Pristionchus uniformis, should I stay or should I go? Recent host range expansion in a European nematode.

ABSTRACT: Pristionchus pacificus has been developed as a model system in evolutionary developmental biology, evolutionary ecology, and population genetics. This species has a well-known ecological association with scarab beetles. Generally, Pristionchus nematodes have a necromenic association with their beetle hosts. Arrested dauer larvae invade the insect and wait for the host's death to resume development. Only one Pristionchus species is known to frequently associate with a non-scarab beetle. Pristionchus uniformis has been isolated from the chrysomelid Leptinotarsa decemlineata, also known as the Colorado potato beetle, in Europe and North America, but is also found on scarab beetles. This unusual pattern of association with two unrelated groups of beetles on two continents requires the involvem

SUBMITTER: D'Anna I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3287333 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature