CRAYFISH:DNA-based diet analysis of invasive crayfish in Portugal
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): crayfish
SUBMITTER: Bastian Egeter
PROVIDER: S-BSST453 | biostudies-other |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Similar Datasets
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
2018-10-11 | GSE112411 | GEO
Project description:DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that has been repeatedly implied in organismal adaptation. However, many previous studies that have linked DNA methylation patterns to environmental parameters have been limited by confounding factors, such as cell-type heterogeneity and genetic variation. In this study, we analyzed DNA methylation variation in marbled crayfish, a clonal and invasive freshwater crayfish that is characterized by a largely tissue-invariant methylome and negligible genetic variation. Using a capture-based subgenome bisulfite sequencing approach that covers a small, variably methylated portion of the marbled crayfish genome, we identified specific and highly localized DNA methylation signatures for specimens from geographically and ecologically distinct wild populations. These results were replicated both biologically and technically by re-sampling at different time points and by using independent methodology. Finally, we show specific methylation signatures for laboratory animals and for laboratory animals that were reared at a lower temperature. Our results thus demonstrate the existence of context-dependent DNA methylation signatures in a clonal animal.
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Project description:The marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) is a unique freshwater crayfish characterized by genetic uniformity, phenotypic variability, and substantial invasive potential. As invasion into different habitats occurs in the absence of genetic variation, epigenetic mechanisms have been suggested to mediate phenotypic adaptation. However, epigenetic regulation has not been analyzed in this organism yet. Here we show that the recently published P. virginalis draft genome sequence encodes a conserved DNA methylation system. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of multiple replicates and different tissues revealed a methylation pattern that is characterized by gene body methylation of housekeeping genes. Interestingly, this pattern was largely tissue-invariant, suggesting a function that is unrelated to cell-fate specification. Indeed, integrative analysis of RNA-seq datasets showed that gene body methylation correlated with stable gene expression, while unmethylated genes often showed a high degree of inter-individual expression variation. Our findings thus establish the methylome of an emerging model organism and suggest that methylation-dependent regulation of gene expression variability may facilitate the phenotypic adaptation and invasive spread of this animal.
2018-10-11 | GSE112409 | GEO
Project description:Assessing the impacts of invasive organisms is a major challenge in ecology. Some widespread invasive species such as crayfish are potential competitors and reciprocal predators of ecologically and recreationally important native fish species. Here, we examine the effects of signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) on the growth, diet, and trophic position of the chub (Squalius cephalus) in four rivers in Britain. Growth rates of 0+ chub were typically lower in sympatric populations with signal crayfish compared with allopatric populations, and this effect could be traced through to 2+ chub in one river. However, growth rates of older chub (5+ to 6+) were typically higher in the presence of crayfish. Sympatry with crayfish resulted in lower chub length-at-age and mass-at-age in half of the rivers sampled, with no change detected in the other rivers. Stable isotope analyses (?13C and ?15N) revealed that both chub and crayfish were omnivorous, feeding at multiple trophic levels and occupying similar trophic positions. We found some evidence that chub trophic position was greater at invaded sites on one river, with no difference detected on a second river. Mixing models suggested crayfish were important food items for both small and large chub at invaded sites. This study provides evidence that invasive species can have both positive and negative effects on different life stages of a native species, with the net impact likely to depend on responses at the population level.
| S-EPMC7115035 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) is a unique freshwater crayfish characterized by genetic uniformity, phenotypic variability, and substantial invasive potential. As invasion into different habitats occurs in the absence of genetic variation, epigenetic mechanisms have been suggested to mediate phenotypic adaptation. However, epigenetic regulation has not been analyzed in this organism yet. Here we show that the recently published P. virginalis draft genome sequence encodes a conserved DNA methylation system. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of multiple replicates and different tissues revealed a methylation pattern that is characterized by gene body methylation of housekeeping genes. Interestingly, this pattern was largely tissue-invariant, suggesting a function that is unrelated to cell-fate specification. Indeed, integrative analysis of RNA-seq datasets showed that gene body methylation correlated with stable gene expression, while unmethylated genes often showed a high degree of inter-individual expression variation. Our findings thus establish the methylome of an emerging model organism and suggest that methylation-dependent regulation of gene expression variability may facilitate the phenotypic adaptation and invasive spread of this animal.
2018-10-11 | GSE120450 | GEO
Project description:The marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) is a unique freshwater crayfish characterized by genetic uniformity, phenotypic variability, and substantial invasive potential. As invasion into different habitats occurs in the absence of genetic variation, epigenetic mechanisms have been suggested to mediate phenotypic adaptation. However, epigenetic regulation has not been analyzed in this organism yet. Here we show that the recently published P. virginalis draft genome sequence encodes a conserved DNA methylation system. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of multiple replicates and different tissues revealed a methylation pattern that is characterized by gene body methylation of housekeeping genes. Interestingly, this pattern was largely tissue-invariant, suggesting a function that is unrelated to cell-fate specification. Indeed, integrative analysis of RNA-seq datasets showed that gene body methylation correlated with stable gene expression, while unmethylated genes often showed a high degree of inter-individual expression variation. Our findings thus establish the methylome of an emerging model organism and suggest that methylation-dependent regulation of gene expression variability may facilitate the phenotypic adaptation and invasive spread of this animal.
