The entire team of Dr Szymon Śniegula participated in the 9th Polish Evolutionary Conference in Krakow. The lecture panels were accompanied by a poster session, where our post-doc, Dr Guillaume Wos, presented his poster.
Place: 9th Polish Evolutionary Conference, INoŚ UJ Kraków, 18-20.10.2023
Team: dr Guillaume Wos (prezenter) / Wos G, Gemma Palomar, Marzena Marszałek, Wiesław Babik & Szymon Sniegula
Title: Phenotypic and gene expression differences in coping with temperature and an invasive alien predator along a latitudinal gradient in damselflies
Abstract:
Understanding and predicting how organisms respond to environmental changes has become a major concern in conservation biology. Here, we tested whether a freshwater insect, the damselfly Ischnura elegans collected at different latitudes, central- (southern Poland) and high-latitude (southern Sweden), responded in a similar way to two factors related to human activities, warming and an invasive alien predator. For this, damselfly larvae were exposed to two experimental treatments in a crossed design. A temperature treatment: current (20 °C) and mild warming temperature (24 °C) corresponding to the average temperature increase by the end of the century according to IPCC (RCP8.5 scenario). And a predator treatment: presence or absence of an invasive alien predator cue released by the spiny-cheek crayfish Faxonius limosus reported in Poland but not in Sweden to date. At the end of the experiment, we measured several phenotypic traits (growth rate, development time, body size and mass) and collected samples for a gene expression analysis. Central-latitude individuals had a shorter development and a faster growth compared to high-latitude individuals when exposed to mild warming temperature and a predator cue, revealing complex relationships linking phenotype and environment. Transcriptome analysis revealed that metabolic pathways related to larval anatomy and development tended to be upregulated in response to mild warming, especially in central-latitudes. And those linked to oxidative stress tended to be downregulated in response to a predator cue, especially in central-latitude individuals. Altogether, our results provide insights into how organisms of different origins may respond to future anthropogenic changes.