Resource availability modulates the effect of body size on reproductive development

Gergely, Réka; Tökölyi, Jácint

doi:10.1002/ece3.9722

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…low number of female reproductive cells precluding detection of differentially regulated reproductive genes), biological differences are also likely involved. H. oligactis females in general have more flexible reproductive timing than males (Gergely & Tökölyi, 2023), which start gamete production immediately after reproductive cues (in this case, cooling) not to miss fertilization chances. In contrast, females delay reproduction in response to adverse conditions (such as starvation or unfavourable temperature), ultimately allowing decoupling of size‐dependent reproduction from current environmental conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two male and two female strains of H. oligactis were used: C2/7 and M83/4 male strains and X11/14 and M26/9/10 female strains. These strains originate from polyps collected in Hungarian lakes at least 1 year before the experiments reported here (Gergely & Tökölyi, 2023) and asexually propagated in the laboratory under standard conditions: 18°C temperature, 12/12 h light/dark cycle, fed four times per week with freshly hatched Artemia nauplii and kept in a standard hydra medium consisting of: 1 mM Tris, 1 mM NaCl, 1 mM CaCl2, 0.1 mM KCl, 0.1 mM MgSO4; pH: 7.6 (Gergely & Tökölyi, 2023).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…allocation trade-offs, allometry, compensatory growth, life history evolution, metabolism, reproduction, senescence, temperature-size rule regeneration capacities, allowing reciprocal grafting of tissue pieces between genetically identical clones to increase or decrease their body size (Ngo et al, 2021). Furthermore, they show complex allocation decisions in response to internal and external conditions (Gergely & Tökölyi, 2023;Ngo et al, 2021;Sebestyén et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hydra polyps possess a simple body organization and have remarkable regeneration capacities, allowing reciprocal grafting of tissue pieces between genetically identical clones to increase or decrease their body size (Ngo et al., 2021). Furthermore, they show complex allocation decisions in response to internal and external conditions (Gergely & Tökölyi, 2023; Ngo et al., 2021; Sebestyén et al., 2018). Importantly, hydra follow the TSR (Mortzfeld et al., 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temperature‐dependent scaling of fitness traits with body size in hydra

Tökölyi

2023

Functional Ecology

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Body size strongly depends on developmental temperature. In more than 80% of the ectotherm species investigated, including bacteria, protists, invertebrates and vertebrates, individuals developing at lower temperatures exhibit protracted growth and achieve larger sizes than individuals developing at higher temperatures (referred to as the ‘temperature‐size rule’, TSR). One hypothesis to explain the TSR posits that reproduction and/or survival change more steeply with size in cold environments, resulting in larger optimal body sizes and consequently increased selection for growth. However, clearly ascertaining whether size directly affects fitness traits in a temperature‐dependent way is challenging due to the interdependence of size, reproduction and survival. To address this problem, experimental body size manipulation was performed in two male and two female strains of Hydra oligactis, a cold‐adapted temperate freshwater invertebrate. Experimentally enlarged and reduced individuals were followed at two distinct temperatures (8 and 12°C) in the laboratory to record sexual investment and postreproductive senescence. To gain insight into the underlying physiological processes, phenotypic observations were complemented with a large transcriptomic data set obtained from enlarged and reduced individuals from different temperatures. Within male hydra strains, fecundity increased, while survival decreased more steeply with size in cold, compared with warmer temperature. Females showed similar, though less emphasized, trends. Reduced animals in the cold had slower sexual development and were less able to undergo compensatory growth, suggesting temperature‐dependent constraints on physiological performance. Reduced and enlarged males differed dramatically in the expression of reproductive genes at low, but not at higher temperature, while in females, a complex transcriptomic restructuring was seen. In particular, metabolic genes were strongly affected by size manipulation, suggesting resource acquisition and allocation as a central mechanism driving allometric patterns. These results suggest that being large is more beneficial in cold environments, at least in terms of reproduction, while at higher temperature even small individuals can maintain reproductive output. Lower reproduction, however, can be compensated by improved survival in small individuals facing colder environments. The reproductive advantage of large size can provide selection for increased growth at low temperature, thereby explaining the TSR in hydra. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temperature‐dependent scaling of fitness traits with body size in hydra

