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First published online January 18, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 391-400 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.013169

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Scaling of metabolism in Helix aspersa snails: changes through ontogeny and response to selection for increased size

Marcin Czarnoski^1,*, Jan Kozowski¹, Guillaume Dumiot², Jean-Claude Bonnet³, Jacques Mallard⁴ and Mathilde Dupont-Nivet²

¹ Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland
² INRA, UR 544, Unité de Génétique des Poissons, F-78350 Jouy en Josas, France
³ INRA, Unité Héliciculture, BP 52, F-17700 Surgres, France
⁴ ENSAR, Direction Scientifique, F-35042 Rennes Cedex, France

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: marcin.czarnoleski{at}uj.edu.pl)

Accepted 20 November 2007

Though many are convinced otherwise, variability of the size-scaling of metabolism is widespread in nature, and the factors driving that remain unknown. Here we test a hypothesis that the increased expenditure associated with faster growth increases metabolic scaling. We compare metabolic scaling in the fast- and slow-growth phases of ontogeny of Helix aspersa snails artificially selected or not selected for increased adult size. The selected line evolved larger egg and adult sizes and a faster size-specific growth rate, without a change in the developmental rate. Both lines had comparable food consumption but the selected snails grew more efficiently and had lower metabolism early in ontogeny. Attainment of lower metabolism was accompanied by decreased shell production, indicating that the increased growth was fuelled partly at the expense of shell production. As predicted, the scaling of oxygen consumption with body mass was isometric or nearly isometric in the fast-growing (early) ontogenetic stage, and it became negatively allometric in the slow-growing (late) stage; metabolic scaling tended to be steeper in selected (fast-growing) than in control (slow-growing) snails; this difference disappeared later in ontogeny. Differences in metabolic scaling were not related to shifts in the scaling of metabolically inert shell. Our results support the view that changes in metabolic scaling through ontogeny and the variability of metabolic scaling between organisms can be affected by differential growth rates. We stress that future approaches to this phenomenon should consider the metabolic effects of cell size changes which underlie shifts in the growth pattern.

Key words: metabolism, growth rate, 3/4 power law, life history, allometry, cost of growth, body size, experimental evolution, growth efficiency, bioenergetics, food consumption, cell size, Bertalanffy's theory, metabolic theory

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