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Cold tolerance of the invasive Carcinus maenas in the east Pacific: molecular mechanisms and implications for range expansion in a changing climate

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Abstract

Physiological studies have long been utilized to understand the role of environmental temperature in the distribution of native organisms within marine communities. For the invasive crab Carcinus maenas, temperature has been implicated as the main predictor of establishment success across temperate regions. Therefore, we determined whether the lower temperature tolerances of this non-native crab would restrict it from spreading farther poleward from a relatively new recipient environment. Cold tolerance capacity was determined in the laboratory by holding crabs sampled from Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC)—near the present northern limit for the northeast Pacific metapopulation to an overwintering thermal profile generated from Sitka, Alaska, USA. These crabs were physiologically capable of overwintering north of their present range boundary. The cellular response to cold stress was investigated using two functional categories of the cellular stress response. We measured cyclin D1, a cell-cycle regulator, and Hsp70, a protein chaperone, after laboratory acclimation and acute cold stress on two populations of C. maenas from the west coast of North America that have disparate thermal histories (crabs sampled from CA or BC). We found site-specific differential expression of cyclin D1 after cold acclimation and cold shock, perhaps affecting invasion capacity in this species. Determining what physiological mechanisms are in place with respect to thermal tolerance and preference can give insight into what makes an invasive organism successful and aid in predicting probable distribution of such species within a new environment.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Jason Podrabsky for providing helpful suggestions and laboratory equipment used in the molecular analysis. We would also like to thank Graham Gillespie and Anton Phillips (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) for supplying research animals from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program grant number 220005 to A.L.K. and in-house funds from Portland State University to B.A.B. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Portland State University, 1719 SW 10th Ave, Portland, OR, 97201-0751, USA

    Amanda L. Kelley & Bradley A. Buckley

  2. Environmental Science and Management Program, Portland State University, Portland, OR, 97201-0751, USA

    Catherine E. de Rivera

Authors
  1. Amanda L. Kelley
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  2. Catherine E. de Rivera
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  3. Bradley A. Buckley
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Correspondence to Amanda L. Kelley.

Electronic supplementary material

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Table S1

Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 63 kb)

Table S2

Supplementary material 2 (TIFF 53 kb)

Table S3

Supplementary material 3 (TIFF 63 kb)

Table S4

Supplementary material 4 (TIFF 49 kb)

Fig. S1

Thermogeographic contour map. Depicting C. maenas northern range expansion under the IPCC SRES A1F1 Scenario- an increase of 4˚C by 2100 (TIFF 491 kb)

Fig. S2

A schematic illustration of the thermal scope of cell proliferation. Theorized diagram of cell proliferation during the thermal ramp down treatment based on the control and ramp down levels of cyclin D1 and Hsp70 (TIFF 63 kb)

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Kelley, A.L., de Rivera, C.E. & Buckley, B.A. Cold tolerance of the invasive Carcinus maenas in the east Pacific: molecular mechanisms and implications for range expansion in a changing climate. Biol Invasions 15, 2299–2309 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-013-0454-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-013-0454-7

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