Dataset Information

Decrease of Population Divergence in Eurasian Perch (Perca fluviatilis) in Browning Waters: Role of Fatty Acids and Foraging Efficiency.

ABSTRACT: Due to altered biogeochemical processes related to climate change, highly colored dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from terrestrial sources will lead to a water "brownification" in many freshwater systems of the Northern Hemisphere. This will create deteriorated visual conditions that have been found to affect habitat-specific morphological variations in Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) in a previous study. So far, potential drivers and ultimate causes of these findings have not been identified. We conducted a field study to investigate the connection between morphological divergence and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) composition of perch from six lakes across a gradient of DOC concentration. We expected a decrease in the prevalence of PUFAs, which are important for perch growth and divergence with increasing DOC concentrations, due to the restructuring effects of DOC on aquatic food webs. In general, rate of morphological divergence in perch decreased with increasing DOC concentrations. Proportions of specific PUFAs (22:6n-3, 18:3n-3, 20:5n-3, and 20:4n-6) identified to primarily contribute to overall differences between perch caught in clear and brown-water lakes tended to be connected to overall decline of morphological divergence. However, no overall significant relationship was found, indicating no severe limitation of essential fatty acids for perch inhabiting brown water lakes. We further broaden our approach by conducting a laboratory experiment on foraging efficiency of perch. Therefore, we induced pelagic and littoral phenotypes by differences in habitat-structure and feeding mode and recorded attack rate in a feeding experiment. Generally, fish were less efficient in foraging on littoral prey (Ephemeroptera) when visual conditions were degraded by brown water color. We concluded that browning water may have a strong effect on the forager's ability to find particular food resources, resulting in the reduced development of evolutionary traits, such as habitat- specific morphological divergence.

SUBMITTER: Scharnweber K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5017650 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Decrease of Population Divergence in Eurasian Perch (Perca fluviatilis) in Browning Waters: Role of Fatty Acids and Foraging Efficiency.

Scharnweber Kristin K Strandberg Ursula U Karlsson Konrad K Eklöv Peter P

PloS one 20160909 9

Due to altered biogeochemical processes related to climate change, highly colored dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from terrestrial sources will lead to a water "brownification" in many freshwater systems of the Northern Hemisphere. This will create deteriorated visual conditions that have been found to affect habitat-specific morphological variations in Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) in a previous study. So far, potential drivers and ultimate causes of these findings have not been identified. ...[more]

PMID: 27610617

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Project description:The domestication is an evolutionary process during which individuals will progressively adapt to an environment controlled by humans. It is accompanied by epigenetic and genetic modifications potentially leading to modifications in the transcriptomic profile in various tissues. The reproduction process is among the biological functions highly affected whatever the species and/or the way of domestication. Indeed, the reproduction success often decreases in domesticated populations. For fish, the molecular content of the eggs is crucial for the proper embryogenesis. Among these molecules the mRNA content depends directly from the gene expression and thus may reflect the genetic modifications occurring during this process. Here, we investigated the transcriptomic profile of eggs coming from females of two populations (F1 and Fx) that were reared in the same conditions and were genetically close. Our main goal was thus to determine how the domestication process may affect the reproduction success in the Eurasian perch and if it was mediated by the regulation of the transcription in the eggs. A regular follow up of the oogenesis progression showed few differences of the hormonal production between the two populations. Nevertheless, the histological study showed that the F1 females were more developed by the end of the oogenesis induction than the domesticated ones and as a result, they spawned earlier than the domesticated ones. The study of the early developmental success revealed significant differences between the populations. The microarray analysis of unfertilized eggs presented more than 350 transcripts differently expressed between the two populations. Among them, some specific genes were drastically more expressed in the domesticated (mex3B, hace1 and an uncharacterized protein) or F1 (per) populations. Our data show that the F1 population is more sensitive to the environmental conditions to advance oogenesis and reach the spawning season earlier. The transcriptomic profiles in eggs coming from the two populations were different and may lead to developmental impairments having a potential link with the domestication process. Further analyses are needed to explain these differences.

Dataset Information

Decrease of Population Divergence in Eurasian Perch (Perca fluviatilis) in Browning Waters: Role of Fatty Acids and Foraging Efficiency.

Publications

Decrease of Population Divergence in Eurasian Perch (Perca fluviatilis) in Browning Waters: Role of Fatty Acids and Foraging Efficiency.

Similar Datasets

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