Morphological plasticity of silica scales of Synura echinulata (Synurophyceae) in crossed gradients of light and temperature - a geometric morphometric approach.
Abstract
Phenotypic plasticity is the phenomenon of a genotype producing different phenotypes in response to different environmental conditions, and is a ubiquitous aspect of organisms. In this study we used geometric morphometrics to describe qualitatively and quantitatively phenotypic plasticity of Synura echinulata silica scales cultured at four combinations of light intensity and temperature.
Relative warps analysis revealed that the most important morphological trends were the disproportionality of distal and proximal parts of the scale, and the extent of the anterior labyrinthic pattern. All the groups of scales investigated differed significantly in shape.
Silica scales of S. echinulata exhibited considerable environmentally induced plasticity, but taxonomically relevant characters remained unchanged.