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Temperature and salinity are important abiotic factors for aquatic invertebrates. We investigated the influence of different salinity regimes on thermotolerance, energy metabolism and cellular stress defense mechanisms in amphipods Gammarus lacustris Sars from two populations. We exposed amphipods to different thermal scenarios and determined their survival as well as activity of major antioxidant enzymes (peroxidase, catalase, glutathione S-transferase) and parameters of energy metabolism (content of glucose, glycogen, ATP, ADP, AMP and lactate). Amphipods from a freshwater population were more sensitive to the thermal challenge, showing higher mortality during acute and gradual temperature change compared to their counterparts from a saline lake. A more thermotolerant population from a saline lake had high activity of antioxidant enzymes. The energy limitations of the freshwater population (indicated by low baseline glucose levels, downward shift of the critical temperature of aerobic metabolism and inability to maintain steady-state ATP levels during warming) was observed, possibly reflecting a trade-off between the energy demands for osmoregulation under the hypo-osmotic condition of a freshwater environment and protection against temperature stress. 

Abstract Animals display tremendous variation in their rates of growth, reproductive output, and longevity. While the physiological and molecular mechanisms that underlie this variation remain poorly understood, the performance of the mitochondrion has emerged as a key player. Mitochondria not only impact the performance of eukaryotes via their capacity to produce ATP, but they also play a role in producing heat and reactive oxygen species and function as a major signaling hub for the cell. The papers included in this special issue emerged from a symposium titled “Inside the Black Box: The Mitochondrial Basis of Life-history Variation and Animal Performance.” Based on studies of diverse animal taxa, three distinct themes emerged from these papers. (1) When linking mitochondrial function to components of fitness, it is crucial that mitochondrial assays are performed in conditions as close as the intracellular conditions experienced by the mitochondria in vivo. (2) Functional plasticity allows mitochondria to retain their performance, as well as that of their host, over a range of exogenous conditions, and selection on mitochondrial and nuclear-derived proteins can optimize the match between the environment and the bioenergetic capacity of the mitochondrion. Finally, (3) studies of wild and wild-derived animals suggest that mitochondria play a central role in animal performance and life history strategy. Taken as a whole, we hope that these papers will foster discussion and inspire new hypotheses and innovations that will further our understanding of the mitochondrial processes that underlie variation in life history traits and animal performance. 

Abstract Eukaryotes are the outcome of an ancient symbiosis and as such, eukaryotic cells fundamentally possess two genomes. As a consequence, gene products encoded by both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes must interact in an intimate and precise fashion to enable aerobic respiration in eukaryotes. This genomic architecture of eukaryotes is proposed to necessitate perpetual coevolution between the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes to maintain coadaptation, but the presence of two genomes also creates the opportunity for intracellular conflict. In the collection of papers that constitute this symposium volume, scientists working in diverse organismal systems spanning vast biological scales address emerging topics in integrative, comparative biology in light of mitonuclear interactions.