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Dryad

Data from: Sensitivity to phosphorus limitation increases with ploidy level in a New Zealand snail

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Nov 29, 2012 version files 79.50 KB

Abstract

Evolutionary and ecological factors that explain natural variation in ploidy level remain poorly understood. One intriguing possibility is that nutrient costs associated with higher per-cell nucleic acid content could differentially influence the fitness of different ploidy levels. Here, we test this hypothesis by determining whether access to phosphorus (P), a main component of nucleic acids, differentially affects growth rate in asexual freshwater snails (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) that differ in ploidy. As expected if larger genomes generate higher dietary P requirements, tetraploid P. antipodarum experienced a more than two-fold greater reduction in growth rate in low- vs. high-P conditions relative to triploids. Mirroring these results, tetraploid P. antipodarum also had a significant reduction in body P content under low P relative to high P, while triploid body P content was unaffected. Taken together, these results set the stage for the possibility that P availability could influence the distribution and relative frequency of P. antipodarum of different ploidy levels. These findings could be applicable to many other animal taxa featuring ploidy-level variation, which includes most mixed sexual/asexual taxa.