Plasticity in parental effects confers rapid larval thermal tolerance in the estuarine anemone Nematostella vectensis [Research Article]

Hanny E. Rivera, Cheng-Yi Chen, Matthew C. Gibson, and Ann M. Tarrant Parental effects can prepare offspring for different environments and facilitate survival across generations. We exposed parental populations of the estuarine anemone, Nematostella vectensis, from Massachusetts to elevated temperatures and quantified larval mortality across a temperature gradient. We find that parental exposure to elevated temperatures results in a consistent increase in larval thermal tolerance, as measured by the temperature at which 50% of larvae die (LT50), with a mean increase in LT50 of 0.3°C. Larvae from subsequent spawns return to baseline thermal thresholds when parents are returned to normal temperatures, indicating plasticity in these parental effects. Histological analyses of gametogenesis in females suggests these dynamic shifts in larval thermal tolerance may be facilitated by maternal effects in non-overlapping gametic cohorts. We also compare larvae from North Carolina (a genetically distinct population with higher baseline thermal tolerance) and Massachusetts parents, and find larvae from heat-exposed Massachusetts parents have thermal thresholds comparable to larvae from unexposed North Carolina parents. North Carolina parents also increase larval thermal tolerance under the same high-temperature regime, suggesting plasticity in parental effects is an inherent trait for N. vectensis. Overall, we find larval thermal tolerance in N. vectensis shows a strong genetic basis...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - Category: Biology Authors: Tags: Research Article Source Type: research