Affiliation:
1. Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 3520 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Abstract
SUMMARY
Flatfishes, such as flounder, are the world's most asymmetric vertebrates. It is unknown if the development of lateralized swimming behavior during metamorphosis is an adaptive response to bilaterally asymmetric eye positioning, or if this results from a vestibular response to thyroid hormone. This study describes larval development in left-sided, right-sided and bilaterally symmetric variants of southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma). Behavior and skull asymmetries precede metamorphosis, and the development of lateralized behaviors was independent of eye position in larvae treated with thyroid hormone and in symmetrical variants. Therefore,lateralized behavior is not an adaptive response to eye translocation, but rather must result from changing vestibular responses to thyroid hormone.
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Subject
Insect Science,Molecular Biology,Animal Science and Zoology,Aquatic Science,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference48 articles.
1. Brewster, B. (1987). Eye migration and cranial development during flatfish metamorphosis: a reappraisal (Teleostei:Pleuronectiformes). J. Fish Biol.31,805-833.
2. Brown, D. D. (1997). The role of thyroid hormone in zebrafish and axolotl development. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA94,13011-13016.
3. Brown, D. D., Cai, L., Das, B., Marsh-Armstrong, N., Schreiber,A. M. and Juste, R. (2005). Thyroid hormone controls multiple independent programs required for limb development in Xenopus laevismetamorphosis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA102,12455-12458.
4. Daniels, H. V. (2000). Species profile:southern flounder. Southern Regional Aquaculture Center Publication No. 726. Florida: SRAC.
5. Daniels, H. V. and Watanabe, W. O. (2003). A Practical Hatchery Manual: Production of Southern Flounder Fingerlings. North Carolina: North Carolina Sea Grant.