No abstract

The importance of chemical communication in reproduction has been demonstrated in many marine broadcast spawners. However, little is known about the use of chemical communication by echinoderms, the nature of the compounds involved and their mechanism(s) of action. Here, the hypothesis that the sea cucumber Holothuria arguinensis uses chemical communication for aggregation and spawning was tested. Water conditioned by males, but not females, attracted both males and females; gonad homogenates and coelomic fluid had no effect on attraction. Male spawning water, but not female spawning water, stimulated males and females to release their gametes; the spermatozoa alone did not induce spawning. H. arguinensis male spawning water also induced spawning in the phylogenetically related H. mammata. This indicates that males release pheromones together with their gametes that induce spawning in conspecifics and possibly sympatric species. Finally, the male pheromone seems to be a mixture with at least one labile compound (biological activity is lost after four hours at ambient temperature) possibly including phosphatidylcholines. The identification of pheromones in sea cucumbers offers a new ecological perspective and may have practical applications for their aquaculture.

New fisheries in the western Mediterranean and north eastern Atlantic target the sea cucumbers Holothuria arguinensis and H. mammata; however, lack of biological information hinders management decisions. Here, the reproductive biology of populations the two species was investigated in the southern Iberian Peninsula. Different populations located along a narrow latitudinal range displayed the same general reproductive pattern of summer-autumn spawning.However, significant differences in size, gonadal production and maturity profile between locations suggests the influence of site-specific factors. In Sagres and Ria Formosa H. arguinensis individuals were larger and had larger gonads than in Olhos de Água, which had relatively more immature animals. The spawning and active gametogenesis periods were also longer in Sagres, possibly linked to specificity of food availability and tidal conditions. Ria Formosa also had larger H. mammata individuals with larger gonads than in Murcia and Olhos de Água, possibly reflecting differences in feeding activity in different substrates (muddy/sandy vs rocky). Gametogenesis in H. arguinensis may be triggered by decreasing photoperiod and temperature, and spawning by increasing temperature. Altogether, these results, which include fecundity and size at first maturity, provide an important basis for the scientific management of sea cucumber fisheries in the region.

Sea cucumbers lack vision and rely on chemical sensing to reproduce and survive. However, how they recognize and respond to environmental cues remains unknown. possible candidates are the odorant receptors (oRs), a diverse family of G protein-coupled receptors (GpcRs) involved in olfaction. The present study aimed at characterizing the chemosensory GPCRs in sea cucumbers. At least 246 distinct GpcRs, of which ca. 20% putative ORs, were found in a transcriptome assembly of putative chemosensory (tentacles, oral cavity, calcareous ring, and papillae/tegument) and reproductive (ovary and testis) tissues from Holothuria arguinensis (57 ORs) and in the Apostichopus japonicus genome (79 ORs). The sea cucumber ORs clustered with those of sea urchin and starfish into four main clades of gene expansions sharing a common ancestor and evolving under purifying selection. However, the sea cucumber oRs repertoire was the smallest among the echinoderms and the olfactory receptor signature motif LxxPxYxxxxxLxxxDxxxxxxxxP was better conserved in cluster OR-l1 which also had more members. oRs were expressed in tentacles, oral cavity, calcareous ring, and papillae/tegument, supporting their potential role in chemosensing. This study is the first comprehensive survey of chemosensory GpcRs in sea cucumbers, and provides the molecular basis to understand how they communicate. All living organisms perceive and respond to chemical cues in their environment, which mediate a variety of activities such as feeding, predator avoidance, mating and social behaviours 1,2. These cues can be detected over long and short distances, and include a large diversity of molecules ranging from amino acids and nucleic acids, to small volatile compounds, peptides and proteins (see review 3). To detect and discriminate chemical cues, animals have developed complex chemosensory organs, including the olfactory organs of vertebrates, which contain a large repertoire of chemosensory receptors 4. Although well characterized in some animals 5-7 , chemosensory receptors remain largely undescribed in many metazoan lineages. A large group of chemosensory receptors belong to the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), one of the largest superfamilies of seven transmembrane domain receptors found in metazoans 8. GPCRs convert extracellular stimuli, ranging from small molecules and photons to peptides and proteins, into intracellular biochemical signals via multiple signalling cascades (mostly cAMP and calcium secondary messengers) 9. The large variety of ligands is reflected in the structural diversity of GPCRs which are classified into five main families based on their sequence similarity (GRAFS system): glutamate (G), rhodopsin (R), adhesion (A), frizzled (F) and secretin (S) 10. Chemosensory functions have been associated with the glutamate-receptor family and the rhodopsin-type family 11,12. The latter contains the largest number and the most diverse repertoire of GPCRs involved in vertebrate olfaction 8. Rhodopsin family members involved in vertebrate olfaction incl...

By altering the phenotypic properties of their hosts, endolithic parasites can modulate the engineering processes of marine ecosystem engineers. Here, we assessed the biogeographical patterns of species assemblages, prevalence and impact of endolithic parasitism in two mussel species that act as important ecosystem engineers in the southern African intertidal habitat, Perna perna and Mytilus galloprovincialis. We conducted large-scale surveys across three biogeographic regions along the South African coast: the subtropical east coast, dominated by the indigenous mussel, P. perna, the warm temperate south coast, where this species coexists with the invasive Mediterranean mussel, M. galloprovincialis, and the cool temperate west coast dominated by M. galloprovincialis. Infestation increased with mussel size, and in the case of M. galloprovincialis we found a significantly higher infestation in the cool temperate bioregion than the warm temperate region. For P. perna, the prevalence of infestation was higher on the warm temperate than the subtropical region, though the difference was marginally non-significant. On the south coast, there was no significant difference in infestation prevalence between species. Endolith-induced mortality rates through shell collapse mirrored the patterns for prevalence. For P. perna, endolith species assemblages revealed clear grouping by bioregions. Our findings indicate that biogeography affects cyanobacteria species composition, but differences between biogeographic regions in their effects are driven by environmental conditions.