Trade-offs in osmoregulation and parallel shifts in molecular function follow ecological transitions to freshwater in the Alewife

Evolution
By: , and 

Links

Abstract

Adaptation to freshwater may be expected to reduce performance in seawater because these environments represent opposing selective regimes. We tested for such a trade-off in populations of the Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus). Alewives are ancestrally anadromous, and multiple populations have been independently restricted to freshwater (landlocked). We conducted salinity challenge experiments, whereby juvenile Alewives from one anadromous and multiple landlocked populations were exposed to freshwater and seawater on acute and acclimation timescales. In response to acute salinity challenge trials, independently derived landlocked populations varied in the degree to which seawater tolerance has been lost. In laboratory-acclimation experiments, landlocked Alewives exhibited improved freshwater tolerance, which was correlated with reductions in seawater tolerance and hypo-osmotic balance, suggesting that trade-offs in osmoregulation may be associated with local adaptation to freshwater. We detected differentiation between life-history forms in the expression of an ion-uptake gene (NHE3), and in gill Na+/K+-ATPase activity. Trade-offs in osmoregulation, therefore, may be mediated by differentiation in ion-uptake and salt-secreting pathways.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Trade-offs in osmoregulation and parallel shifts in molecular function follow ecological transitions to freshwater in the Alewife
Series title Evolution
DOI 10.1111/evo.12774
Volume 69
Issue 10
Year Published 2015
Language English
Publisher Society for the Study of Evolution
Contributing office(s) Leetown Science Center
Description 13 p.
First page 2676
Last page 2688
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details