Not all cells are equal: effects of temperature and sex on the size of different cell types in the Madagascar ground gecko Paroedura picta

Abstract

Cell size plays a role in evolutionary and phenotypically plastic changes in body size. To examine this role, we measured the sizes of seven cell types of geckos (Paroedura picta) reared at three constant temperatures (24, 27, and 30°C). Our results show that the cell size varies according to the body size, sex and developmental temperature, but the pattern of this variance depends on the cell type. We identified three groups of cell types, and the cell sizes changed in a coordinated manner within each group. Larger geckos had larger erythrocytes, striated muscle cells and hepatocytes (our first cell group), but their renal proximal tubule cells and duodenal enterocytes (our second cell group), as well as tracheal chondrocytes and epithelial skin cells (our third cell group), were largely unrelated to the body size. For six cell types, we also measured the nuclei and found that larger cells had larger nuclei. The relative sizes of the nuclei were not invariant but varied in a complex manner with temperature and sex. In conclusion, we provide evidence suggesting that changes in cell size might be commonly involved in the origin of thermal and sexual differences in adult size. A recent theory predicts that smaller cells speed up metabolism but demand more energy for their maintenance; consequently, the cell size matches the metabolic demand and supply, which in ectotherms, largely depends on the thermal conditions. The complex thermal dependency of cell size in geckos suggests that further advancements in understanding the adaptive value of cell size requires the consideration of tissue-specific demand/supply conditions.

Keywords

• Life history
• Optimal cell size
• Phenotypic plasticity
• Sexual dimorphism
• Temperature-size rule