Tökölyi

2023

Functional Ecology

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“…For the experiment presented here, six H. oligactis strains were used (three male strains: C2/7, M83/4, and T3/2 and three female strains: X11/14, M26/9/10, and T3/1). All strains were established from a single individual that was collected from freshwater bodies in Eastern Hungary between 2016 and 2020 and asexually propagated in the laboratory under simulated summer conditions (Gergely & Tökölyi, 2023 ). These conditions include 18°C temperature and 12/12‐h light/dark cycle.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Warming increases survival and asexual fitness in a facultatively sexual freshwater cnidarian with winter diapause

Tökölyi

2023

Ecology and Evolution

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Temperature is a key abiotic factor controlling population dynamics. In facultatively sexual animals inhabiting the temperate zone, temperature can regulate the switch between asexual and sexual modes of reproduction, initiates growth or dormancy, and acts together with photoperiod to mediate seasonal physiological transitions. Increasing temperature due to recent global warming is likely to disrupt population dynamics of facultatively sexual animals because of the strong temperature dependence of multiple fitness components. However, the fitness consequences of warming in these animals are still poorly understood. This is unfortunate since facultatively sexual animals—through their ability for asexual reproduction resulting in quick population growth and sexual reproduction enabling long‐term persistence—are key components of freshwater ecosystems. Here, I studied the fitness effects of warming in Hydra oligactis , a freshwater cnidarian that reproduces asexually throughout most of the year but switches to sexual reproduction under decreasing temperatures. I exposed hydra polyps to a simulated short summer heatwave or long‐term elevated winter temperature. Since sexual development in this species is dependent on low temperature, I predicted reduced sexual investment (gonad production) and elevated asexual fitness (budding) in polyps exposed to higher temperatures. The results show a complex effect of warming on sexual fitness: While gonad number decreased in response to warming, both male and female polyps exposed to high winter temperature were capable of multiple rounds of gamete production. Asexual reproduction and survival rate, on the contrary, clearly increased in response to higher temperature, especially in males. These results predict increased population growth of H. oligactis in temperate freshwater habitats, which will likely affect the population dynamics of its main prey (freshwater zooplankton), and through that, the whole aquatic ecosystem.

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Climatic temperature and precipitation jointly influence body size in species of western rattlesnakes

Meik,

Watson,

Schield

et al. 2024

R. Soc. Open Sci.

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Both the metabolic theory of ecology and dynamic energy budget theory predict that climate influences body size through its effects on first-order determinants of energetics: reactive temperatures, carbon resources and oxygen availability. Although oxygen is seldom limiting in terrestrial systems, temperature and resources vary spatially. We used redundancy analyses and variation partitioning to evaluate the influence of climatic temperature, precipitation and their seasonalities on multivariate body size across the distributions of four species of the western rattlesnake group in North America ( Crotalus pyrrhus , C. scutulatus , C. oreganus and C. viridis ). Most species showed a pattern of increased body size in cooler, mesic climates and decreased body size in warmer, xeric climates. Exceptions to the pattern provided additional context through climatic idiosyncrasies in the distributions of each species. For example, the general pattern of a negative influence of temperature on body size was not apparent for C. oreganus , which ranges across the mildest climates overall among the four species. In contrast to previous studies, we found that seasonality had negligible effects on body size. We suggest that precipitation gradients correlate positively with resource availability in driving intraspecific body size and that temperature compounds this gradient by increasing baseline metabolic demands and restricting activity in particularly warm or otherwise extreme climates.

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Resource availability modulates the effect of body size on reproductive development

Cited by 3 publications

References 66 publications

Temperature‐dependent scaling of fitness traits with body size in hydra

Temperature‐dependent scaling of fitness traits with body size in hydra

Warming increases survival and asexual fitness in a facultatively sexual freshwater cnidarian with winter diapause

Climatic temperature and precipitation jointly influence body size in species of western rattlesnakes

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