Porcelain Crab Petrolisthes Cinctipes Research Articles

Facilitation alters climate change risk on rocky shores.

A huge fraction of global biodiversity resides within biogenic habitats that ameliorate physical stresses. In most cases, details of how physical conditions within facilitative habitats respond to external climate forcing remain unknown, hampering climate change predictions for many of the world's species. Using intertidal mussel beds as a model system, we characterize relationships among external climate conditions and within-microhabitat heat and desiccation conditions. We use these data, along with physiological tolerances of two common inhabitant taxa (the isopod Cirolana harfordi and the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes), to examine the magnitude of climate risk inside and outside biogenic habitat, applying an empirically derived model of evaporation to simulate mortality risk under a high-emissions climate-warming scenario. We found that biogenic microhabitat conditions responded so weakly to external climate parameters that mortality risk was largely unaffected by climate warming. In contrast, outside the biogenic habitat, desiccation drove substantial mortality in both species, even at temperatures 4.4-8.6°C below their hydrated thermal tolerances. These findings emphasize the importance of warming-exacerbated desiccation to climate-change risk and the role of biogenic habitats in buffering this less-appreciated stressor. Our results suggest that, when biogenic habitats remain intact, climate warming may have weak direct effects on organisms within them. Instead, risk to such taxa is likely to be indirect and tightly coupled with the fate of habitat-forming populations. Conserving and restoring biogenic habitats that offer climate refugia could therefore be crucial to supporting biodiversity in the face of climate warming.

Hot Rocks and Not-So-Hot Rocks on the Seashore: Patterns and Body-Size Dependent Consequences of Microclimatic Variation in Intertidal Zone Boulder Habitat.

SynopsisMicroclimatic variation has emerged as an important driver of many ecological and evolutionary processes. Nonetheless, fine-scale temperature data are still rare in most habitats, limiting our ability to understand the consequences of microclimatic variation under current and future conditions. We measured fine-scale thermal variation in a common, species-rich, but rarely studied habitat with respect to temperature: the airspaces under rocks on intertidal zone boulder shores. The effects of thermal variation were investigated using physiological, behavioral, and demographic responses of the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes. Habitat temperatures were measured at fine spatial and temporal resolution over 18 months, producing 424,426 temperature records. Microclimatic variation increased with increasing intertidal elevation, particularly with respect to heat extremes. However, mean temperatures were similar across the entire intertidal zone. Overheating risk for P. cinctipes increases with intertidal elevation but is size dependent, as large animals are more heat sensitive than small animals. Still, microclimatic variation high in the intertidal zone provided thermal refugia even under the warmest conditions. Size-dependent thermal responses predicted that large crabs should be rare high in the intertidal zone, which was supported by demographic data. Furthermore, simulations parameterized by our microclimate and organismal data recapitulated demographic patterns. Therefore, interactions between microclimatic variation and size-dependent thermal responses may have significant ecological repercussions that warrant greater attention.

Effect of elevated pCO2 on metabolic responses of porcelain crab (Petrolisthes cinctipes) Larvae exposed to subsequent salinity stress.

Future climate change is predicted to alter the physical characteristics of oceans and estuaries, including pH, temperature, oxygen, and salinity. Investigating how species react to the influence of such multiple stressors is crucial for assessing how future environmental change will alter marine ecosystems. The timing of multiple stressors can also be important, since in some cases stressors arise simultaneously, while in others they occur in rapid succession. In this study, we investigated the effects of elevated pCO2 on oxygen consumption by larvae of the intertidal porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes when exposed to subsequent salinity stress. Such an exposure mimics how larvae under future acidified conditions will likely experience sudden runoff events such as those that occur seasonally along portions of the west coast of the U.S. and in other temperate systems, or how larvae encounter hypersaline waters when crossing density gradients via directed swimming. We raised larvae in the laboratory under ambient and predicted future pCO2 levels (385 and 1000 µatm) for 10 days, and then moved them to seawater at ambient pCO2 but with decreased, ambient, or elevated salinity, to monitor their respiration. While larvae raised under elevated pCO2 or exposed to stressful salinity conditions alone did not exhibit higher respiration rates than larvae held in ambient conditions, larvae exposed to elevated pCO2 followed by stressful salinity conditions consumed more oxygen. These results show that even when multiple stressors act sequentially rather than simultaneously, they can retain their capacity to detrimentally affect organisms.

