Cell-growth gene expression reveals a direct fitness cost of grazer-induced toxin production in red tide dinoflagellate prey.

ABSTRACT: Induced prey defences against consumers are conspicuous in microbes, plants and animals. In toxigenic prey, a defence fitness cost should result in a trade-off between defence expression and individual growth. Yet, previous experimental work has failed to detect such induced defence cost in toxigenic phytoplankton. We measured a potential direct fitness cost of grazer-induced toxin production in a red tide dinoflagellate prey using relative gene expression (RGE) of a mitotic cyclin gene (cyc), a marker that correlates to cell growth. This approach disentangles the reduction in cell growth from the defence cost from the mortality by consumers. Treatments where the dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella were exposed to copepod grazers significantly increased toxin production whil

SUBMITTER: Park G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7893232 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature