Biol. Bull. Sign up for etocs!
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Shapiro, D. F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Shapiro, D. F.

The Biological Bulletin, Vol 182, Issue 2 221-230, Copyright © 1992 by Marine Biological Laboratory

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

Intercolony Coordination of Zooid Behavior and a New Class of Pore Plates in a Marine Bryozoan

D. F. Shapiro
Section of Ecology and Systematics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853

This paper describes a mixed allorecognition interaction between adjoining colonies of the encrusting cheilostome bryozoan Membranipora membranacea, in which characteristics of both intercolony fusion and intercolony rejection occur simultaneously. Intercolony coordination of zooid behavior was assayed by applying electrical stimuli to one colony of a colony pair while observing the behavior of the adjoining colony. Retraction of feeding structures (lophophores) by the unstimulated colony indicated intercolony coordination of behavior. Naturally occurring and artificially created pairs of genotypically identical and genotypically distinct colonies were examined. Additionally, colony borders were examined for the presence of pore plates, structures that physiologically link zooids within colonies. Contact between genetically identical colonies (isocontact) always resulted in a characteristic border morphology, characteristic pore plates, and intercolony coordination of zooid behavior. Contact between genotypically distinct colonies (allocontact) always resulted in a characteristic border morphology and in the formation of characteristic pore plates of a type never before described. However, only colonies that were young when they first came into contact showed coordinated behavior. Intercolony coordination of zooid behavior is probably the result of neural connections made through pore plates. Intercolony behavioral coordination between young genotypically distinct colonies is peculiar, because the colonies simultaneously show characteristics of physiological integration (coordinated behavior) and tissue rejection (borders and pore plates characteristic of contact between genetically distinct tissues). This interaction shows that the presence of the morphological characteristics of intercolony rejection does not always imply a lack of physiological integration between colonies.




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1992 by the Marine Biological Laboratory.