Predator cues reduce intraspecific trait variability in a marine dinoflagellate

BMC Ecology

Research Article

Erik Selander¹  Sylke Wohlrab²  U. John³ 

[1] Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Vasaparken, 40530, Gothenburg, Sweden;Department of Ecological Chemistry, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, 27570, Bremerhaven, Germany;Department of Ecological Chemistry, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, 27570, Bremerhaven, Germany;Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB), 26111, Oldenburg, Germany;

关键词: Alexandrium;    Saxitoxin gene expression;    Grazer induced defense;    Intraspecific trait variation;    Predator–prey interaction;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12898-017-0119-y

 received in 2016-08-13, accepted in 2017-02-15,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPhenotypic plasticity is commonplace and enables an organism to respond to variations in the environment. Plastic responses often modify a suite of traits and can be triggered by both abiotic and biotic changes. Here we analysed the plastic response towards a grazer of two genotypes of the marine dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense, evaluated the similarity of this response and discuss potential strain-specific trade-offs. We compared the expression of the known inducible defensive traits paralytic shellfish toxin content, and chain length. The effectiveness of the induced defense was assessed by monitoring grazing rates in both strains.ResultsOur results show that the grazer cues diminish phenotypic variability in a population by driving the phenotype towards a common defended morphotype. We further showed that the expression of the sxtA gene that initiates the paralytic shellfish toxin biosynthesis pathway does not correlate with an observed increase in the paralytic shellfish toxin analogue saxitoxin, and that toxin induction differs in its physiological characteristics in both strains.ConclusionInduced defense response in Alexandrium thus can directly affect further species interactions by reducing phenotypic variation and can result in genotype-dependent ecological trade-offs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2017