Brooding in the Chilean oyster Ostrea chilensis: unexpected complexity in the movements of brooded offspring within the mantle cavity.

ABSTRACT: Brooding in invertebrates serves to protect embryos from stressful external conditions by retaining progeny inside the female body, effectively reducing the risk of pelagic stages being exposed to predation or other environmental stressors, but with accompanying changes in pallial fluid characteristics, including reduced oxygen availability. Brooded embryos are usually immobile and often encapsulated, but in some Ostrea species the embryos move freely inside the female pallial cavity in close association with the mother's gills for as long as eight weeks. We used endoscopic techniques to characterize the circulation pattern of embryos brooded by females of the oyster, Ostrea chilensis. Progeny at embryonic and veliger stages typically circulated in established patterns that included the us

SUBMITTER: Mardones-Toledo DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4395428 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature