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Acanthamoeba and Dictyostelium Use Different Foraging Strategies.

ABSTRACT: Amoeba often use cell movement as a mechanism to find food, such as bacteria, in their environment. The chemotactic movement of the soil amoeba Dictyostelium to folate or other pterin compounds released by bacteria is a well-documented foraging mechanism. Acanthamoeba can also feed on bacteria but relatively little is known about the mechanism(s) by which this amoeba locates bacteria. Acanthamoeba movement in the presence of folate or bacteria was analyzed in above agar assays and compared to that observed for Dictyostelium. The overall mobility of Acanthamoeba was robust like that of Dictyostelium but Acanthamoeba did not display a chemotactic response to folate. In the presence of bacteria, Acanthamoeba only showed a marginal bias in directed movement whereas Dictyostelium displayed a strong chemotactic response. A comparison of genomes revealed that Acanthamoeba and Dictyostelium share some similarities in G protein signaling components but that specific G proteins used in Dictyostelium chemotactic responses were not present in current Acanthamoeba genome sequence data. The results of this study suggest that Acanthamoeba does not use chemotaxis as the primary mechanism to find bacterial food sources and that the chemotactic responses of Dictyostelium to bacteria may have co-evolved with chemotactic responses that facilitate multicellular development.

SUBMITTER: Kuburich NA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5154823 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundIn species with biparental care both members of the breeding pair cooperate to raise the offspring either by assisting each other in every reproductive task or by specializing in different ones. The latter case is known as reproductive role specialization. Raptors are considered one of the most role-specialized groups, but little is known about parental behavior away from the nest. Until the advent of biologgers, avian role specialization was traditionally studied with direct observations at the nest because of the difficulties of following and recording the behavior of free-ranging individuals. In this paper we analyze how the role specialization of the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) influences foraging movement patterns throughout the breeding season. We tracked 30 lesser kestrel breeders from two breeding colonies using high-frequency GPS-dataloggers during four consecutive breeding seasons.ResultsWe found no differences between sexes in lesser kestrel foraging movements early in the breeding season before the formation of the breeding pair. However, we observed sexually distinct foraging movement strategies later in the breeding season once breeding pairs were formed. Lesser kestrel males performed a large number of short foraging trips while females made a few long ones. This maximized the provisioning rate by males to feed their mates and offspring. Meanwhile, lesser kestrel females spent more time at the colony than males in order to defend the nest, incubate the eggs and brood the nestlings. Females also helped their mates to provision the nestling once these had grown and required more food and less protection. Furthermore, lesser kestrels showed a sexual spatial segregation in foraging areas, with males foraging closer to the colony than females.ConclusionsThe lesser kestrel responds to changes in energy demand throughout the breeding season with its foraging movement strategy, but in a different way depending on parental sex. The sexual spatial segregation observed is likely to be the result of an adaptive foraging strategy based on role specialization to reduce prey depletion close to the colony and intersexual competition in order to improve breeding success.

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Acanthamoeba and Dictyostelium Use Different Foraging Strategies.

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