Cardiac adaptations of bullfrog tadpoles in response to chytrid infection. Issue 7 (7th June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Salla, Raquel Fernanda; Gamero, Fernando Urban; Ribeiro, Larissa Rodrigues; Rizzi, Gisele Miglioranza; Medico, Samuel Espinosa Dal; Rissoli, Rafael Zanelli; Vieira, Conrado Augusto; Silva‐zacarin, Elaine Cristina Mathias; Leite, Domingos Silva; Abdalla, Fábio Camargo; Toledo, Luis Felipe; Costa, Monica Jones
• Is Part Of: Journal of experimental zoology. Volume 323:Issue 7(2015)
• Page Start: 487
• Page End: 496
• Publication Date: 2015-06-07
• Subjects: Zoology -- Periodicals; Ecological genetics -- Periodicals; Ecophysiology -- Periodicals; 571.105
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1945
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1932-5223

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>ABSTRACT</title> <sec id="jez1945-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <p>The chytrid fungus <italic>Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis</italic> (<italic>Bd</italic>) can result in heart failure in Bd‐susceptible species. Since Bd infection generally does not cause mortality in North American bullfrogs, the aim of this work was to verify whether this species presents any cardiac adaptation that could improve the tolerance to the fungus. Thus, we analyzed tadpoles' activity level, relative ventricular mass, ventricle morphology, in loco heart frequency, and in vitro cardiac function. The results indicate that infected animals present an increase in both ventricular relative mass and in myofibrils' incidence, which accompanied the increase in myocytes' diameter. Such morphological alterations enabled an increase in the in vitro twitch force that, in vivo, would result in elevation of the cardiac stroke volume. This response requires much less energy expenditure than an elevation in heart frequency, but still enables the heart to pump a higher volume of blood per minute (i.e., an increase in cardiac output). As a consequence, the energy saved in the regulation of the cardiac function of <italic>Bd</italic>‐infected tadpoles can be employed in other homeostatic adjustments to avoid the lethal effect of the fungus. Whether other species present this ability, and to what extent, remains uncertain, but such possible interspecific variability might explain different mortality rates among different species of <italic>Bd</italic>‐infected amphibians. <italic>J. Exp. Zool. 323A: 487–496, 2015</italic>. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.</p> </sec> </abstract>