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First published online July 20, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 2585-2592 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.002618
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Commentary

Plasticity in arthropod cryotypes

T. C. Hawes and J. S. Bale*

School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: j.s.bale{at}bham.ac.uk)

Accepted 12 March 2007

Low-temperature acclimation and acclimatization produce phenotypic changes in arthropods at multiple levels of biological organization from the molecular to the behavioural. The role and function of plasticity – where a constitutive, reversible change occurs in the phenotype in response to low temperature – may be partitioned hierarchically at evolutionary scales according to cryoprotective strategy, at macrophysiological scales according to climatic variability, and at meso- and micro-scales according to ecological niche and exposure. In correspondence with these scales (which are interdependent rather than mutually exclusive), a hierarchical typology of interaction between thermal history and organism is proposed, descending, respectively, from what we define as `cryotype' (class of cryoprotective strategy) to genotype and, ultimately, phenotype. Alternative (and sometimes complementary) strategies to plasticity include specialization, generalization, bet-hedging, cross-resistance and convergence. The transition of cryotypes from basal to derived states is a continuum of trait optimization, involving the fixation of plasticity and/or its alternatives.

Key words: arthropod, cold tolerance, cryotype, cryoprotection, acclimation, acclimatization, phenotype






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2007