Biometric analysis of Brachionus plicatilis ecotypes from Spanish lagoons

Abstract

Univariate comparisons and several multivariate statistical analyses have been performed to study the morphometric variability of B. plicatilis . Both laboratory clones kept under constant conditions and natural populations from different Spanish lagoons and different times of the year have been compared . The results show that not only size, but also allometric coefficients are influenced by environmental factors . However, an important genetic component in the variation of shape and size has been visualized . A clear North-South ordination of the populations of the different lagoons and an important dispersion between their summer populations as well as great differences due to seasonal variation became apparent by the multivariate statistical analysis used .

Polyploidy and body size variation in a natural population of the rotifer Euchlanis dilatata

“…Body size variation in rotifer populations occurs in response to temperature effects (Halbach, 1970;Pourriot, 1973;Eloranta, 1982;HilbrichtIlkowska, 1983;Snell and Carrillo, 1984), nutritional effects (Pourriot, 1965;King, 1967;Pilarska. 1977;Scott and Baynes, 1978) and genotypic differences among strains (Yufera, 1982;Serra and Miracle, 1983;Snell and Carrillo, 1984). Our data suggest that ploidy level may be another important factor in determining inter-and intra-populational variation of body size and growth rate.…”

“…In rotifers, interpopulation variation in body size among geographically or temporally separated populations may have a genetic basis (King and Serra, 1980;Yufera, 1982;Serra and Miracle, 1983;She11 and Carrillo, 1984). Morales ( 1987) surveyed lakes in the Sierra Nevada, Spain, and found considerable body size variation in Euchlunis dilatata among the lakes.…”

The minute monogonont rotifer Proales similis de Beauchamp: Culture and feeding to small mouth marine fish larvae

“…As rotifers can be cultured at high density and their nutritional content can be manipulated to match fish larvae requirements, efforts to reduce the lorica size of rotifer B. plicatilis have also been conducted (Gallardo et al, 1997;Hagiwara et al, 2007). However, since lorica size is genetically constrained (Snell and Carrillo, 1984;Fu et al, 1991a,b), collecting rotifer strains with small body size from nature is also important strategy (Ito et al, 1981;Yufera, 1982;Fukusho and Okauchi, 1983;Serra and Miracle, 1983). Recently, Chigbu and Suchar (2006) reported their success in culturing Colurella dicentra, a small rotifer with lorica length of 93 μm and width of 49 μm.…”

Fifteen species in one: deciphering the Brachionus plicatilis species complex (Rotifera, Monogononta) through DNA taxonomy

“…From the early 1980s, it became increasingly clear that the morphological and genetic differences between the L and S strains supported the hypothesis that the two morphotypes should be recognised as separate species. Serra & Miracle (1983) noted marked seasonal cyclomorphosis in individuals from Spanish water bodies commenting that, while B. plicatilis populations were thought to exhibit high levels of phenotypic plasticity in their natural habitat, laboratory clones founded from single individuals could be readily distinguished biometrically. They also noted a good correlation between biometric classification and spatial distribution of wild populations, hypothesising that some of their clones may constitute a ''well-differentiated genetic race''.…”