Sizes of larvae from 4-11 days post-fertilization from experiments investigating heat priming in Nematostella vectensis

Across diverse taxa, sublethal exposure to abiotic stressors early in life can lead to benefits such as increased stress tolerance upon repeat exposure. This phenomenon, known as hormetic priming, is largely unexplored in early life stages of marine invertebrates, which are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic climate change. To investigate this phenomenon, larvae of the sea anemone and model marine invertebrate Nematostella vectensis were exposed to control (18 °C) or elevated (24 °C, 30 °C, 35 °C, or 39 °C) temperatures for 1 hour at 3 days post-fertilization (DPF), followed by return to control temperatures (18 °C). The animals were then assessed for growth, development, metabolic rates, and heat tolerance at 4, 7, and 11 DPF. To investigate a possible molecular mechanism for the observed changes in heat tolerance, the expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) was quantified at 11 DPF. The study's findings suggest heat priming may augment the climate resilience of marine invertebrate early life stages via the modulation of key developmental and physiological phenotypes, while also affirming the need to limit further anthropogenic ocean warming.

This dataset includes data pertaining to the sizes of larvae from 4-11 DPF. See related datasets for other results from these experiments. These data and results are published in Glass et al. (2023) (DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16574).