Ectotherms Metabolism: Plasticity and Adaptation

Dear Colleagues,

Since pioneer work on metabolism in first half of twentieth century, metabolic organization (enzyme activities, pathways and network regulation) has been shown to be quite variable among tissues and organisms. The first observations of the impact of environmental conditions (for example temperature or water osmolarity) on metabolism established ectotherms animals as convenient models to reveal adaptations of metabolic phenotypes.  The comparative approach allowed highlighting key responses or adjustments to face the wide range of environments occupied by animals, thus ensuring cellular bioenergetic requirements for life history.  While this approach contributed to draw big pictures of metabolic and bioenergetic strategies, the development of the fields of “evolutionary physiology” and “conservation physiology” in the 90s along with appearance of new omic tools and refinement of traditional tools (microscopy, high resolution respirometry etc.) led to questioning the plasticity and evolvability of metabolic organization.  In this new context, the ectotherms organisms are still champion models to scrutinize the range and mode of adaptation of cellular metabolism. This topic is of paramount importance in the context of global climate changes. We are therefore seeking, in this special issue, for original contributions on the responses of cellular bioenergetic metabolism of ectotherms to environmental gradient or perturbations as well as on putative acclimatory or adaptive responses to these environmental factors.

Prof. Pierre Blier
Dr. Hélène Lemieux
Guest Editors

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