Physiological basis of extreme growth rate differences in the spat of oyster (Crassostrea gigas)

Type Article
Date 2014-07
Language English
Author(s) Tamayo David1, 2, Ibarrola Irrintzi1, Urrutxurtu Inaki1, Navarro Enrique1
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ Pais Vasco Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Dept GAFFA Anim Physiol, Fac Ciencias & Tecnol, Bilbao 48080, Spain.
2 : Ifremer, Unité de Recherche Physiologie Fonctionnelle des Organismes Marins, Laboratoire des Sciences de l´Environnement Marin (UMR 65 39 LEMAR), ZI de la Pointe du Diable, CS 10070, 29280 Plouzané, France
Source Marine Biology (0025-3162) (Springer), 2014-07 , Vol. 161 , N. 7 , P. 1627-1637
DOI 10.1007/s00227-014-2447-1
WOS© Times Cited 21
Abstract Juvenile oysters (Crassostrea gigas) (produced in November 2009) reared under uniform hatchery conditions for 4 months were selected for extreme growth rate differences by repeatedly taking larger and smaller individuals to achieve weight differences > 30x between fast (F) and slow (S) growers. The physiological basis of differential growth was analyzed in experiments in June 2010, where components of energy gain (clearance and ingestion rates and absorption efficiency), energy loss (metabolic rates) and resulting scope for growth (J h(-1)) were compared for groups of F and S oysters fed three different ration levels (a parts per thousand 0.5, 1.5 and 3.0 mg of total particulate matter L-1). In both F and S oysters, a higher food ration promoted asymptotic increases in energy gain rates through regulatory adjustments to clearance rates, which maintained similar absorption efficiencies across the food concentrations. No significant differences were found between growth groups in mass-specific physiological rates (i.e., per unit of body mass). However, the scaling of these rates to a common size in both groups using allometric coefficients derived for C. gigas revealed higher energy gain rates coupled with lower metabolic costs of growth in fast growers. Thus, appropriate size-standardization is essential in accounting for observed differences in growth rate. Present results are in accordance with previous reports on other bivalve species on the physiological processes underlying endogenous growth differences, suggesting that the same interpretation can be applied to the extremes of these differences.
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