Nucleic acids as indicators of nutritional condition in the Norway lobster Nephrops norvegicus

Parslow-Williams, Paul; Atkinson, R. J. A.; Taylor, Alan C.

doi:10.3354/meps211235

Cited by 32 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…4). These findings agree with earlier studies that have shown RNA concentration per biomass unit to be a more sensitive indicator of nutritional condition than RNA:DNA ratios in lobsters (Parslow-Williams et al 2001), shrimps (Moss 1994a, and fish (Ferguson & Danzmann 1990). One of the criticisms of using RNA-based indices as measures of growth rate has been that they may appear to correlate with growth rates purely as a function of ontogenetic change.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Relationships between nucleic acid levels and egg production rates in Acartia bifilosa: implications for growth assessment of copepods in situ

Gorokhova¹

2003

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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To evaluate the applicability of RNA-based indices in copepod growth assessment, concentrations of nucleic acids in Acartia bifilosa were calibrated against growth rates estimated via egg production experiments, and the relationships between levels of RNA, DNA, and the RNA:DNA ratio and growth rates were examined. Furthermore, to investigate effects of temperature and food availability on the relationships between weight-specific fecundity and nucleic acid levels, incubations were carried out at 9 and 16°C, each at 3 food concentrations. There were positive relationships between nucleic acid concentrations and their ratios and weight-specific egg production rates. Overall, RNA concentration was the best predictor of specific growth rate. No correlations between either of the measured variables and female body size were observed. When egg production was elevated by manipulating the feeding regime, RNA concentration and the RNA:DNA ratio increased in concert. Neither growth nor RNA indices were significantly affected by temperature, while a significant increase in DNA concentrations was observed at high food levels and low temperatures. The lack of temperature dependence in RNA-growth relationships allows their direct application for in situ growth estimates in summer populations of A. bifilosa in the northern Baltic Proper.KEY WORDS: Nucleic acid concentrations · RNA:DNA · Growth rate · Egg production · Weight-specific fecundity · Baltic · Acartia bifilosa Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 262: [163][164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172] 2003 tested the applicability of nucleic acid analysis for growth rate assessment using RNA concentrations (Dagg & Littlepage 1972, Ota & Landry 1984, Båmstedt & Skjodal 1980 or RNA:DNA values (Wagner et al. 1998(Wagner et al. , 2001) of mono-or multispecies zooplankton samples. Although most of the early studies focused on using RNA:DNA ratios as an index of nutritional condition (Wagner et al. 1998), a calibration of zooplankton growth rates against nucleic acid content has also been attempted, and linear relationships have been found between growth rate and RNA content (and/or RNA:DNA ratio) for various species of marine copepods (Nakata et al. 1994, Saiz et al. 1998, Wagner et al. 2001) and freshwater cladocerans (Vrede et al. 2002). In some cases, however, the relationship between RNA content and growth rate has been found to lack sufficient predictability (Dagg & Littlepage 1972, Ota & Landry 1984. Of great interest, therefore, are the 'rules' used to estimate growth from nucleic acid measurements, and these need to be defined. For example, it has been shown that temperature influences the relationship between RNA and growth in copepods (Saiz et al. 1998, Wagner et al. 2001) and lobsters (Juinio et al. 1992), while a correlation was found between body size and the RNA:protein ratio in squid (Moltschaniwskyj & Jackson 2000), and between developmental stage and RNA-based indices in copepods (Wa...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Relationships between nucleic acid levels and egg production rates in Acartia bifilosa: implications for growth assessment of copepods in situ

Gorokhova¹

2003

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…Otherwise, the RNA/DNA ratio can be used as a relative value in order to detect changes over time or analyse differences between groups (Vrede et al 2002;Olsson et al 2008). RNA/DNA ratios range from 1 to 5 in marine fish larvae (Buckley 1984;Clemmesen et al 1997) and from 0.5 to 8 in marine benthic crustaceans (Parslow-Williams et al 2001;Desai and Anil 2002) and up to 15 in zooplankton (Vrede et al 2002).…”

Section: Gammarus Fossarummentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological indicators of fitness in benthic invertebrates: a useful measure for ecological health assessment and experimental ecology

et al. 2011

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Physiological indicators of fitness present a measure of an organism's response to a changing environment. An analysis of how these organisms allocate and store their energy resources provides an understanding of how they cope with such environmental changes. Each individual has to balance the investment necessary to acquire a certain resource with the energy gained by it. This trade-off can be monitored by measuring several physiological indicators of fitness such as energy storage components, metabolic state or RNA/DNA ratio. Because environmental adaptations and ecological strategies of survival are best examined within the natural environment, our research has to rely on the physiological indicators that are easily accessible in the field. The physiological indicators presented here are significant for an individual's fitness and in turn lead to reliable values in field-collected samples. Based on our own expertise and on a literature survey, the physiological relevance of the presented indicators is explained. Furthermore, some consideration to the analytical methods used to obtain the physiological indicators is given, and possible errors introduced at the sampling site and during the laboratory procedures are discussed. This work demonstrates that the integration of ecological and physiological expertise facilitates the identification of future ecological problems much earlier than separate approaches of both disciplines alone.

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“…Similarly, a strong positive relationship between nucleic acid ratios (i.e. short-term growth rate) and food availability has been found in bivalves (Wright & Hetzel 1985, Dahlhoff & Menge 1996, crustaceans (Wagner et al 1998, Parslow-Williams et al 2001) and juvenile and larval fish (Buckley et al 1999). Yet these studies did not contrast negative and positive effects of stressors like in the present laboratory experiments.…”

Section: Food Availability and Hypoxiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of food availability and hypoxia on bivalves: the value of using multiple parameters to measure bivalve condition in environmental studies

Norkko¹,

Pilditch²,

Thrush³

et al. 2005

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Suspension-feeding bivalves are often included in environmental monitoring because of their trophic position, widespread occurrence and sensitivity to a wide range of environmental factors. Therefore various indices of bivalve condition and growth have been developed, including morphometric condition indices (CI), scope for growth (SFG) and nucleic acid ratios (RNA:DNA ratio, RNA:protein ratio or RNA concentration). The sensitivity of these 3 indices has not previously been compared in the same individual bivalves, yet they are likely to have different temporal scales of detectable response to environmental processes. In 2 laboratory experiments (10 and 24 d duration) we investigated the combined effect of food availability and sublethal hypoxia on RNA concentration, CI and SFG in juvenile clams Paphies australis. RNA and CI increased rapidly (5 d) following exposure to high food treatment, but only CI showed a negative influence of hypoxia. Although SFG was affected by both food availability and hypoxia, the patterns were opposite to those of RNA and CI. This anomaly could be explained by the instantaneous change in feeding rates and a slower response in respiration rate (which was correlated with CI) to the uniform conditions under which SFG was determined. Our results emphasise the importance of combined effects of environmental factors on bivalve growth, highlighting the overriding influence of food availability, and imply that a combination of measures will give a more accurate representation of growth rate.

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Nucleic acids as indicators of nutritional condition in the Norway lobster Nephrops norvegicus

Cited by 32 publications

References 53 publications

Relationships between nucleic acid levels and egg production rates in Acartia bifilosa: implications for growth assessment of copepods in situ

Relationships between nucleic acid levels and egg production rates in Acartia bifilosa: implications for growth assessment of copepods in situ

Physiological indicators of fitness in benthic invertebrates: a useful measure for ecological health assessment and experimental ecology

Effects of food availability and hypoxia on bivalves: the value of using multiple parameters to measure bivalve condition in environmental studies

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