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Founder effects drive the genetic structure of passively dispersed aquatic invertebrates.

ABSTRACT: Populations of passively dispersed organisms in continental aquatic habitats typically show high levels of neutral genetic differentiation despite their high dispersal capabilities. Several evolutionary factors, including founder events, local adaptation, and life cycle features such as high population growth rates and the presence of propagule banks, have been proposed to be responsible for this paradox. Here, we have modeled the colonization process to assess the impact of migration rate, population growth rate, population size, local adaptation and life-cycle features on the population genetic structure in these organisms. Our simulations show that the strongest effect on population structure are persistent founder effects, resulting from the interaction of a few population founders, high population growth rates, large population sizes and the presence of diapausing egg banks. In contrast, the role of local adaptation, genetic hitchhiking and migration is limited to small populations in these organisms. Our results indicate that local adaptation could have different impact on genetic structure in different groups of zooplankters.

SUBMITTER: Montero-Pau J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6294052 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Founder effects drive the genetic structure of passively dispersed aquatic invertebrates.

Montero-Pau Javier J Gómez Africa A Serra Manuel M

PeerJ 20181211

Populations of passively dispersed organisms in continental aquatic habitats typically show high levels of neutral genetic differentiation despite their high dispersal capabilities. Several evolutionary factors, including founder events, local adaptation, and life cycle features such as high population growth rates and the presence of propagule banks, have been proposed to be responsible for this paradox. Here, we have modeled the colonization process to assess the impact of migration rate, popu ...[more]

PMID: 30581680

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Project description:BackgroundOne hundred years ago, marine organisms were the dominant systems for the study of developmental biology. The challenges in rearing these organisms outside of a marine setting ultimately contributed to a shift towards work on a smaller number of so-called model systems. Those animals are typically non-marine organisms with advantages afforded by short life cycles, high fecundity, and relative ease in laboratory culture. However, a full understanding of biodiversity, evolution, and anthropogenic effects on biological systems requires a broader survey of development in the animal kingdom. To this day, marine organisms remain relatively understudied, particularly the members of the Lophotrochozoa (Spiralia), which include well over one third of the metazoan phyla (such as the annelids, mollusks, flatworms) and exhibit a tremendous diversity of body plans and developmental modes. To facilitate studies of this group, we have previously described the development and culture of one lophotrochozoan representative, the slipper snail Crepidula atrasolea, which is easy to rear in recirculating marine aquaria. Lab-based culture and rearing of larger populations of animals remain a general challenge for many marine organisms, particularly for inland laboratories.ResultsHere, we describe the development of an automated marine aquatic rack system for the high-density culture of marine species, which is particularly well suited for rearing filter-feeding animals. Based on existing freshwater recirculating aquatic rack systems, our system is specific to the needs of marine organisms and incorporates robust filtration measures to eliminate wastes, reducing the need for regular water changes. In addition, this system incorporates sensors and associated equipment for automated assessment and adjustment of water quality. An automated feeding system permits precise delivery of liquid food (e.g., phytoplankton) throughout the day, mimicking real-life feeding conditions that contribute to increased growth rates and fecundity.ConclusionThis automated system makes laboratory culture of marine animals feasible for both large and small research groups, significantly reducing the time, labor, and overall costs needed to rear these organisms.

Project description:Despite the increasing number of species invasions, the factors driving invasiveness are still under debate. This is particularly the case for "invisible" invasions by aquatic microbial species. Since in many cases only a few individuals or propagules enter a new habitat, their genetic variation is low and might limit their invasion success, known as the genetic bottleneck. Thus, a key question is, how genetic identity and diversity of invading species influences their invasion success and, subsequently, affect the resident community. We conducted invader-addition experiments using genetically different strains of the globally invasive, aquatic cyanobacterium Raphidiopsis raciborskii (formerly: Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii) to determine the role of invader identity and genetic diversity (strain richness) at four levels of herbivory. We tested the invasion success of solitary single strain invasions against the invader genetic diversity, which was experimentally increased up to ten strains (multi-strain populations). By using amplicon sequencing we determined the strain-specific invasion success in the multi-strain treatments and compared those with the success of these strains in the single-strain treatments. Furthermore, we tested for the invasion success under different herbivore pressures. We showed that high grazing pressure by a generalist herbivore prevented invasion, whereas a specialist herbivore enabled coexistence of consumer and invader. We found a weak effect of diversity on invasion success only under highly competitive conditions. When invasions were successful, the magnitude of this success was strain-specific and consistent among invasions performed with single-strain or multi-strain populations. A strain-specific effect was also observed on the resident phytoplankton community composition, highlighting the strong role of invader genetic identity. Our results point to a strong effect of the genetic identity on the invasion success under low predation pressure. The genetic diversity of the invader population, however, had little effect on invasion success in our study, in contrast to most previous findings. Instead, it is the interaction between the consumer abundance and type together with the strain identity of the invader that defined invasion success. This study underlines the importance of strain choice in invasion research and in ecological studies in general.

Dataset Information

Founder effects drive the genetic structure of passively dispersed aquatic invertebrates.

Publications

Founder effects drive the genetic structure of passively dispersed aquatic invertebrates.

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