A tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts

Abstract Many organisms faced with seasonally fluctuating abiotic and biotic conditions respond by altering their phenotype to account for the demands of environmental changes. Here we discovered that newts, which switch seasonally between an aquatic and terrestrial lifestyle, grow a complex adhesiv...

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Autores principales:	Egon Heiss, Stephan Handschuh, Peter Aerts, Sam Van Wassenbergh
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/86bcaa6296224676bbd48f1d7b12738d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:86bcaa6296224676bbd48f1d7b12738d2021-12-02T16:06:16ZA tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts10.1038/s41598-017-00674-y2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/86bcaa6296224676bbd48f1d7b12738d2017-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00674-yhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Many organisms faced with seasonally fluctuating abiotic and biotic conditions respond by altering their phenotype to account for the demands of environmental changes. Here we discovered that newts, which switch seasonally between an aquatic and terrestrial lifestyle, grow a complex adhesive system on their tongue pad consisting of slender lingual papillae and mucus-producing cells to increase the efficiency of prey capture as they move from water onto land. The adhesive system is reduced again as newts switch back to their aquatic stage, where they use suction to capture prey. As suction performance is also enhanced seasonally by reshaping of the mouth due to the growth of labial lobes, our results show that newts are exceptional in exhibiting phenotypic flexibility in two alternating components (i.e. tongue pad and labial lobes) within a single functional system, and suggest that this form of phenotypic flexibility demands complex genetic regulation.Egon HeissStephan HandschuhPeter AertsSam Van WassenberghNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Egon Heiss Stephan Handschuh Peter Aerts Sam Van Wassenbergh A tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts
description	Abstract Many organisms faced with seasonally fluctuating abiotic and biotic conditions respond by altering their phenotype to account for the demands of environmental changes. Here we discovered that newts, which switch seasonally between an aquatic and terrestrial lifestyle, grow a complex adhesive system on their tongue pad consisting of slender lingual papillae and mucus-producing cells to increase the efficiency of prey capture as they move from water onto land. The adhesive system is reduced again as newts switch back to their aquatic stage, where they use suction to capture prey. As suction performance is also enhanced seasonally by reshaping of the mouth due to the growth of labial lobes, our results show that newts are exceptional in exhibiting phenotypic flexibility in two alternating components (i.e. tongue pad and labial lobes) within a single functional system, and suggest that this form of phenotypic flexibility demands complex genetic regulation.
format	article
author	Egon Heiss Stephan Handschuh Peter Aerts Sam Van Wassenbergh
author_facet	Egon Heiss Stephan Handschuh Peter Aerts Sam Van Wassenbergh
author_sort	Egon Heiss
title	A tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts
title_short	A tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts
title_full	A tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts
title_fullStr	A tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts
title_full_unstemmed	A tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts
title_sort	tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/86bcaa6296224676bbd48f1d7b12738d
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A tongue for all seasons: extreme phenotypic flexibility in salamandrid newts

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