, with longest lifespans at intermediate growth rates and high pigmentation rates. Building on previous work which suggests that visual predation mediates the evolution of cryptic pigmentation in A. aquaticus, our study shows how diet quality and composition can generate substantial phenotypic variation by affecting rates of growth and pigmentation during development in the absence of predation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moritz D Lürig
- Department of Biology, Lund University, 22362 Lund, Sweden.,Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag, Seestrasse 79, 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.,Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag, Seestrasse 79, 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
| | - Blake Matthews
- Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag, Seestrasse 79, 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
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