Dopamine mediates life-history responses to food abundance in Daphnia.

ABSTRACT: Expression of adaptive reaction norms of life-history traits to spatio-temporal variation in food availability is crucial for individual fitness. Yet little is known about the neural signalling mechanisms underlying these reaction norms. Previous studies suggest a role for the dopamine system in regulating behavioural and morphological responses to food across a wide range of taxa. We tested whether this neural signalling system also regulates life-history reaction norms by exposing the zooplankton Daphnia magna to both dopamine and the dopamine reuptake inhibitor bupropion, an antidepressant that enters aquatic environments via various pathways. We recorded a range of life-history traits across two food levels. Both treatments induced changes to the life-history reaction norm slope

SUBMITTER: Issa S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7423461 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature