Effects of maternal and embryo characteristics on post-fertilization provisioning in fishes of the genus Gambusia

Marsh‐Matthews, Edie; Brooks, Melody; Deaton, Raelynn; Tan, Hui Yin

doi:10.1007/s00442-005-0030-7

Cited by 56 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…The latter allows the fertilization and development of several broods simultaneously (MarshMatthews 2011; Pires et al 2011). The maternal transfer of nutrients such as amino acids has previously been reported for mosquitofish (Marsh-Matthews et al 2005), thus our findings of maternal copper transfer extends this finding to micronutrients, and to the least killifish-a species with a different provisioning mode. Copper is a component of various proteins and plays a role in many biochemical and physiological functions (Handy et al 2002;Kamunde and Wood 2004).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Evidence of maternal copper and cadmium transfer in two live-bearing fish species

Cazan

Klerks

2014

Ecotoxicology

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We studied maternal transfer of an essential metal (copper) and a non-essential one (cadmium) in the live-bearing fishes Heterandria formosa and Gambusia affinis. The goals of this study were: (1) to determine whether metals are transferred from exposed females to their developing offspring; (2) to determine if this transfer differs between two fish species that differ in their degree of maternal provisioning during development; (3) to determine the duration of maternal metal transfer once females are no longer exposed; and (4) to determine whether copper and cadmium are transferred equivalently. We exposed gravid females to background levels (control) or 0.15 µM of metal for 10 days, and then transferred them to clean water. We allowed females to give birth to up to three broods, and then quantified metal levels in offspring born at least 3 days after the transfer. We detected maternal metal transfer for both metals and in both species. Offspring metal levels decreased as females spent more time in clean water. Similarly, metal levels were lower in later broods than in earlier ones. Maternal metal transfer was higher in H. formosa than in G. affinis. Our results constitute the first report of maternal metal transfer in live-bearing fishes, and show that developing embryos acquire both essential and non-essential metals from their mothers in both species. This shows that metal toxicity may be an issue for live-bearing fish in clean environments when the previous generation has encountered metal pollution.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Evidence of maternal copper and cadmium transfer in two live-bearing fish species

Cazan

Klerks

2014

Ecotoxicology

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“…Nutrient transfer was quantified by measuring radioactivity present in individual embryos. Marsh-Matthews et al (2005, for poeciliids) and Swain and Jones (1997, for a viviparous lizard) demonstrated that radiolabeled leucine is incorporated into the proteins of developing embryos within hours of injection of the mother. All embryo assays were done in the same scintillation run (with no correction necessary for counting efficiency), so radioactivity is expressed as counts per minute (cpm).…”

Section: Radio-tracer Assay Of Matrotrophymentioning

confidence: 98%

Matrotrophy in the cave molly: an unexpected provisioning strategy in an extreme environment

et al. 2009

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Maternal provisioning of animal embryos may be entirely through yolk deposited in the unfertilized egg (lecithotrophy) or may include post-fertilization nutrient transfer (matrotrophy) in varying degrees. Current theory suggests that the extent of postfertilization provisioning is resource-dependent, with higher levels of matrotrophy being advantageous in more productive environments. In this study, we investigated post-fertilization embryo provisioning in a livebearing fish, Poecilia mexicana, from two different habitats (a toxic cave and a non-toxic surface habitat) that impose different energetic demands and therefore differ in resources available for reproduction. We predicted that fish in the benign habitat would be more matrotrophic than those from the toxic cave. We used two different techniques for this assay: (1) the matrotrophy-index analysis (MI) for fieldcollected fish and (2) both MI and radio-tracer assay for laboratory-reared females. According to the interpretation of the matrotrophy index, both populations are purely lecithotrophic, while the radio-tracer assay found females from both populations to actively transfer nutrients to developing embryos at approximately the same rate. Our results suggest that P. mexicana, which was traditionally classified as lecithotrophic, is capable of incipient matrotrophy, and that matrotrophy can contribute to embryo provisioning even in populations from resource-limited environments. Furthermore, the analysis of laboratoryreared animals provides evidence for a genetic component to the large offspring size in cave mollies, which had so far only been described from the field. Specifically, our results suggest matrotrophy occurs in species interpreted as lecithotrophic using the MI approach. Hence, to avoid misclassification, both techniques should ideally be employed in concert, R. Riesch (rather than individually. Finally, our results provide further insights into the possible evolutionary pathway from lecithotrophic oviparity to matrotrophic viviparity.

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“…Lecithotrophic means that there is no placenta-like connection between the mother and young (Reznick and Yang, 1993), such that yolk stored in the egg is assumed to be the only source of embryo nutrition. Recent work within the Poeciliidae has indicated, however, that some mother-to-embryo nutrient transfer may occur in species thought to be lecithotrophic (Marsh-Matthews et al, 2005;Marsh-Matthews et al, 2011). To our knowledge, no attempt has been made to quantify any post-fertilization provisioning in P. reticulata, and it is not known to what degree there is a limited transfer of oxygen or small molecules.…”

Section: Experimental Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of intraspecific variation in reproductive traits, pectoral fin use and burst swimming on metabolic rates and swimming performance: a study on the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulataPeters)

Svendsen

Banet

Christensen

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYThere is considerable intraspecific variation in metabolic rates and locomotor performance in aquatic ectothermic vertebrates; however, the mechanistic basis remains poorly understood. Using pregnant Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata), a livebearing teleost, we examined the effects of reproductive traits, pectoral fin use and burst-assisted swimming on swimming metabolic rate, standard metabolic rate (M O2std ) and prolonged swimming performance (U crit ). Reproductive traits included reproductive allocation and pregnancy stage, the former defined as the mass of the reproductive tissues divided by the total body mass. Results showed that the metabolic rate increased curvilinearly with swimming speed. The slope of the relationship was used as an index of swimming cost. There was no evidence that reproductive traits correlated with swimming cost, M O2std or U crit . In contrast, data revealed strong effects of pectoral fin use on swimming cost and U crit . Poecilia reticulata employed body-caudal fin (BCF) swimming at all tested swimming speeds; however, fish with a high simultaneous use of the pectoral fins exhibited increased swimming cost and decreased U crit . These data indicated that combining BCF swimming and pectoral fin movement over a wide speed range, presumably to support swimming stability and control, is an inefficient swimming behaviour. Finally, transition to burst-assisted swimming was associated with an increase in aerobic metabolic rate. Our study highlights factors other than swimming speed that affect swimming cost and suggests that intraspecific diversity in biomechanical performance, such as pectoral fin use, is an important source of variation in both locomotor cost and maximal performance.

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Effects of maternal and embryo characteristics on post-fertilization provisioning in fishes of the genus Gambusia

Cited by 56 publications

References 66 publications

Evidence of maternal copper and cadmium transfer in two live-bearing fish species

Evidence of maternal copper and cadmium transfer in two live-bearing fish species

Matrotrophy in the cave molly: an unexpected provisioning strategy in an extreme environment

Effects of intraspecific variation in reproductive traits, pectoral fin use and burst swimming on metabolic rates and swimming performance: a study on the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulataPeters)

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