Host specificity and metamorphosis of the glochidium of the freshwater mussel Unio tumidiformis (Bivalvia: Unionidae)
2014
Reis, J., Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal). Centro de Biologia Ambiental | Collares-Pereira, M.J., Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal). Centro de Biologia Ambiental | Araujo, R., Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid (Spain)
The glochidium larvae of freshwater mussels of the family Unionidae need to find suitable hosts to attach themselves and metamorphose into free-living juveniles. The specificity of the host-parasite relationship was investigated for the Iberian Unio tumidiformis by means of experimental infections and also by analyzing naturally infected fish. The process of encapsulation of glochidia was studied using scanning electron microscopy. Unio tumidiformis has proven to be an unusual host-specific unionid mussel, apparently parasitizing only fish of the genus Squalius. Successful encapsulation or complete metamorphosis was observed in five fish taxa: S. aradensis, S. caroliterti, S. pyrenaicus, S. torgalensis and S. alburnoides complex (only for the nuclear hybrids with at least one copy of the S. pyrenaicus genome). Complete metamorphose was achieved in 6 to 14 days at mean temperatures ranging from 21.8 to 26.1 deg C. The current study provides support for cell migration being the main force of cyst formation and shows the influence of potential host's genome in response to the infection process to determine the success of the metamorphosis.
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