SENSITIVITY TO PHOSPHORUS LIMITATION INCREASES WITH PLOIDY LEVEL IN A NEW ZEALAND SNAIL. (4th January 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Neiman, Maurine; Kay, Adam D.; Krist, Amy C.
• Is Part Of: Evolution. Volume 67:Number 5(2013:May)
• Page Start: 1511
• Page End: 1517
• Publication Date: 2013-01-04
• Subjects: Evolution -- Periodicals; Heredity -- Periodicals; Évolution (Biologie) -- Périodiques; Hérédité -- Périodiques; 338.47004094
• DOI: 10.1111/evo.12026
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0014-3820

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Evolutionary and ecological factors that explain natural variation in ploidy level remain poorly understood. One intriguing possibility is that nutrient costs associated with higher per‐cell nucleic acid content could differentially influence the fitness of different ploidy levels. Here, we test this hypothesis by determining whether access to phosphorus (P), a main component of nucleic acids, differentially affects growth rate in asexual freshwater snails (<italic>Potamopyrgus antipodarum</italic>) that differ in ploidy. As expected if larger genomes generate higher dietary P requirements, tetraploid <italic>P. antipodarum</italic> experienced a more than twofold greater reduction in growth rate in low‐P versus high‐P conditions relative to triploids. Mirroring these results, tetraploid <italic>P. antipodarum</italic> also had a significant reduction in body P content under low P relative to high P, whereas triploid body P content was unaffected. Taken together, these results set the stage for the possibility that P availability could influence the distribution and relative frequency of <italic>P. antipodarum</italic> of different ploidy levels. These findings could be applicable to many other animal taxa featuring ploidy‐level variation, which includes many mixed sexual/asexual taxa.</p> </abstract>