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Influence of parental swimming stamina on the cardiac and metabolic performance of larval zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Superior swimming stamina in adult fish is presumably passed on to their offspring, but the ontogeny of the appearance of superior stamina and the requisite enhanced cardio-respiratory support for locomotion in larval fishes has not been determined. Is the expression of the suite of parental traits enabling superior swimming stamina in their offspring dependent upon their achieving juvenile/adult morphology, or does it appear earlier in their larvae? To answer this, adults were classified into three groups based on swimming stamina, followed by measurement of length, mass, and width. Larval offspring from the two parental groups -high stamina larvae (HSL) and low stamina larvae (LSL)- were reared at 27°C in aerated water (21% O2). Routine and active heart rate, routine and active mass specific oxygen consumption were recorded through 21dpf, and cost of transport (COT) and factorial aerobic scope were derived from oxygen consumption measurements. Routine heart rate at 2dpf of LSL was 164 ± 1 b·min-1, compared to only 125 ± 2 b·min-1 for HSL. Routine heart rate subsequently peaked at 203 ± 1 b·min-1 at 5dpf in the HSL group, compared to 207 ± 1 b·min-1, at 4dpf in the LSP larvae. Active heart rate at 5 dpf of LSL was 218 ± 2 b·min-1 compared to 216 ± 2 b·min-1 for HSL. Active heart rate increased slightly to 227 ± 2 b·min-1 for LSL before decreasing again, while active heart rate remained relatively constant for HSL. Routine O2 consumption at 2dpf of HSL was 0.09 μmol·mg-1·hr-1, compared to 0.03 μmol·mg-1·hr-1 in LSL. Routine O2 consumption subsequently peaked at 0.70 μmol·mg-1·hr-1 at 9dpf in the HSL, compared to 0.71 μmol·mg-1·hr-1, at 9dpf in the LSL. These values dramatically decreased before leveling off at around 0.20 μmol·mg-1·hr-1 and 0.15 μmol·mg-1·h-1, respectively. Active O2 consumption at 5dpf for HSL was 0.38 μmol·mg-1·hr-1, compared to 0.57 μmol·mg-1·hr-1 for LSL. Active O2 consumption subsequently peaked at 0.97 μmol·mg-1·hr-1 at 10dpf in HSL, compared to 1.19 μmol·mg-1·hr-1 at 7dpf in LSL. These values also dramatically decreased and leveled off. Significant differences (p < 0.05) in heart rate and oxygen consumption persisted through 21dpf. The onset of differences observed in routine and active heart rate in early larvae, correlated with parent stamina, show that juvenile or adult features are not required as a precondition for the emergence of phenotypic physiological differences.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc3669
Date05 1900
CreatorsGore, Matthew R.
ContributorsBurggren, Warren W., Burleson, Mark, Jagadeeswaran, Pudur
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
FormatText
RightsPublic, Copyright, Gore, Matthew R., Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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