PARENT SESSION
TP6 - Evolutionary Responses to Environmental Change
Chair: Bagley, Mark1, 1 26 West Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Co-chair: Klerks, Paul2, 2 P.O. Box 42451, Lafayette, LA, USA
2:10 PM to 5:30 PM - Tuesday, 19 November 2002
Room Ballroom B
(457) Reproductive Effects of Metals Exposure to Palaemonetes pugio: Influence of Genetics.
Harper-Arabie, Ruth*,1, Wirth, Ed2, Fulton, Mike2, Ross, Philippe1, 1 Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA2 National Ocean Service, Charleston, SC, USA
ABSTRACT- Reproductive effects to organisms can include decreased fecundity and hatching success. These effects may vary among individuals depending on certain factors. For example, the genetic make-up of an organism may override or alter any physiological effect. In this study, P. pugio eggs were collected from a metals contaminated site and a reference site. The fecundity per female was measured and the average percent hatch was determined. In addition, the PGI allozyme genotype was analyzed in all hatched larvae. Using the larval genetic information, the genotypes of the parents were determined. The results indicate that the females collected from the most contaminated site, as evidenced by body burden analysis, had a lower clutch size and a decreased hatching success when compared to the females collected from the reference site. The genetic analysis did indicate that the parents that were both the most common heterozygote had significantly larger clutch sizes than did parents that were both the most common homozygote. The heterozygote genotype has been shown to provide a protective effect in previous experiments, specifically when exposed to acute doses of chromium and in the field during exposures to chronic doses of metals.
Key words: grass shrimp, allozyme, reproductive, fecundity