Rachael Morgan Profile picture
Postdoc at the University of Bergen. Ecophysiologist interested in the effects of temperature and hypoxia on fish 🐟🐠🐡

May 27, 2022, 7 tweets

Does adaptation to stable temperatures lead to a loss of physiological plasticity?🌡
In our new paper @PNASNews we explore this by comparing lab (150+ generations in stable conditions) and wild (fluctuating temperatures in nature) #zebrafish🐟1/7 pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

We acclimated both lab and wild zebrafish to 15 different temperatures from 10-38 degrees for 35 days. 2/7

Then we measured a diverse range of traits spanning gene expression, behaviour and physiology. 3/7

We found changes in plasticity across all levels!
Lab zebrafish had a reduced level of plasticity compared to their wild counterparts in many of the measured traits. 4/7

Surprisingly, the lab zebrafish grew faster than wild zebrafish across all temperatures!
Combined with the reduced physiological plasticity seen in the other measured traits for the lab fish this suggests a tradeoff between plasticity and performance. 5/7

Overall we show that under stable temperatures physiological plasticity can be rapidly lost across different levels of biological organisation.
This suggests that maintaining plasticity carries a cost. 6/7 #fishsci

Finally I want to thank all involved @FredrikJutfelt @AnnaHAndreassen @Joanna_Miest @erasheim @GunnarDresler @en_mette.
With so many different traits, fish and temperatures being measured it was a huge undertaking and would not have been possible without this amazing team! 7/7

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