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Journal Molluscan Studies Advance Access originally published online on November 19, 2008
Journal of Molluscan Studies 2009 75(1):9-18; doi:10.1093/mollus/eyn033
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Malacological Society of London, all rights reserved

Heat tolerance in Mediterranean land snails: histopathology after exposure to different temperature regimes

Nils Dittbrenner1, Raimondo Lazzara1, Heinz-R. Köhler1, Christophe Mazzia2, Yvan Capowiez2 and Rita Triebskorn1,3

1Animal Physiological Ecology, University of Tübingen, Konrad-Adenauer-Street 20, D-72072 Tübingen, Germany; 2Laboratoire de Toxicologie Environnementale; UMR ‘Écologie des Invertébrés’ INRA / UAPV, Domaine Saint Paul, F-84914 Avignon cedex 09, France; and 3Steinbeis Transfer-Center for Ecotoxicology and Ecophysiology, Blumenstr. 13, D-72108 Rottenburg, Germany

Correspondence: N. Dittbrenner; e-mail: nilsdittbrenner{at}gmx.de


  Abstract

The physiological and biochemical adaptation mechanisms of heat-tolerant snail species are poorly known. We investigated cellular adaptations to heat stress in four heat-exposed snail populations (two of Xeropicta derbentina, one each of Cernuella virgata and Theba pisana). Snails were exposed to different temperature regimes (25, 33, 38, 40, 43, 45, 48, 50 and 52°C) in the laboratory for 8 h. After exposure, immobility rates were determined and a qualitative and semi-quantitative histopathological analysis of the digestive gland (calcium and digestive cells) and mucocytes in the foot was conducted. In addition, the coloration of the shells was densitometrically determined. The shells of T. pisana were significantly darker than the shells of the other populations. The immobility rates and histopathological examinations showed that X. derbentina (both populations) was slightly better adapted to heat than C. virgata, and much better adapted than T. pisana. The observed differences in heat tolerance seemed to be connected to the ability for rapid and extreme proliferation of calcium cells in the digestive gland.

(Received 26 November 2007; accepted 25 July 2008)


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