Abstract
Threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) fished from different areas of the Camargue were studied and challenged to various salinity conditions. Blood osmotic pressures for fish kept in FW (5‰), BW (15‰) and SW (30‰) were different (147, 457 and 911 mOsm kg-1, respectively). However, oxygen consumption results revealed similar values for fish collected from the seawater Marteau lagoon (SW), the freshwater Versadou canal (FW) and the mesohaline/brackish water Vaccarès lagoon (BW). Therefore, sticklebacks of the Camargue can rapidly acclimate to different salinity conditions and move freely among these different habitats with limited energy expenditure. For sticklebacks from the Vaccarès lagoon, a significant reduction in O2 consumption rate occurred immediately after transfer to FW and up to 1h after transfer. The branchial Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA) activity of sticklebacks collected from the SW Marteau lagoon directly transferred from SW to FW, revealed a significant increase 24 h and 48 h after transfer (28% and 40%, respectively). However, gill NKA activity was significantly decreased by 36% within 24 h following immediate transfer to SW.Body morphology of sticklebacks was also studied but limited morphological variations could be observed for fish collected from different habitats. The average lateral plate number is 4.45±0.31. However, a significant morphological difference is observed for gill rakers.NKA labeling on histological sections revealed different ionocyte morphologies. In the gills of FW sticklebacks, ionocytes were observed along the gill filaments as well as the gill lamellae. Ionocytes were only identified along the gill filaments for SW fish. For SW fish, the ionocytes were round in shape and slightly smaller than the ionocytes of the FW fish. The ionocytes of the FW fish along the gill filaments were elongated but ionocytes along the gill lamellae were flattened and wider. Ionocytes were also twice more numerous for FW fish compared to SW fish.Also, two types of ionocyte were identified in FW fish: cells with an apical dome shape and ionocytes with a honeycomb-like structure. All these cell types were confirmed as ionocytes due to their internal structures filled with numerous mitochondria and a dense tubulo-vesicular system, with deeply invaginated basal membrane. In SW-acclimated fish, only ionocytes with a large apical crypt were observed along the gill filaments at the base of the gill lamellae. No ionocytes could be observed along the gill lamellae.Relative NKA α1 mRNA expression was higher in the gills of SW acclimated fish compared to BW fish and NKA α1b was significantly overexpressed in the gills of SW acclimated fish compared to the FW and BW fish. However, for NKAα1a, mRNA relative gene expressions in the gills are not different due to salinity. Whereas, for CFTR and V-ATPase expression, we did not find any significant difference. On the other hand, NKCC1 was significantly higher in SW acclimated sticklebacks.For sticklebacks kept in FW and for those acclimated to SW, analyses of histological sections from the kidney and NKA immunolabeling of the kidney proximal tubules revealed no difference. For the intestine, a strong immunofluorescence was observed along the basolateral membranes of the enterocytes for both the anterior and posterior intestine of FW and SW-acclimated sticklebacks but, again, we did not observe any difference due to salinity conditions. These results suggest a high level of plasticity for these organs.Altogether, these results indicate that sticklebacks of the Camargue area are morphologically and physiologically homogenous and have strong euryhaline capacities. Some differences were identified however for the gill rakers between fish collected from the FW and mesohaline / euryhaline habitats most probably due to different feeding regimes. Therefore, these fish populations may not mix even if the different Camargue aquatic environments are interconnected.