Life History Responses to Variation in Bacterial Food Sources in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
Datum
2019
Autor:innen
Smith, Alexander Charles
Zeitschriftentitel
ISSN der Zeitschrift
Bandtitel
Verlag
University of Oregon
Zusammenfassung
Obtaining nutrients from the environment is an activity shared among many organisms. The effect of these nutrients on life history traits of organisms can vary depending on their composition or their source, though the metabolic pathways that mediate these responses are highly complex are not fully understood. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a candidate model to study the varying effects that changes in bacterial food sources might have on development, reproduction, lifespan, and other life history traits. I assessed whether a panel of natural isolate bacteria species produced any identifiable changes to life history traits of a population of nematodes and discovered that species Comamonas aquatica and Comamonas testosteroni produce the most dramatic change to development time. Further investigation of these two bacteria species and their effect on nematode offspring counts showed that they both produced reduced offspring numbers, and the pattern of change in response to environmental temperature is not consistent with the pattern observed in standard laboratory conditions. These results suggest that changes in diet can have implications to development, but that this change comes with a tradeoff to reproductive capability. Changes in nutrient composition will likely be a factor in tradeoffs in life history traits of organisms of varying complexity.
Beschreibung
35 pages
Schlagwörter
Biology, Caenorhabditis Elegans, Life History, Bacteria, Development, Fecundity