Further to exploring the induction of RCH under gradual cooling

and model thermoperiodic cycle regimes, the limits of RCH were investigated. In juvenile and mature larvae, the LLT was lowered by 6.5 and 2.5 °C, respectively, and in mature larvae alone, survival Selleck 3Methyladenine above 80% was exhibited even after 22 h at the DTemp (−12.5 °C). It is therefore evident that the larvae of E. murphyi possess a very strong RCH response. This is in contrast to most other species, in which survival is extended for, at most, 10 h at the DTemp and to temperatures just 2–3 °C below it ( Bale, 2002). For example, RCH in the mite, Euseius finlandicus, lengthened the LTime50 by only 1 h 15 min ( Broufas and Koveos, 2001), whilst in L. migratoria, the change was similarly small, increasing the LTime50 by just 2 h and reducing the LTemp50 from

−10 to −12 °C ( Wang and Kang, 2003). While our data principally provide evidence of the occurrence and strength of RCH in E. murphyi, they also indicate the thresholds which govern the response. The first is temperature. In mature larvae, RCH was not induced at 0 °C ( Fig. 3), and only slightly at −1 °C ( Fig. 6), while a much stronger response was induced at −3 ( Fig. 7) and −5 °C ( Fig. 3). An even lower induction temperature was required by juvenile larvae, which failed to respond after a 0 or a −5 °C, pre-treatment ( Fig. 3). It makes sense for the induction temperature of RCH in E. murphyi to be below 0 °C, and therefore lower than

that found in temperate species, as otherwise it would be continually induced in the Antarctic terrestrial learn more environments, which would be energetically costly. The second threshold is time. In mature larvae pre-treated at −5 °C for 10 min (data not shown), survival was significantly lower than in those pre-treated at −5 °C for 1 h. This is a clear indication that time is required for the protection afforded by RCH to increase (cf. Powell and Bale, 2004). The absence of a response after 1 d at −3 °C, but presence after the following 2 days at this temperature find more also supports this hypothesis (Fig. 7). The third and final threshold is freezing. It was already known from the Anchorage Island thermoperiod data that RCH was induced at −3 °C, which is above the SCP of mature larvae, and is thus not dependent on the freezing event itself (“freeze-induced hardening”), but it was not known if RCH could be induced in a frozen organism. When the survival of mature larvae at the DTemp was compared between those just frozen and those an hour after freezing at −7 °C, there was no significant difference between the two treatments. These data suggest that freezing defines the absolute limit of RCH accruement in E. murphyi. This is in contrast to a study by Teets et al. (2008), which showed RCH to occur in frozen B. antarctica at a cellular, and possibly also a whole organism, level.