Thyroid hormones regulate the formation and environmental plasticity of white bars in clownfishes.
Pauline Salis, Natacha Roux, Delai Huang, Anna Marcionetti, Pierick Mouginot, Mathieu Reynaud, Océane Salles, Nicolas Salamin, Benoit Pujol, David M Parichy, Serge Planes, Vincent Laudet
Author Information
Pauline Salis: Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer, UMR CNRS 7232 Biologie Intégrative des Organismes Marins, Sorbonne Université Paris, 66650 Banyuls-sur-Mer, France. ORCID
Natacha Roux: Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer, UMR CNRS 7232 Biologie Intégrative des Organismes Marins, Sorbonne Université Paris, 66650 Banyuls-sur-Mer, France. ORCID
Delai Huang: Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903. ORCID
Anna Marcionetti: Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Pierick Mouginot: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris Siences et Lettres Research University, Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, CNRS, USR 3278 Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'environnement, F-66360 Perpignan, France. ORCID
Mathieu Reynaud: Marine Eco-Evo-Devo Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna son, Okinawa 904-0495 Japan. ORCID
Océane Salles: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris Siences et Lettres Research University, Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, CNRS, USR 3278 Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'environnement, F-66360 Perpignan, France.
Nicolas Salamin: Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland. ORCID
Benoit Pujol: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris Siences et Lettres Research University, Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, CNRS, USR 3278 Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'environnement, F-66360 Perpignan, France.
David M Parichy: Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903. ORCID
Serge Planes: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris Siences et Lettres Research University, Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, CNRS, USR 3278 Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'environnement, F-66360 Perpignan, France.
Vincent Laudet: Marine Eco-Evo-Devo Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna son, Okinawa 904-0495 Japan; vincent.laudet@oist.jp.
Determining how plasticity of developmental traits responds to environmental conditions is a challenge that must combine evolutionary sciences, ecology, and developmental biology. During metamorphosis, fish alter their morphology and color pattern according to environmental cues. We observed that juvenile clownfish () modulate the developmental timing of their adult white bar formation during metamorphosis depending on the sea anemone species in which they are recruited. We observed an earlier formation of white bars when clownfish developed with () than with (). As these bars, composed of iridophores, form during metamorphosis, we hypothesized that timing of their development may be thyroid hormone (TH) dependent. We treated clownfish larvae with TH and found that white bars developed earlier than in control fish. We further observed higher TH levels, associated with rapid white bar formation, in juveniles recruited in than in , explaining the faster white bar formation. Transcriptomic analysis of recruits revealed higher expression of , a dual oxidase implicated in TH production as compared to recruits. Finally, we showed that is an essential regulator of iridophore pattern timing in zebrafish. Taken together, our results suggest that TH controls the timing of adult color pattern formation and that shifts in expression and TH levels are associated with ecological differences resulting in divergent ontogenetic trajectories in color pattern development.
