Developmental arrest in vent worm embryos

Florence Pradillon, Bruce Shillito, Craig M. Young and Françoise Gaill ()
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Florence Pradillon: Biologie Marine, Unite Mixte de Recherche, Université Pierre et Marie Curie
Bruce Shillito: Biologie Marine, Unite Mixte de Recherche, Université Pierre et Marie Curie
Craig M. Young: Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Françoise Gaill: Biologie Marine, Unite Mixte de Recherche, Université Pierre et Marie Curie

Nature, 2001, vol. 413, issue 6857, 698-699

Abstract: Abstract Temperature is a key factor in controlling the distribution of marine organisms and is particularly important at hydrothermal vents, where steep thermal gradients are present over a scale of centimetres1. The thermophilic worm Alvinella pompejana, which is found at the vents of the East Pacific Rise (2,500-m depth), has an unusually broad thermotolerance (20–80 °C) as an adult2,3, but we show here that the temperature range required by the developing embryo is very different from that tolerated by adults. Our results indicate that early embryos may disperse through cold abyssal water in a state of developmental arrest, completing their development only when they encounter water that is warm enough for their growth and survival.

Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1038/35099674

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