Do muscle contractile properties drive differences in locomotor performance in invasive populations of Xenopus laevis in
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Do muscle contractile properties drive differences in locomotor performance in invasive populations of Xenopus laevis in France? Pablo Padilla1,2 · Jason Tallis3 · Josh Hurst3 · Julien Courant1 · Rob S. James3 · Anthony Herrel1,4 Received: 28 June 2020 / Revised: 31 August 2020 / Accepted: 9 September 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Jumping and swimming are key locomotor traits in frogs intimately linked to survival and dispersal. French populations of the frog Xenopus laevis from the invasion front are known to possess greater terrestrial locomotor endurance. Here, we tested whether individuals from the invasion front show differences in their muscle physiology that may underlie the observed whole-organism performance differences. We measured muscle contractile properties of the isolated gastrocnemius muscle in vitro, including isometric stress, activation and relaxation time, and work loop power output, both before and during a period of fatiguing contractions. We found that frogs from the centre of the range can produce tetanus force in their gastrocnemius muscle faster than animals from the periphery of the range, which could contribute to higher performance in oneoff jumps. Yet, populations did not differ in muscle endurance. These results, coupled with previous work on this invasive population of Xenopus laevis, suggest that the greater stamina observed in individuals from the periphery may be more due to anatomical differences such as longer hind limbs and larger hearts along with potentially other as of yet untested physiological differences rather than differences in the mechanical properties of skeletal muscle. Keywords Xenopus laevis · Muscle · Frog · Adaptation · Locomotion · Performance
Introduction Whole-organism performance traits are commonly measured as they are fitness-relevant (Arnold 1983; Garland and Losos 1994; Irschick and Garland 2001; Le Galliard et al. 2004; Miles 2004). Among these, locomotor performance has been extensively studied due to its direct implications in predator escape (Husak 2006), territory defence (Husak et al. 2006), Communicated by G. Heldmaier. * Pablo Padilla [email protected] 1
Département Adaptations du Vivant, UMR 7179 C.N.R.S/ M.N.H.N., 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France
2
Laboratory of Ecology and Conservation of Amphibians (LECA), Behavioural Biology Group, U. R. Freshwater and OCeanic Science Unit of reSearch (FOCUS), University of Liège, 22 Quai van Beneden, 4020 Liège, Belgique
3
Centre for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
4
Evolutionary Morphology of Vertebrates, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
prey capture (Irschick and Losos 1998) and dispersal (Courant et al. 2019a). Muscle architecture (Inbar et al. 1981; Vanhooydonck et al. 2006; Lowie et al. 2019), limb dimensions (Losos 1990; Herrel et al. 2008), metabolism (Garland and Else 1987; Coyle 1999; Seebacher and Walter 2012), and muscle contractile properties (J
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