Losing Nemo, the clownfish fails to genetically adapt to environmental changes

    Losing Nemo, the clownfish fails to genetically adapt to environmental changes

    Nemo, the clownfish is in danger of extinction: it is unable to genetically adapt to environmental changes, a study shows.

    Nemo, the clownfish who became famous thanks to the success of Pixar, he continues to be in danger. A research by the Center for Biological Diversity had already revealed this, accusing the acidification of the oceans and the global warming, and now this is confirmed by a team of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) which, together with other scientists, has been examining for over 10 years the clownfish that live among the tentacles of sea anemones on the island of Kimbe, al off eastern Papua New Guinea.





    Research has shown that these fish they lack the genetic ability to adapt to rapid changes in their environment, threatened by the warming of the seas, pollution and human intrusion, factors that have also negatively affected corals, on which they partly depend to survive.

    The problem is that the reproductive cycle of clownfish is highly dependent on a stable and benign environment. And it goes without saying that without adequate reproduction, clownfish face extinction, subjected to too severe environmental adaptation challenges, as explained by Benoit Poujol, one of the researchers involved:

    "The reproductive success of a population is given by the ability to adapt and the clownfish has a particular reproductive cycle and whose conditions are in a stable environment."

    Poujol further explained to AFP that each anemone hosts a female fish, a sexually active male, and other non-sexually active males, and that when the female dies, the male becomes female and the largest of the non-sexually active males becomes active. But if there are limitations in the surrounding environment, "the clown fish does not have the genetic makeup that allows it to change this reproductive cycle". And so it risks becoming extinct.

    In fact, the researchers discovered, through a huge effort of DNA sampling and sequencing, that large families of clownfish, lived for many generations, were linked to high-quality habitats, rather than to shared genes.

    Ultimately, genetic adaptation appears to be unable to protect clownfish from the effects of climate change on its habitat and this means it could become extinct completely. Especially if the anemones, on which 50% of their survival depends as they often live in symbiosis, were to suffer more and more negatively from the changes, as in fact is already happening.



    The only possibility of salvation depends at this point on our ability to intervene in time on the habitat of these animals, preserving it from the harmful effects of global warming.

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