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Snails in the sun: Strategies of terrestrial gastropods to cope with hot and dry conditions.

ABSTRACT: Terrestrial gastropods do not only inhabit humid and cool environments but also habitat in which hot and dry conditions prevail. Snail species that are able to cope with such climatic conditions are thus expected to having developed multifaceted strategies and mechanisms to ensure their survival and reproduction under heat and desiccation stress. This review paper aims to provide an integrative overview of the numerous adaptation strategies terrestrial snails have evolved to persist in hot and dry environments as well as their mutual interconnections and feedbacks, but also to outline research gaps and questions that remained unanswered. We extracted relevant information from more than 140 publications in order to show how biochemical, cellular, physiological, morphological, ecological, thermodynamic, and evolutionary parameters contribute to provide an overall picture of this classical example in stress ecology. These mechanisms range from behavioral and metabolic adaptations, including estivation, to the induction of chaperones and antioxidant enzymes, mucocyte and digestive gland cell responses and the modification and frequency of morphological features, particularly shell pigmentation. In this context, thermodynamic constraints call for processes of complex adaptation at varying levels of biological organization that are mutually interwoven. We were able to assemble extensive, mostly narrowly focused information from the literature into a web of network parameters, showing that future work on this subject requires multicausal thinking to account for the complexity of relationships involved in snails' adaptation to insolation, heat, and drought.

SUBMITTER: Schweizer M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6875674 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Snails in the sun: Strategies of terrestrial gastropods to cope with hot and dry conditions.

Schweizer Mona M Triebskorn Rita R Köhler Heinz-R HR

Ecology and evolution 20190930 22

Terrestrial gastropods do not only inhabit humid and cool environments but also habitat in which hot and dry conditions prevail. Snail species that are able to cope with such climatic conditions are thus expected to having developed multifaceted strategies and mechanisms to ensure their survival and reproduction under heat and desiccation stress. This review paper aims to provide an integrative overview of the numerous adaptation strategies terrestrial snails have evolved to persist in hot and d ...[more]

PMID: 31788227

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Project description:Background and aimsFacilitation among plants in water-limited environments (i.e. where evapotranspiration overcomes the availability of water during the growing season) has been considered a local adaptation to water and light conditions. Among cacti, early life-history stages can benefit from the facilitative effects of nurse plants that reduce solar radiation and water stress. However, whether light condition itself acts as an agent of selection through facilitation remains untested. The aim of this study was to determine (1) whether light conditions affect seedling recruitment, (2) whether the positive effect of shade on seedling recruitment is more intense under more stressful conditions and (3) whether shade condition (facilitation) reduces the magnitude of local adaptation on seedling recruitment relative to full sunlight conditions.MethodsA reciprocal transplant experiment, coupled with the artificial manipulation of sun/shade conditions, was performed to test for the effects of local adaptation on germination, seedling survival and growth, using two demes of the columnar cactus Pilosocereus leucocephalus, representing different intensities of stressful conditions.Key resultsFull sunlight conditions reduced recruitment success and supported the expectation of lower recruitment in more stressful environments. Significant local adaptation was mainly detected under full sunlight conditions, indicating that this environmental factor acts as an agent of selection at both sites.ConclusionsThe results supported the expectation that the magnitude of local adaptation, driven by the effects of facilitative nurse plants, is less intense under reduced stressful conditions. This study is the first to demonstrate that sun/shade conditions act as a selective agent accounting for local adaptation in water-limited environments, and that facilitation provided by nurse plants in these environments can attenuate the patterns of local adaptation among plants benefiting from the nurse effect.

Project description:An ample variety of parasitic associations are found between mollusks and nematodes, in which the mollusks may act as intermediate, paratenic or definitive hosts. Some free-living nematodes, in particular those of the order Rhabditida, are also found frequently in terrestrial mollusks. The present study reviews the results of the parasitological testing on samples of terrestrial mollusks conducted at the Brazilian National Reference Laboratory for Schistosomiasis and Malacology between 2008 and 2021. The samples were supplied primarily by the public health authorities from the different regions of Brazil, but also by research institutions and general population. The mollusks were processed individually and the obtained larvae were identified from their morphology and, whenever necessary, by molecular analysis. A total of 1,919 service orders were registered during the period, including 19,758 mollusk specimens collected from 23 of the 26 Brazilian states, as well as the Federal District, totalizing 145 municipalities. There was a marked predominance of the synanthropic species that are widely distributed in Brazil-Achatina fulica (87.08%), Bulimulus tenuissimus (4.18%), Bradybaena similaris (2.06%), and Sarasinula linguaeformis (1.50%). Of the 16,750 terrestrial mollusks examined, nematodes were recorded in 1,308 service orders, with the predominance of the superfamily Metastrongyloidea, in 616 service orders. They included Angiostrongylus cantonensis, rat lungworm, which was found in 252 samples, and Aelurostrongylus abstrusus in 145 samples. Free-living nematodes were found in 952 samples, Ancylostoma caninum and Cruzia tentaculata (previously identified as Strongyluris sp.) in one and 275 samples, respectively, and other parasites in 210 samples (not identified). The results highlight the diversity of the associations between nematodes and terrestrial mollusks in Brazil, in particular invasive and synanthropic species, with emphasis on the giant African land snail, Achatina fulica. They demonstrate the prominent role of this species of mollusk in the transmission of medically-important nematodes, which affect the health of both humans and animals, in particular eosinophilic meningitis, which is caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis. This reinforces the need for more studies, and justify the growing demand for information as well as parasitological diagnosis of this mollusk, given its wide distribution in Brazil and its impact as an urban pest.

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Snails in the sun: Strategies of terrestrial gastropods to cope with hot and dry conditions.

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Snails in the sun: Strategies of terrestrial gastropods to cope with hot and dry conditions.

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