Dataset Information

Caenorhabditis nematodes colonize ephemeral resource patches in neotropical forests.

ABSTRACT: Factors shaping the distribution and abundance of species include life-history traits, population structure, and stochastic colonization-extinction dynamics. Field studies of model species groups help reveal the roles of these factors. Species of Caenorhabditis nematodes are highly divergent at the sequence level but exhibit highly conserved morphology, and many of these species live in sympatry on microbe-rich patches of rotten material. Here, we use field experiments and large-scale opportunistic collections to investigate species composition, abundance, and colonization efficiency of Caenorhabditis species in two of the world's best-studied lowland tropical field sites: Barro Colorado Island in Panamá and La Selva in Sarapiquí, Costa Rica. We observed seven species of Caenorhabditis, four of them known only from these collections. We formally describe two species and place them within the Caenorhabditis phylogeny. While these localities contain species from many parts of the phylogeny, both localities were dominated by globally distributed androdiecious species. We found that Caenorhabditis individuals were able to colonize baits accessible only through phoresy and preferentially colonized baits that were in direct contact with the ground. We estimate the number of colonization events per patch to be low.

SUBMITTER: Sloat SA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9309040 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

<i>Caenorhabditis</i> nematodes colonize ephemeral resource patches in neotropical forests.

Sloat Solomon A SA Noble Luke M LM Paaby Annalise B AB Bernstein Max M Chang Audrey A Kaur Taniya T Yuen John J Tintori Sophia C SC Jackson Jacqueline L JL Martel Arielle A Salome Correa Jose A JA Stevens Lewis L Kiontke Karin K Blaxter Mark M Rockman Matthew V MV

Ecology and evolution 20220724 7

Factors shaping the distribution and abundance of species include life-history traits, population structure, and stochastic colonization-extinction dynamics. Field studies of model species groups help reveal the roles of these factors. Species of <i>Caenorhabditis</i> nematodes are highly divergent at the sequence level but exhibit highly conserved morphology, and many of these species live in sympatry on microbe-rich patches of rotten material. Here, we use field experiments and large-scale opp ...[more]

PMID: 35898425

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Project description:Although most unicellular organisms reproduce asexually, most multicellular eukaryotes are obligately sexual. This implies that there are strong barriers that prevent the origin or maintenance of asexuality arising from an obligately sexual ancestor. By studying rare asexual animal species we can gain a better understanding of the circumstances that facilitate their evolution from a sexual ancestor. Of the known asexual animal species, many originated by hybridization between two ancestral sexual species. The balance hypothesis predicts that genetic incompatibilities between the divergent genomes in hybrids can modify meiosis and facilitate asexual reproduction, but there are few instances where this has been shown. Here we report that hybridizing two sexual Caenorhabditis nematode species (C. nouraguensis females and C. becei males) alters the normal inheritance of the maternal and paternal genomes during the formation of hybrid zygotes. Most offspring of this interspecies cross die during embryogenesis, exhibiting inheritance of a diploid C. nouraguensis maternal genome and incomplete inheritance of C. becei paternal DNA. However, a small fraction of offspring develop into viable adults that can be either fertile or sterile. Fertile offspring are produced asexually by sperm-dependent parthenogenesis (also called gynogenesis or pseudogamy); these progeny inherit a diploid maternal genome but fail to inherit a paternal genome. Sterile offspring are hybrids that inherit both a diploid maternal genome and a haploid paternal genome. Whole-genome sequencing of individual viable worms shows that diploid maternal inheritance in both fertile and sterile offspring results from an altered meiosis in C. nouraguensis oocytes and the inheritance of two randomly selected homologous chromatids. We hypothesize that hybrid incompatibility between C. nouraguensis and C. becei modifies maternal and paternal genome inheritance and indirectly induces gynogenetic reproduction. This system can be used to dissect the molecular mechanisms by which hybrid incompatibilities can facilitate the emergence of asexual reproduction.

Dataset Information

Caenorhabditis nematodes colonize ephemeral resource patches in neotropical forests.

Publications

<i>Caenorhabditis</i> nematodes colonize ephemeral resource patches in neotropical forests.

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