Intraspecific Variation in Sensitivity to Food Availability and Temperature-induced Phenotypic Plasticity in the Rotifer Keratella cochlearis

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No need to search high and low for the latest Biology industry news as Lab.Equipment ensures you are updated no matter where you are. This week’s article comes from Journal of Experimental Biology (JEB):

Eloisa Ramos-Rodriguez, Emilio Moreno, and Jose Maria Conde-Porcuna

Organisms with wide environmentally induced morphological plasticity and cosmopolitan distribution, e.g. the common freshwater rotifer Keratella cochlearis, are ideal models to study the evolution of plastic polymorphisms and the capacity of zooplankton to adapt to local selection conditions. We investigated population-level differences (population-by-environment interaction) in sensitivity to food availability and temperature-induced phenotypic plasticity between two clones of K. cochlearis isolated from neighboring populations in Ruidera Natural Park (Spain) with different trophic statuses: Tinaja lake (mesotrophic) and Cueva Morenilla lake (eutrophic). Using common-garden experiments, each clone proved to have a different sensitivity to food availability, with substantial phenotypic differences between them. When rotifers grew at moderate temperature (15.6°C), low food levels were... Want to read more? You can read the complete article in the Journal of Experimental Biology (JEB) Blog.

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