Characterization and analysis of a transcriptome from the boreal spider crab Hyas araneus

Research investigating the genetic basis of physiological responses has significantly broadened our understanding of the mechanisms underlying organismic response to environmental change. However, genomic data are currently available for few taxa only, thus excluding physiological model species from this approach. In this study we report the transcriptome of the model organism Hyas araneus from Spitsbergen (Arctic). We generated 20,479 transcripts, using the 454 GS FLX sequencing technology in combination with an Illumina HiSeq sequencing approach. Annotation by Blastx revealed 7159 blast hits in the NCBI non-redundant protein database. The comparison between the spider crab H. araneus transcriptome and EST libraries of the European lobster Homarus americanus and the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes yielded 3229/2581 sequences with a significant hit, respectively. The clustering by the Markov Clustering Algorithm (MCL) revealed a common core of 1710 clusters present in all three species and 5903 unique clusters for H. araneus. The combined sequencing approaches generated transcripts that will greatly expand the limited genomic data available for crustaceans. We introduce the MCL clustering for transcriptome comparisons as a simple approach to estimate similarities between transcriptomic libraries of different size and quality and to analyze homologies within the selected group of species. In particular, we identified a large variety of reverse transcriptase (RT) sequences not only in the H. araneus transcriptome and other decapod crustaceans, but also sea urchin, supporting the hypothesis of a heritable, anti-viral immunity and the proposed viral fragment integration by host-derived RTs in marine invertebrates.

Trace element signatures in larval soft tissues reveal transport, but not population connectivity

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 481:1-10 (2013) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10340 FEATURE ARTICLE Trace element signatures in larval soft tissues reveal transport, but not population connectivity Seth H. Miller1,*, Steven G. Morgan1,2, J. Wilson White3, Peter G. Green4 1Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California Davis, Bodega Bay, California 94923, USA 2Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA 3Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403, USA 4Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA *Email: shmiller@ucdavis.edu ABSTRACT: Trace elemental signatures incorporated into calcified structures in fish and mollusk larvae have been used to reveal population connectivity and larval dispersal trajectories. To determine whether trace element analysis could be applied to larvae that do not permanently retain calcified structures, we raised larvae of the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes from multiple locations along the northern California, USA, coast in a common water source for up to 8 wk. We analyzed 20 elements in extractions of soft tissues from embryos and the 2 larval and 1 postlarval stages. Elemental signatures of individuals in each developmental stage were compared to an atlas of signatures from each collection site using discriminant analysis to determine whether larvae could be accurately assigned to their site of origin in 2 ways. First, postlarvae were classified using a natal site atlas constructed using embryonic signatures from each site, and this classification had poor success (average 39.7% correct). Second, larvae of each stage were classified using a natal site atlas constructed using signatures of larvae from that same stage. This yielded considerably better classification success (81.7% correct overall). Thus, the same trace element signatures were not consistently maintained from embryos to postlarvae, but differences in signatures among natal sites were maintained during the larval period. Trace element signatures in soft tissues could be useful in tracking dispersal between stages and determining how many sites, rather than which sites, contributed to a cohort of larvae or settlers. KEY WORDS: Dispersal trajectories · Natal origins · Postlarval settlement · Petrolisthes cinctipes Full text in pdf format Information about this Feature Article Supplementary material NextCite this article as: Miller SH, Morgan SG, White JW, Green PG (2013) Trace element signatures in larval soft tissues reveal transport, but not population connectivity. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 481:1-10. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10340 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 481. Online publication date: May 07, 2013 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research.

