Environmental influence on Pristionchus pacificus mouth form through different culture methods

Abstract Environmental cues can impact development to elicit distinct phenotypes in the adult. The consequences of phenotypic plasticity can have profound effects on morphology, life cycle, and behavior to increase the fitness of the organism. The molecular mechanisms governing these interactions ar...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Michael S. Werner, Bogdan Sieriebriennikov, Tobias Loschko, Suryesh Namdeo, Masa Lenuzzi, Mohannad Dardiry, Tess Renahan, Devansh Raj Sharma, Ralf J. Sommer
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:
R
Q
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/913d8658c7ca4c279d1af3e55cb0a800
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract Environmental cues can impact development to elicit distinct phenotypes in the adult. The consequences of phenotypic plasticity can have profound effects on morphology, life cycle, and behavior to increase the fitness of the organism. The molecular mechanisms governing these interactions are beginning to be elucidated in a few cases, such as social insects. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of systems that are amenable to rigorous experimentation, preventing both detailed mechanistic insight and the establishment of a generalizable conceptual framework. The mouth dimorphism of the model nematode Pristionchus pacificus offers the rare opportunity to examine the genetics, genomics, and epigenetics of environmental influence on developmental plasticity. Yet there are currently no easily tunable environmental factors that affect mouth-form ratios and are scalable to large cultures required for molecular biology. Here we present a suite of culture conditions to toggle the mouth-form phenotype of P. pacificus. The effects are reversible, do not require the costly or labor-intensive synthesis of chemicals, and proceed through the same pathways previously examined from forward genetic screens. Different species of Pristionchus exhibit different responses to culture conditions, demonstrating unique gene-environment interactions, and providing an opportunity to study environmental influence on a macroevolutionary scale.