Inducible Defenses with a "Twist" : Daphnia barbata Abandons Bilateral Symmetry in Response to an Ancient Predator

Title data

Herzog, Quirin ; Rabus, Max ; Wolfschoon Ribeiro, Bernard ; Laforsch, Christian:
Inducible Defenses with a "Twist" : Daphnia barbata Abandons Bilateral Symmetry in Response to an Ancient Predator.
In: PLOS ONE. Vol. 11 (2016) Issue 2 . - e0148556.
ISSN 1932-6203
DOI der Verlagsversion: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148556

	Format: PDF Name: journal.pone.0148556.PDF Version: Published Version Available under License Creative Commons BY 4.0: Attribution
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Project information

Project title:	Project's official title Project's id Open Access Publizieren No information
Project financing:	Universität Bayreuth

Abstract

Predation is one of the most important drivers of natural selection. In consequence a huge variety of anti-predator defenses have evolved in prey species. Under unpredictable and temporally variable predation pressure, the evolution of phenotypically plastic defensive traits is favored. These “inducible defenses”, range from changes in behavior, life history, physiology to morphology and can be found in almost all taxa from bacteria to vertebrates. An important group of model organisms in ecological, evolutionary and environmental research, water fleas of the genus Daphnia (Crustacea: Cladocera), are well known for their ability to respond to predators with an enormous variety of inducible morphological defenses. Here we report on the “twist”, a body torsion, as a so far unrecognized inducible morphological defense in Daphnia, expressed by Daphnia barbata exposed to the predatory tadpole shrimp Triops cancriformis. This defense is realized by a twisted carapace with the helmet and the tail spine deviating from the body axis into opposing directions, resulting in a complete abolishment of bilateral symmetry. The twisted morphotype should considerably interfere with the feeding apparatus of the predator, contributing to the effectiveness of the array of defensive traits in D. barbata. As such this study does not only describe a completely novel inducible defense in the genus Daphnia but also presents the first report of a free living Bilateria to flexibly respond to predation risk by abandoning bilateral symmetry.

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Additional notes (visible to public):	BAYCEER135247
Keywords:	inducible defenses; predator-prey-interactions; Daphnia; plankton; bilateral symmetry
DDC Subjects:	500 Science > 570 Life sciences, biology 500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology > Chair Animal Ecology I Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology > Chair Animal Ecology I > Chair Animal Ecology I - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Laforsch Faculties Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology
Language:	English
Originates at UBT:	Yes
Date Deposited:	23 Feb 2016 12:45
Last Modified:	22 Jun 2020 07:41
URI:	https://epub.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/3613

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