Interannual variability in an atlas of trace element signatures for determining population connectivity

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 474:179-190 (2013) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10119 Interannual variability in an atlas of trace element signatures for determining population connectivity Seth H. Miller1,*, Steven G. Morgan1,2, J. Wilson White3, Peter G. Green4 1Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California Davis, Bodega Bay, California 94923, USA 2Department of Environmental Science and Policy and 4Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA 3Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403, USA *Email: shmiller@ucdavis.edu ABSTRACT: Natural trace element signatures have increasingly been used to track the dispersal of marine larvae, and these studies require an atlas of potential source populations with distinctive elemental signatures. To determine whether natal site atlases could be used repeatedly and to identify site characteristics that yield the best results, we built atlases in 5 consecutive years using embryos of the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes that were collected from 15 sites spanning 190 km of the open coast of northern California, USA. We analyzed the elemental composition of the embryos using a discriminant function optimization procedure to determine the suite of elements that resulted in the best reclassification success for individual sites and groups of sites each year. No single element or group of elements succeeded in discriminating the origins of embryos every year, and the reclassification success of the atlas varied at all spatial scales among years. Average reclassification success at the site level ranged annually from 39.5 to 54.3% correct, and combining sites into 2 or 3 areas improved the overall reclassification success to 72.5 to 97.7% correct. Sites with (1) distinctive elemental compositions of rocks, (2) unusual habitats, (3) consistent freshwater input, (4) consistent anthropogenic inputs, or (5) complex local oceanography had the highest reclassification success (up to 86.7% correct), but interannual variation in runoff reduced the temporal stability of the atlas. To improve population connectivity estimates, future trace element studies should consider these 5 key characteristics when selecting sites and anticipate temporal variation in natal site signatures. KEY WORDS: Larval dispersal · Trace element signatures · Population connectivity · Natal site atlas · Petrolisthes cinctipes Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Miller SH, Morgan SG, White JW, Green PG (2013) Interannual variability in an atlas of trace element signatures for determining population connectivity. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 474:179-190. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10119 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 474. Online publication date: January 31, 2013 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research.

Identification of proteins interacting with lactate dehydrogenase in claw muscle of the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes

Biochemical adaptation of enzymes involves conservation of activity, stability and affinity across a wide range of intracellular and environmental conditions. Enzyme adaptation by alteration of primary structure is well known, but the roles of protein–protein interactions in enzyme adaptation are less well understood. Interspecific differences in thermal stability of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in porcelain crabs (genus Petrolisthes) are related to intrinsic differences among LDH molecules and by interactions with other stabilizing proteins. Here, we identified proteins that interact with LDH in porcelain crab claw muscle tissue using co-immunoprecipitation, and showed LDH exists in high molecular weight complexes using size exclusion chromatography and Western blot analyses. Co-immunoprecipitated proteins were separated using 2D SDS PAGE and analyzed by LC/ESI using peptide MS/MS. Peptide MS/MS ions were compared to an EST database for Petrolisthes cinctipes to identify proteins. Identified proteins included cytoskeletal elements, glycolytic enzymes, a phosphagen kinase, and the respiratory protein hemocyanin. Our results support the hypothesis that LDH interacts with glycolytic enzymes in a metabolon structured by cytoskeletal elements that may also include the enzyme for transfer of the adenylate charge in glycolytically produced ATP. Those interactions may play specific roles in biochemical adaptation of glycolytic enzymes.

The Porcelain Crab Transcriptome and PCAD, the Porcelain Crab Microarray and Sequence Database

BackgroundWith the emergence of a completed genome sequence of the freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, construction of genomic-scale sequence databases for additional crustacean sequences are important for comparative genomics and annotation. Porcelain crabs, genus Petrolisthes, have been powerful crustacean models for environmental and evolutionary physiology with respect to thermal adaptation and understanding responses of marine organisms to climate change. Here, we present a large-scale EST sequencing and cDNA microarray database project for the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes.Methodology/Principal FindingsA set of ∼30K unique sequences (UniSeqs) representing ∼19K clusters were generated from ∼98K high quality ESTs from a set of tissue specific non-normalized and mixed-tissue normalized cDNA libraries from the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes. Homology for each UniSeq was assessed using BLAST, InterProScan, GO and KEGG database searches. Approximately 66% of the UniSeqs had homology in at least one of the databases. All EST and UniSeq sequences along with annotation results and coordinated cDNA microarray datasets have been made publicly accessible at the Porcelain Crab Array Database (PCAD), a feature-enriched version of the Stanford and Longhorn Array Databases.Conclusions/SignificanceThe EST project presented here represents the third largest sequencing effort for any crustacean, and the largest effort for any crab species. Our assembly and clustering results suggest that our porcelain crab EST data set is equally diverse to the much larger EST set generated in the Daphnia pulex genome sequencing project, and thus will be an important resource to the Daphnia research community. Our homology results support the pancrustacea hypothesis and suggest that Malacostraca may be ancestral to Branchiopoda and Hexapoda. Our results also suggest that our cDNA microarrays cover as much of the transcriptome as can reasonably be captured in EST library sequencing approaches, and thus represent a rich resource for studies of environmental genomics.

