Dataset Information

Genetic variation in compensatory feeding for dietary dilution in a generalist caterpillar.

ABSTRACT: Increasing the rate of food consumption is a common adaptive strategy that allows herbivores to compensate for declines in nutrient concentrations in plant tissues. Herbivores that are better able to compensate for dietary dilution may have selective advantages under nutritionally poor conditions. In order for compensatory feeding to respond to selection, there must be standing heritable variation for this trait. However, empirical data substantiating the adaptive significance and genetic variability of compensatory feeding are rare. By employing a full-sib, split-brood design, this study presents quantitative genetic analyses on the nutrient consumption rates of the generalist caterpillar, Spodoptera exigua, raised on semi-synthetic diets differing in nutrient concentrations. When encountering a diluted diet, caterpillars exhibited a compensatory increase in food consumption rate, but the extent of this increase was not sufficient to fully compensate for dietary dilution. A significant gene-environment interaction for consumption rate indicated that the capacity of caterpillars to compensate for dietary dilution varied across genotypes. The broad-sense heritability of compensatory feeding was 0.51. Caterpillar genotypes with a higher compensatory capacity suffered lower performance losses on the diluted diet than did those with a lower capacity. This study has implications for understanding how herbivores can evolutionarily respond to nutritional challenges.

SUBMITTER: Lee KP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5547126 | biostudies-other | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Genetic variation in compensatory feeding for dietary dilution in a generalist caterpillar.

Lee Kwang Pum KP

Scientific reports 20170807 1

Increasing the rate of food consumption is a common adaptive strategy that allows herbivores to compensate for declines in nutrient concentrations in plant tissues. Herbivores that are better able to compensate for dietary dilution may have selective advantages under nutritionally poor conditions. In order for compensatory feeding to respond to selection, there must be standing heritable variation for this trait. However, empirical data substantiating the adaptive significance and genetic variab ...[more]

PMID: 28784992

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Project description:BackgroundMosquito host feeding patterns are an important factor of the species-specific vector capacity determining pathogen transmission routes. Culex pipiens s.s./Cx. torrentium are competent vectors of several arboviruses, such as West Nile virus and Usutu virus. However, studies on host feeding patterns rarely differentiate the morphologically indistinguishable females.MethodsWe analyzed the host feeding attraction of Cx. pipiens and Cx. torrentium in host-choice studies for bird, mouse, and a human lure. In addition, we summarized published and unpublished data on host feeding patterns of field-collected specimens from Germany, Iran, and Moldova from 2012 to 2022, genetically identified as Cx. pipiens biotype pipiens, Cx. pipiens biotype molestus, Cx. pipiens hybrid biotype pipiens × molestus, and Cx. torrentium, and finally put the data in context with similar data found in a systematic literature search.ResultsIn the host-choice experiments, we did not find a significant attraction to bird, mouse, and human lure for Cx. pipiens pipiens and Cx. torrentium. Hosts of 992 field-collected specimens were identified for Germany, Iran, and Moldova, with the majority determined as Cx. pipiens pipiens, increasing the data available from studies known from the literature by two-thirds. All four Culex pipiens s.s./Cx. torrentium taxa had fed with significant proportions on birds, humans, and nonhuman mammals. Merged with the data from the literature from 23 different studies showing a high prevalence of blood meals from birds, more than 50% of the blood meals of Cx. pipiens s.s. were identified as birds, while up to 39% were human and nonhuman mammalian hosts. Culex torrentium fed half on birds and half on mammals. However, there were considerable geographical differences in the host feeding patterns.ConclusionsIn the light of these results, the clear characterization of the Cx. pipiens s.s./Cx. torrentium taxa as ornithophilic/-phagic or mammalophilic/-phagic needs to be reconsidered. Given their broad host ranges, all four Culex taxa could potentially serve as enzootic and bridge vectors.

Project description:Generalist species commonly have a fundamental role in ecosystems as they can integrate spatially distinct habitats and food-web compartments, as well as control the composition, abundance and behavior of organisms at different trophic levels. Generalist populations typically consist of specialized individuals, but the potential for and hence degree of individual niche variation can be largely determined by habitat complexity. We compared individual niche variation within three generalist fishes between two comparable lakes in the Czech Republic differing in macrophyte cover, i.e. macrophyte-rich Milada and macrophyte-poor Most. We tested the hypothesis that large individual niche variation among generalist fishes is facilitated by the presence of macrophytes, which provides niches and predation shelter for fish and their prey items. Based on results from stable nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) isotopic mixing models, perch (Perca fluviatilis L.) and rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus (L.)) showed larger individual variation (i.e., variance) in trophic position in Milada as compared to Most, whereas no significant between-lake differences were observed for roach (Rutilus rutilus (L.)). Contrary to our hypothesis, all the three species showed significantly lower individual variation in the relative reliance on littoral food resources in Milada than in Most. Rudd relied significantly more whereas perch and roach relied less on littoral food resources in Milada than in Most, likely due to prevalent herbivory by rudd and prevalent zooplanktivory by perch and roach in the macrophyte-rich Milada as compared to macrophyte-poor Most. Our study demonstrates how the succession of macrophyte vegetation, via its effects on the physical and biological complexity of the littoral zone and on the availability of small prey fish and zooplankton, can strongly influence individual niche variation among generalist fishes with different ontogenetic trajectories, and hence the overall food-web structures in lake ecosystems.

Dataset Information

Genetic variation in compensatory feeding for dietary dilution in a generalist caterpillar.

Publications

Genetic variation in compensatory feeding for dietary dilution in a generalist caterpillar.

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