A multi-tasking stomach: functional coexistence of acid-peptic digestion and defensive body inflation in three distantly related vertebrate lineages

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2022

Authors

Ferreira, P (Author) Other; Kwan, GT (Author) Other; Haldorson, S (Author) Other; Rummer, JL (Author) Other; Tashiro, F (Author) Other; Filipe F C Castro (Author) FCUP; Tresguerres, M (Author) Other; Wilson, JM (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Biology Letters

Vol. 18

ISSN: 1744-9561

Publisher: The Royal Society

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 2 Citations

Scopus - 2 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00W-2PB

DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0583

Abstract (EN): Puffer and porcupine fishes (families Diodontidae and Tetraodontidae, order Tetradontiformes) are known for their extraordinary ability to triple their body size by swallowing and retaining large amounts of seawater in their accommodating stomachs. This inflation mechanism provides a defence to predation; however, it is associated with the secondary loss of the stomach's digestive function. Ingestion of alkaline seawater during inflation would make acidification inefficient (a potential driver for the loss of gastric digestion), paralleled by the loss of acid-peptic genes. We tested the hypothesis of stomach inflation as a driver for the convergent evolution of stomach loss by investigating the gastric phenotype and genotype of four distantly related stomach inflating gnathostomes: sargassum fish, swellshark, bearded goby and the pygmy leatherjacket. Strikingly, unlike in the puffer/porcupine fishes, we found no evidence for the loss of stomach function in sargassum fish, swellshark and bearded goby. Only the pygmy leatherjacket (Monochanthidae, Tetraodontiformes) lacked the gastric phenotype and genotype. In conclusion, ingestion of seawater for inflation, associated with loss of gastric acid secretion, is restricted to the Tetraodontiformes and is not a selective pressure for gastric loss in other reported gastric inflating fishes.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6