Abstract
Variation in melanin patterns among individuals, populations, and species is common in fishes of the genus Xiphophorus. In the variable platyfish, Xiphophorus variatus, variation in metabolic rate is associated with melanin coloration and the color morphs appear to be physiological specialists adapted to particular environmental conditions. This study investigates whether a melanin polymorphism in the green swordtail, Xiphophorus helleri, is likewise associated with variation in metabolic rate. We measured metabolic rate as oxygen consumption rate of both adult male and juvenile X. helleri in static respirometers. The oxygen consumption rate does not differ significantly between the spotted and nonspotted morphs in either group, suggesting that-unlike in X. variatus-selection on metabolic rate is not involved in maintaining the polymorphism in X. helleri. We suggest that explanations need to be sought for the evolution of melanophore diversity in Xiphophorus that are pertinent to each melanin pattern polymorphism or groups of similar polymorphisms.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Julie Roessig for her assistance in the laboratory and the Belize Fisheries Ministry for permission to collect fish in Belize. Rosemary Grant, Henry Horn, Alistair McGregor, and three anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was funded in part by a National Science Foundation grant DEB-0407923 to CIM. J.J.C. was partially supported by the University of California Agricultural Station (grant no. 3455-H) and C.I.M. was supported by a fellowship from the Graduate School of Princeton University. The experiments carried out in this study complied with the current laws of the United States of America.
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Meyer, C.I., Kaufman, R. & Cech, J.J. Melanin pattern morphs do not differ in metabolic rate: implications for the evolutionary maintenance of a melanophore polymorphism in the green swordtail, Xiphophorus helleri . Naturwissenschaften 93, 495–499 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0134-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0134-x