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Molecular Mechanisms of Temperature Adaptation in Arctic Ectotherms and Heterotherms

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Effects of Temperature on Ectothermic Organisms

Abstract

The dispersion into and exploitation of the Arctic by northern organisms has been made possible by the evolutionary development of metabolic characteristics which permit the animal to maintain and control its metabolic processes in an environment of low, and sometimes widely changing, temperatures. The molecular mechanisms of adaptation to temperature appear to be exceedingly complex, and a large literature on the subject has accumulated (see Hochachka and Somero, 1971, for a recent review). One of the more outstanding observations in recent years is that numerous physiologic functions in ectotherms are insensitive to temperature (Newell, 1966, 1967; Newell and Northcroft, 1967) and thus there must be mechanisms which permit the animal’s metabolism to remain independent of thermal change. There is a steadily growing literature on the mechanisms possibly responsible.

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Authors
  1. Hans W. Behrisch
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Zoophysiologie der Universität Innsbruck, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Wolfgang Wieser

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Behrisch, H.W. (1973). Molecular Mechanisms of Temperature Adaptation in Arctic Ectotherms and Heterotherms. In: Wieser, W. (eds) Effects of Temperature on Ectothermic Organisms. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65703-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65703-0_10

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