The Effect of Sex, Size and Habitat on the Incidence of Puncture Wounds in the Claws of the Porcelain Crab Petrolisthes Cinctipes (Anomura: Porcellanidae)

Many porcelain crabs have an unusual claw (cheliped) form that is broad, flat and thin. This seemingly flimsy form suggests claws may be used more for display than for feeding or aggressive interactions. However, in the flat-topped porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes, one of the most abundant intertidal crustaceans on the Pacific coast of North America, we observed a high proportion of individuals with puncture wounds on their claws. Claws therefore do appear to be used in intra-specific aggression. To examine factors that might influence injury prevalence, samples of P. cinctipes were collected from four sites in Barkley Sound, two wave-exposed, and two protected. In addition, laboratory experiments examined the effects of density and crab size on the incidence of puncture wounds. Crabs from wave-exposed, high-density sites and smaller crabs both exhibited significantly higher proportions of puncture wounds. Although not statistically significant, laboratory experiments revealed a trend towards a higher incidence of puncture wounds in high-density groups. Wound frequency did not differ between the sexes, so these injuries are not likely a result of intra- or inter-sexual interactions. Puncture wounds were concentrated on claw fingers (either the dactyl or propus), and along the ventral margin of the manus, both of which are likely to be nearest an opponent during shoving interactions. Overall, these data suggest that the claws of P. cinctipes mediate intra-specific competitive interactions that frequently escalate to injury.

A cDNA microarray analysis of the response to heat stress in hepatopancreas tissue of the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes

Intertidal zone organisms experience thermal stress during periods of low tide, and much work has shown that induction of heat shock proteins and ubiquitination occurs in response to this stress. However, less is known of other cellular pathways that are regulated following thermal stress in these organisms. Here, we used a functional genomics approach to identify genes that were up- and downregulated following heat stress in the intertidal porcelain crab, Petrolisthes cinctipes using custom cDNA microarrays made from 13,824 cloned P. cinctipes ESTs representing 6717 unique consensus sequences. Statistically significant differences in gene expression between heat stressed and control groups were determined with R/maanova. Genes upregulated following heat stress were involved with protein folding, protein degradation, protein synthesis and gluconeogenesis, suggesting that heat stress accelerated protein turnover. Genes downregulated following heat stress were involved with detoxification, oxygen transport, oxidative phosphorylation, and lipid metabolism, suggesting that the animals were avoiding the generation of reactive oxygen species. ESTs matching hypothetical proteins and ESTs that had no GenBank match were also found to have been both upregulated and downregulated following heat stress, suggesting that novel genes may be involved in the heat stress response.

Genetic evidence of multiple paternity of broods in the intertidal crab Petrolisthes cinctipes

Investigations of paternity among marine crustaceans are rare, but the few studies of brachyuran crabs that have been done to date suggest that most broods derive from single males. Here I use 2 hypervariable microsatellite loci to genotype a dozen brooded embryos from each of 10 gravid females of the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes (Anomura: Porcellanidae). Based on the number of non-maternal alleles detected among the offspring, at least 1 to 3 males must have fathered each of these broods, and most females were multiply mated. Using a Bayesian approach, I estimate the frequency of multiple mating to be roughly 92.5% in the Bodega Bay population, with a 95% confidence interval of 71 to 100% of females producing broods of multiple paternity.