Chytrids enhance Daphnia fitness by selectively retained chytrid-synthesised stearidonic acid and conversion of short-chain to long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.

ABSTRACT: Chytrid fungal parasites convert dietary energy and essential dietary molecules, such as long-chain (LC) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), from inedible algal/cyanobacteria hosts into edible zoospores. How the improved biochemical PUFA composition of chytrid-infected diet may extend to zooplankton, linking diet quality to consumer fitness, remains unexplored.Here, we assessed the trophic role of chytrids in supporting dietary energy and PUFA requirements of the crustacean zooplankton Daphnia, when feeding on the filamentous cyanobacterium Planktothrix.Only Daphnia feeding on chytrid-infected Planktothrix reproduced successfully and had significantly higher survival and growth rates compared with Daphnia feeding on the sole Planktothrix diet. Whil

SUBMITTER: Abonyi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10099718 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature