Lethal fighting in nematodes is dependent on developmental pathway: male-male fighting in the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema longicaudum.

ABSTRACT: Aggressive encounters occur between competitors (particularly males) throughout the animal kingdom, and in some species can result in severe injury and death. Here we describe for the first time lethal interactions between male nematodes and provide evidence that the expression of this behaviour is developmentally controlled. Males of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema longicaudum coil around each other, resulting in injuries, paralysis and frequently death. The probability of death occurring between pairs of males was affected by the developmental pathway followed, being much greater among males that had passed through the infective juvenile (IJ, or dauer) stage than among males that had not. Post-IJ males are found only in newly colonised hosts, typically with few competing males

SUBMITTER: Zenner AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3933430 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature