TY - JOUR
T1 - A high-throughput method to quantify feeding rates in aquatic organisms
T2 - A case study with Daphnia
AU - Hite, Jessica L.
AU - Pfenning-Butterworth, Alaina C.
AU - Vetter, Rachel E.
AU - Cressler, Clayton E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to the Hall lab for providing Daphnia genotypes and to members of the Montooth lab for methodological support. JLH was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F32GM128246 and by funding from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Funding Information:
We are grateful to the Hall lab for providing genotypes and to members of the Montooth lab for methodological support. JLH was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F32GM128246 and by funding from the University of Nebraska‐Lincoln. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Daphnia
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - Food ingestion is one of the most basic features of all organisms. However, obtaining precise—and high-throughput—estimates of feeding rates remains challenging, particularly for small, aquatic herbivores such as zooplankton, snails, and tadpoles. These animals typically consume low volumes of food that are time-consuming to accurately measure. We extend a standard high-throughput fluorometry technique, which uses a microplate reader and 96-well plates, as a practical tool for studies in ecology, evolution, and disease biology. We outline technical and methodological details to optimize quantification of individual feeding rates, improve accuracy, and minimize sampling error. This high-throughput assay offers several advantages over previous methods, including i) substantially reduced time allotments per sample to facilitate larger, more efficient experiments; ii) technical replicates; and iii) conversion of in vivo measurements to units (mL-1 hr-1 ind-1) which enables broad-scale comparisons across an array of taxa and studies. To evaluate the accuracy and feasibility of our approach, we use the zooplankton, Daphnia dentifera, as a case study. Our results indicate that this procedure accurately quantifies feeding rates and highlights differences among seven genotypes. The method detailed here has broad applicability to a diverse array of aquatic taxa, their resources, environmental contaminants (e.g., plastics), and infectious agents. We discuss simple extensions to quantify epidemiologically relevant traits, such as pathogen exposure and transmission rates, for infectious agents with oral or trophic transmission.
AB - Food ingestion is one of the most basic features of all organisms. However, obtaining precise—and high-throughput—estimates of feeding rates remains challenging, particularly for small, aquatic herbivores such as zooplankton, snails, and tadpoles. These animals typically consume low volumes of food that are time-consuming to accurately measure. We extend a standard high-throughput fluorometry technique, which uses a microplate reader and 96-well plates, as a practical tool for studies in ecology, evolution, and disease biology. We outline technical and methodological details to optimize quantification of individual feeding rates, improve accuracy, and minimize sampling error. This high-throughput assay offers several advantages over previous methods, including i) substantially reduced time allotments per sample to facilitate larger, more efficient experiments; ii) technical replicates; and iii) conversion of in vivo measurements to units (mL-1 hr-1 ind-1) which enables broad-scale comparisons across an array of taxa and studies. To evaluate the accuracy and feasibility of our approach, we use the zooplankton, Daphnia dentifera, as a case study. Our results indicate that this procedure accurately quantifies feeding rates and highlights differences among seven genotypes. The method detailed here has broad applicability to a diverse array of aquatic taxa, their resources, environmental contaminants (e.g., plastics), and infectious agents. We discuss simple extensions to quantify epidemiologically relevant traits, such as pathogen exposure and transmission rates, for infectious agents with oral or trophic transmission.
KW - Daphnia
KW - High-throughput
KW - aquatic herbivore
KW - consumer–resource
KW - environmental contaminants
KW - exposure rates
KW - feeding rates
KW - ingestion rates
KW - predator–prey
KW - transmission
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088413887&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85088413887&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/ece3.6352
DO - 10.1002/ece3.6352
M3 - Article
C2 - 32724510
AN - SCOPUS:85088413887
VL - 10
SP - 6239
EP - 6245
JO - Ecology and Evolution
JF - Ecology and Evolution
SN - 2045-7758
IS - 13
ER -