Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Abstract The developmental pattern of the annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus is unusual compared to other fish. First, the cell movements associated with gastrulation are separated from formation of the embryonic axis. In addition, embryonic diapause can occur. Diapause II and III are often observed when embryos are incubated at 25 o C...

Chemical cues are of enormous importance in mediating the behaviour of animals, enabling them to navigate throughout their habitats, to detect the presence of predators or prey and for social recognition-identifying and discriminating between conspecifics. In many species of freshwater fish, social recognition is known to be based primarily on chemical cues. Such recognition mechanisms are vuln...

The mangrove killifish Kryptolebias marmoratus, and its close relative Kryptolebias hermaphroditus, are the only vertebrate species known to reproduce by self-fertilization due to functional ovotestis development. To improve our understanding of their genomes, we constructed a genetic map. First, a single F1 fish was made by artificial fertilization between K. marmoratus and K. hermaphroditus s...

Regulation of internal ion homeostasis is essential for fishes inhabiting environments where salinities differ from their internal concentrations. It is hypothesized that selection will reduce energetic costs of osmoregulation in a population's native osmotic habitat, producing patterns of local adaptation. Killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus, occupy estuarine habitats where salinities range from ...

Northern and southern subspecies of the Atlantic killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus, differ in maximal thermal tolerance. To determine whether these subspecies also differ in their heat shock response (HSR), we exposed 20°C acclimated killifish to a 2 h heat shock at 34°C and examined gene expression in fish from both subspecies during heat shock and recovery using real-time quantitative PCR and ...

Mitochondrial performance may play a role in setting whole-animal thermal tolerance limits and their plasticity, but the relative roles of adjustments in mitochondrial performance across different highly aerobic tissues remain poorly understood. We compared heart and brain mitochondrial responses to acute thermal challenges and to thermal acclimation using high-resolution respirometry in two lo...

Short- and long-term responses to direct transfer from seawater to freshwater were examined in gill chloride cells of killifish, which developed distinct freshwater- and seawater-type chloride cells in the respective environments. In a short-term response within 24 h after transfer, seawater-type chloride cells forming a pit structure on the apical surface were transformed into freshwater-type ...

The hermaphroditic Mangrove Killifish, Kryptolebias marmoratus, is the world's only vertebrate that routinely self-fertilizes. As such, highly inbred and presumably isogenic "clonal" lineages of this androdioecious species have long been maintained in several laboratories and used in a wide variety of experiments that require genetically uniform vertebrate specimens. Here we conduct a genetic i...

In order to examine the effect of salinity on Cu accumulation from a naturally incorporated diet, oysters (Crassostrea virginica) were exposed in sea water for 96 days to four waterborne [Cu]: 2.9+/-0.7 (control), 4.3+/-0.6, 5.4+/-0.5, and 10.7+/-1.0 microg L(-1). After 96 days, the control whole body [Cu] increased from 2.1+/-0.5 to 9.1+/-1.1 microg g(-1) w.w. and the highest [Cu] was 163.4+/-...

Organisms inhabiting unpredictable environments often evolve diversified reproductive bet-hedging strategies, expressed as production of multiple offspring phenotypes, thereby avoiding complete reproductive failure. To cope with unpredictable rainfall, African annual killifish from temporary savannah pools lay drought-resistant eggs that vary widely in the duration of embryo development. We exa...