A quantitative genetic approach to assess the evolutionary potential of a coastal marine fish to ocean acidification

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Abstract

Assessing the potential of marine organisms to adapt genetically to increasing oceanic CO ₂ levels requires proxies such as heritability of fitness-related traits under ocean acidification (OA). We applied a quantitative genetic method to derive the first heritability estimate of survival under elevated CO ₂ conditions in a metazoan. Specifically, we reared offspring, selected from a wild coastal fish population (Atlantic silverside, Menidia menidia), at high CO ₂ conditions (∼2300 μatm) from fertilization to 15 days posthatch, which significantly reduced survival compared to controls. Perished and surviving offspring were quantitatively sampled and genotyped along with their parents, using eight polymorphic microsatellite loci, to reconstruct a parent–offspring pedigree and estimate variance components. Genetically related individuals were phenotypically more similar (i.e., survived similarly long at elevated CO ₂ conditions) than unrelated individuals, which translated into a significantly nonzero heritability (0.20 ± 0.07). The contribution of maternal effects was surprisingly small (0.05 ± 0.04) and nonsignificant. Survival among replicates was positively correlated with genetic diversity, particularly with observed heterozygosity. We conclude that early life survival of M. menidia under high CO ₂ levels has a significant additive genetic component that could elicit an evolutionary response to OA, depending on the strength and direction of future selection.

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Ocean acidification: the other CO2 problem.

Scott C. Doney, Victoria J. Fabry, Richard Feely … (2009)

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), primarily from human fossil fuel combustion, reduces ocean pH and causes wholesale shifts in seawater carbonate chemistry. The process of ocean acidification is well documented in field data, and the rate will accelerate over this century unless future CO2 emissions are curbed dramatically. Acidification alters seawater chemical speciation and biogeochemical cycles of many elements and compounds. One well-known effect is the lowering of calcium carbonate saturation states, which impacts shell-forming marine organisms from plankton to benthic molluscs, echinoderms, and corals. Many calcifying species exhibit reduced calcification and growth rates in laboratory experiments under high-CO2 conditions. Ocean acidification also causes an increase in carbon fixation rates in some photosynthetic organisms (both calcifying and noncalcifying). The potential for marine organisms to adapt to increasing CO2 and broader implications for ocean ecosystems are not well known; both are high priorities for future research. Although ocean pH has varied in the geological past, paleo-events may be only imperfect analogs to current conditions.

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Statistical confidence for likelihood-based paternity inference in natural populations.

T. C. Marshall, J Slate, L. E. B. Kruuk … (1998)

Paternity inference using highly polymorphic codominant markers is becoming common in the study of natural populations. However, multiple males are often found to be genetically compatible with each offspring tested, even when the probability of excluding an unrelated male is high. While various methods exist for evaluating the likelihood of paternity of each nonexcluded male, interpreting these likelihoods has hitherto been difficult, and no method takes account of the incomplete sampling and error-prone genetic data typical of large-scale studies of natural systems. We derive likelihood ratios for paternity inference with codominant markers taking account of typing error, and define a statistic delta for resolving paternity. Using allele frequencies from the study population in question, a simulation program generates criteria for delta that permit assignment of paternity to the most likely male with a known level of statistical confidence. The simulation takes account of the number of candidate males, the proportion of males that are sampled and gaps and errors in genetic data. We explore the potentially confounding effect of relatives and show that the method is robust to their presence under commonly encountered conditions. The method is demonstrated using genetic data from the intensively studied red deer (Cervus elaphus) population on the island of Rum, Scotland. The Windows-based computer program, CERVUS, described in this study is available from the authors. CERVUS can be used to calculate allele frequencies, run simulations and perform parentage analysis using data from all types of codominant markers.

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Natural selection and the heritability of fitness components.

Timothy A. Mousseau, Derek A Roff (1987)

The hypothesis that traits closely associated with fitness will generally possess lower heritabilities than traits more loosely connected with fitness is tested using 1120 narrow sense heritability estimates for wild, outbred animal populations, collected from the published record. Our results indicate that life history traits generally possess lower heritabilities than morphological traits, and that the means, medians, and cumulative frequency distributions of behavioural and physiological traits are intermediate between life history and morphological traits. These findings are consistent with popular interpretations of Fisher's (1930, 1958) Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection, and Falconer (1960, 1981), but also indicate that high heritabilities are maintained within natural populations even for traits believed to be under strong selection. It is also found that the heritability of morphological traits is significantly lower for ectotherms than it is for endotherms which may in part be a result of the strong correlation between life history and body size for many ectotherms.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Evol Appl

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Evol Appl

Journal ID (publisher-id): eva

Title: Evolutionary Applications

Publisher: BlackWell Publishing Ltd (Oxford, UK )

ISSN (Print): 1752-4571

ISSN (Electronic): 1752-4571

Publication date (Print): April 2015

Publication date (Electronic): 13 February 2015

Volume: 8

Issue: 4

Pages: 352-362

Affiliations

[1 ]School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY, USA

[2 ]Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut Groton, CT, USA

[3 ]Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution, Field Museum of Natural History Chicago, IL, USA

[4 ]Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

[5 ]Département de Biologie, Université de Sherbrooke Sherbrooke, QC, Canada

Author notes

Correspondence Hannes Baumann, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT 06340-6048, USA., Tel.: +1860 405 9297;, fax: +1860 405 9153;, e-mail: hannes.baumann@ 123456uconn.edu

Article

DOI: 10.1111/eva.12248

PMC ID: 4408146

PubMed ID: 25926880

SO-VID: 8e1fc182-93bc-4bc3-8362-d86e8706b7b1

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A quantitative genetic approach to assess the evolutionary potential of a coastal marine fish to ocean acidification

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Evolutionary Cell Biology

Most cited references 95

Ocean acidification: the other CO2 problem.

Statistical confidence for likelihood-based paternity inference in natural populations.

Natural selection and the heritability of fitness components.

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