THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BEHAVIORAL-RESPONSES TO TEMPERATURE AND GENOTYPE AT A PGI LOCUS IN THE TERRESTRIAL ISOPOD PORCELLIO-LAEVIS

Genetic polymorphisms at individual enzyme loci have been widely studied. The relevance of the variation often however remains unexplained. Phosphoglucose isomerase or PGI is one enzyme that has received a large amount of attention in this regard with numerous reports of relationships between environmental variables (especially temperature) and PGI polymorphisms common in the literature. This study examines PGI variation in a common species of isopod in Australia (Porcellio laevis) and relates it to individual responses in imposed (stressful) and natural (choice) temperature conditions. Highly significant relationships are reported between allele/genotype and response of individuals with the PGI-S allele favoured in 'cool' conditions in the choice experiments and the PGI-F allele favoured in the stress experiments where individuals are exposed to 0-degrees-C for a short period of time.