The cost and benefits in an unusual symbiosis: experimental evidence that bitterling fish (Rhodeus sericeus) are parasites of unionid mussels in Europe

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Authors

REICHARD Martin ONDRAČKOVÁ Markéta PRZYBYLSKI Miroslaw LIU H. SMITH Carl

Year of publication 2006
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Journal of Evolutionary Biology
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Field Zoology
Keywords bitterling; Unionidae; glochidia; coevolution
Description We investigated the nature of the relationship between European bitterling (Rhodeus sericeus), a freshwater fish, and unionid mussels that are used by R. sericeus for oviposition. The growth rate of the European mussel, Unio pictorum, that were heavily infected with R. sericeus embryos was significantly lower than a control group of U. pictorum that hosted low numbers of bitterling embryos. This effect persisted throughout the entire season of mussel growth. In contrast, we detected no reduction in the growth rates of Anodonta woodiana, an Asian species of mussel with a long evolutionary history with bitterling, when exposed to R. sericeus embryos. A. woodiana appeared to escape a growth cost by ejecting R. sericeus embryos prematurely.
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