2018-10-11 | GSE112410 | GEO
Project description:The marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) is a unique freshwater crayfish characterized by genetic uniformity, phenotypic variability, and substantial invasive potential. As invasion into different habitats occurs in the absence of genetic variation, epigenetic mechanisms have been suggested to mediate phenotypic adaptation. However, epigenetic regulation has not been analyzed in this organism yet. Here we show that the recently published P. virginalis draft genome sequence encodes a conserved DNA methylation system. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of multiple replicates and different tissues revealed a methylation pattern that is characterized by gene body methylation of housekeeping genes. Interestingly, this pattern was largely tissue-invariant, suggesting a function that is unrelated to cell-fate specification. Indeed, integrative analysis of RNA-seq datasets showed that gene body methylation correlated with stable gene expression, while unmethylated genes often showed a high degree of inter-individual expression variation. Our findings thus establish the methylome of an emerging model organism and suggest that methylation-dependent regulation of gene expression variability may facilitate the phenotypic adaptation and invasive spread of this animal.
2018-10-11 | GSE120358 | GEO
Project description:The occurrence of the signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus in the Valla Stream was the first established population of this invasive species recorded in an Italian stream ecosystem. We evaluated the seasonality of diet and trophic niche of invasive signal crayfish in order to estimate the ecological role and effects on native communities of the stream ecosystem. We studied the differences in food source use between sexes, life stages and seasons using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses. To supplement stable isotope analyses, we evaluated food source usage using traditional stomach content analysis. We tested the hypothesis that juveniles have a different diet, showing different trophic niches, compared to adults. Results indicated that signal crayfish adult and juvenile diets mainly rely on macroinvertebrates and periphyton in summer, shifting to mostly periphyton in autumn. Although the two age classes occupied an equivalent trophic niche, juveniles showed slightly different carbon isotope values, suggesting a somewhat ontogenetic shift consistent among seasons. No significant differences were found in adult and juvenile diets between summer and autumn seasons. Our findings suggest that signal crayfish juveniles and adults exhibited seasonal feeding habits, probably due to ecological behaviour rather than food resource availability, and that both are likely to impose similar effects on macroinvertebrate communities in this and similar stream ecosystems.
| S-EPMC8062500 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundPrey DNA from diet samples can be used as a dietary marker; yet current methods for prey detection require a priori diet knowledge and/or are designed ad hoc, limiting their scope. I present a general approach to detect diverse prey in the feces or gut contents of predators.Methodology/principal findingsIn the example outlined, I take advantage of the restriction site for the endonuclease Pac I which is present in 16S mtDNA of most Odontoceti mammals, but absent from most other relevant non-mammalian chordates and invertebrates. Thus in DNA extracted from feces of these mammalian predators Pac I will cleave and exclude predator DNA from a small region targeted by novel universal primers, while most prey DNA remain intact allowing prey selective PCR. The method was optimized using scat samples from captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) fed a diet of 6-10 prey species from three phlya. Up to five prey from two phyla were detected in a single scat and all but one minor prey item (2% of the overall diet) were detected across all samples. The same method was applied to scat samples from free-ranging bottlenose dolphins; up to seven prey taxa were detected in a single scat and 13 prey taxa from eight teleost families were identified in total.Conclusions/significanceData and further examples are provided to facilitate rapid transfer of this approach to any predator. This methodology should prove useful to zoologists using DNA-based diet techniques in a wide variety of study systems.
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Project description:Early detection is invaluable for the cost-effective control and eradication of invasive species, yet many traditional sampling techniques are ineffective at the low population abundances found at the onset of the invasion process. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a promising and sensitive tool for early detection of some invasive species, but its efficacy has not yet been evaluated for many taxonomic groups and habitat types.We evaluated the ability of eDNA to detect the invasive rusty crayfish Orconectes rusticus and to reflect patterns of its relative abundance, in upper Midwest, USA, inland lakes. We paired conventional baited trapping as a measure of crayfish relative abundance with water samples for eDNA, which were analysed in the laboratory with a qPCR assay. We modelled detection probability for O. rusticus eDNA using relative abundance and site characteristics as covariates and also tested the relationship between eDNA copy number and O. rusticus relative abundance.We detected O. rusticus eDNA in all lakes where this species was collected by trapping, down to low relative abundances, as well as in two lakes where trap catch was zero. Detection probability of O. rusticus eDNA was well predicted by relative abundance of this species and lake water clarity. However, there was poor correspondence between eDNA copy number and O. rusticus relative abundance estimated by trap catches. Synthesis and applications. Our study demonstrates a field and laboratory protocol for eDNA monitoring of crayfish invasions, with results of statistical models that provide guidance of sampling effort and detection probabilities for researchers in other regions and systems. We propose eDNA be included as a tool in surveillance for invasive or imperilled crayfishes and other benthic arthropods.
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