Cited by 25Physiological and biochemical adaptationsFish Biology and Ecology StudiesComparative Animal Anatomy Studies

Phenotypic flexibility in respiratory traits is associated with improved aerial respiration in an amphibious fish out of water

Open access
Blanchard, T. S., Whitehead, A., Dong, Y. W., Wright, P. A.·2018·Journal of Experimental Biology

Abstract

Amphibious fishes have evolved multiple adaptive strategies for respiring out of water, but there has been less focus on reversible plasticity. We tested the hypothesis that when amphibious fishes leave water, enhanced respiratory performance on land is the result of rapid functional phenotypic flexibility of respiratory traits. We acclimated four isogenic strains of Kryptolebias marmoratus to air for 0, 1, 3 or 7 days. We compared respiratory performance out of water with traits linked to the O2 cascade. Aerial O2 consumption rate was measured over a step-wise decrease in O2 levels. There were significant differences between strains, but time out of water had the largest impact on measured parameters. K. marmoratus had improved respiratory performance (lower aerial critical oxygen tension (Pcrit), higher regulation index (RI)) after only 1 day of air exposure and these changes were strongly associated with the change in hematocrit and dorsal cutaneous angiogenesis. Additionally, we found that 1-hour of air exposure induced the expression of four angiogenesis-associated genes, vegfa, angpt2, pecam-1 and efna1 in the skin. After 7 days in air, respiratory traits were not significantly linked to the variation in either aerial Pcrit or RI. Overall, our data indicate that there are two phases involved in the enhancement of aerial respiration; an initial rapid response (1 day) and a delayed response (7 days). We found evidence for the hypothesis that respiratory performance on land in amphibious fishes is the result of rapid flexibility in both O2 uptake and O2 carrying capacity.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1242/jeb.186486

Cites

84 of 84 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

5 of the 89 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Blanchard, T. S., Whitehead, A., Dong, Y. W., & Wright, P. A.
Affiliations
  • University of Guelph (CA)
  • University of California, Davis (US)
  • State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (CN)
Corresponding author
Whitehead, A.
Venue
Journal of Experimental Biology
Published
2018-01-01
Volume
222
Issue
Pt 2
ISSN
  • 0022-0949 (ISSN-L)
  • 1477-9145
OpenAlex
W2901104813
Cited by
25
References
89
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 6
FWCI
2.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Experimental Biology (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
  • National Science Foundation (OCE-1314567)
  • National Institutes of Health (1R01ES021934-01)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Physiological and biochemical adaptations
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Aquatic Science › Fish Biology and Ecology Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Urology › Comparative Animal Anatomy Studies
Keywords
amphibious fish, aerial respiration, Kryptolebias marmoratus, phenotypic plasticity, air exposure, critical oxygen tension, hematocrit, vascular endothelial growth factor, angiopoietin-2, CD31, ephrin-A1, oxygen cascade, isogenic strains
MeSH terms
Life History Traits, Biological Variation, Individual, Animals, Cyprinodontiformes, Phenotype, Respiration, Ecosystem, Fundulidae

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review