Genome Composition Predicts Physiological Responses to Temperature in Polyploid Salamanders.

AbstractMultitrait analyses can be used to measure the differential performance of phenotypic traits in species complexes. Hybridization within these complexes can result in a mismatch between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA that may lead to reduced performance and acclimation capacity in hybrids. To test the effect of this mismatch on physiology, we compared physiological performance and acclimation capacity of metabolic rate ($\dot{\mathrm{V̇}}{\mathrm{CO}}_2$) and total resistance to water loss (r_T) between two sexual Ambystoma species and a closely related unisexual lineage. We also separated unisexuals by their unique biotypes to determine how physiology varies with subgenomic composition. We found that unisexual biotypes exhibited phenotypes more like their related sexual species than other unisexuals. We also found a trade-off between r_T and $\dot{\mathrm{V̇}}{\mathrm{CO}}_2$, with increasing r_T resulting in a decrease in $\dot{\mathrm{V̇}}{\mathrm{CO}}_2$. Although we did not find evidence for mitonuclear mismatch, our results indicate that the genomic composition of hybrids may be a suitable predictor of hybrid trait performance. Multitrait analyses are imperative for understanding variation in phenotypic diversity, providing insight into how this diversity affects species responses to environmental change.