Melanism protects alpine zooplankton from DNA damage caused by ultraviolet radiation.

ABSTRACT: Melanism is widely observed among animals, and is adaptive in various contexts for its thermoregulatory, camouflaging, mate-attraction or photoprotective properties. Many organisms exposed to ultraviolet radiation show increased fitness resulting from melanin pigmentation; this has been assumed to result in part from reduced UV-induced damage to DNA. However, to effectively test the hypothesis that melanin pigmentation reduces UV-induced DNA damage requires quantification of UV-specific DNA damage lesions following UV exposure under controlled conditions using individuals that vary in pigmentation intensity. We accomplished this using alpine genotypes of the freshwater microcrustacean Daphnia melanica, for which we quantified cyclobutane pyrimide dimers in DNA, a damage structure th

SUBMITTER: Ulbing CKS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6842861 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature