Comment on “Global distribution of earthworm diversity”

James, Samuel W.; Csuzdi, Csaba; Chang, Chih-Han; Aspe, Nonillon M.; Jiménez, Juan J.; Feijoo, Alexander; Blouin, Manuel; Lavelle, Patrick

doi:10.1126/science.abe4629

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It is important to mention that astomes isolated from African glossoscolecids and megascolecids exhibit a very different diversification mode in which duplications overdominate (Figure 4C). Such contrasting diversification patterns between European and African astomes might be ascribed to the different ranges of their hosts, which very likely follow the Rapoport rule (James et al, 2021). Earthworm ranges are narrower in low latitudes, which in turn decreases the chance for host switching after duplication.…”

Section: Coevolution Of Astomes With Their Earthworm Hostsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since astomes are intimately connected with their earthworm hosts and adapted to the particular physicochemical conditions of their digestive tract (Nana et al, 2012(Nana et al, , 2014, it might be assumed that the evolution and distribution of astomes have been significantly shaped by the diversification of their earthworm hosts. James et al (2021) suggested that the distribution of earthworms follows the Rapoport rule, which says that species latitudinal ranges are narrower in low latitudes than in high latitudes (Stevens, 1989). Interestingly, Benovics et al (2018) proposed that the diversity of symbionts associated with hosts having small distribution areas is lower compared with the diversity of symbionts whose hosts exhibit a large distribution area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Diversity and Eco-Evolutionary Associations of Endosymbiotic Astome Ciliates With Their Lumbricid Earthworm Hosts

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coevolution of endosymbionts with their hosts plays an important role in the processes of speciation and is among the most fascinating topics in evolutionary biology. Astome ciliates represent an interesting model for coevolutionary studies because they are so tightly associated with their host organisms that they completely lost the cell oral apparatus. In the present study, we used five nuclear markers (18S rRNA gene, ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 region, and 28S rRNA gene) and two mitochondrial genes (16S rRNA gene and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) to explore the diversity of astomes inhabiting the digestive tract of lumbricid earthworms at temperate latitudes in Central Europe and to cast more light on their host specificity and coevolution events that shaped their diversification. The present coevolutionary and phylogenetic interaction-adjusted similarity analyses suggested that almost every host switch leads to speciation and firm association with the new host. Nevertheless, the suggested high structural host specificity of astomes needs to be tested with increased earthworm sampling, as only 52 out of 735 lumbricid earthworms (7.07%) were inhabited by ciliates. On the other hand, the diversification of astomes associated with megascolecid and glossoscolecid earthworms might have been driven by duplication events without host switching.

show abstract

Section: Coevolution Of Astomes With Their Earthworm Hostsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity and Eco-Evolutionary Associations of Endosymbiotic Astome Ciliates With Their Lumbricid Earthworm Hosts

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The global distribution of soil fauna and their consumption of litter is interpreted to depend on a set of hierarchical factors like climate, soil properties, and vegetation, which are often themselves interrelated 19 , 24 , 28 , 42 . Climate modifies litter decomposition indirectly via its effects on vegetation, soil type, and soil organismic communities 19 , 28 , 43 , 44 . For example, a global study by Wall et al 19 reported that soil animals increased decomposition rates in temperate and wet tropical climates but exerted neutral effects where temperature or moisture constrain biological activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global distribution of soil fauna functional groups and their estimated litter consumption across biomes

Heděnec

Jiménez

Moradi

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Soil invertebrates (i.e., soil fauna) are important drivers of many key processes in soils including soil aggregate formation, water retention, and soil organic matter transformation. Many soil fauna groups directly or indirectly participate in litter consumption. However, the quantity of litter consumed by major faunal groups across biomes remains unknown. To estimate this quantity, we reviewed > 1000 observations from 70 studies that determined the biomass of soil fauna across various biomes and 200 observations from 44 studies on litter consumption by soil fauna. To compare litter consumption with annual litterfall, we analyzed 692 observations from 24 litterfall studies and 183 observations from 28 litter stock studies. The biomass of faunal groups was highest in temperate grasslands and then decreased in the following order: boreal forest > temperate forest > tropical grassland > tundra > tropical forest > Mediterranean ecosystems > desert and semidesert. Tropical grasslands, desert biomes, and Mediterranean ecosystems were dominated by termites. Temperate grasslands were dominated by omnivores, while temperate forests were dominated by earthworms. On average, estimated litter consumption (relative to total litter input) ranged from a low of 14.9% in deserts to a high of 100.4% in temperate grassland. Litter consumption by soil fauna was greater in grasslands than in forests. This is the first study to estimate the effect of different soil fauna groups on litter consumption and related processes at global scale.

show abstract

“…The evolution of lumbricid earthworms has been largely driven by paleoclimatic and paleogeographic events (e.g., Pérez-Losada et al, 2011 ; Fernández et al, 2013 ; Domínguez et al, 2015 ; James et al, 2021 ). Central Europe is the ancestral area for a large portion of known lumbricid genera, whose diversification was very likely shaped by range expansion and retraction due to global climatic changes from the Paleocene–Eocene epochs to the Pleistocene ( Marchán et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First molecular evidence of hybridization in endosymbiotic ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora)

Obert

Zhang²,

Rurik³

et al. 2022

Front. Microbiol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hybridization is an important evolutionary process that can fuel diversification via formation of hybrid species or can lead to fusion of previously separated lineages by forming highly diverse species complexes. We provide here the first molecular evidence of hybridization in wild populations of ciliates, a highly diverse group of free-living and symbiotic eukaryotic microbes. The impact of hybridization was studied on the model of Plagiotoma, an obligate endosymbiont of the digestive tube of earthworms, using split decomposition analyses and species networks, 2D modeling of the nuclear rRNA molecules and compensatory base change analyses as well as multidimensional morphometrics. Gene flow slowed down and eventually hampered the diversification of Lumbricus-dwelling plagiotomids, which collapsed into a single highly variable biological entity, the P. lumbrici complex. Disruption of the species boundaries was suggested also by the continuum of morphological variability in the phenotypic space. On the other hand, hybridization conspicuously increased diversity in the nuclear rDNA cistron and somewhat weakened the host structural specificity of the P. lumbrici complex, whose members colonize a variety of phylogenetically closely related anecic and epigeic earthworms. By contrast, another recorded species, P. aporrectodeae sp. n., showed no signs of introgression, no variability in the rDNA cistron, and very high host specificity. These contrasting eco-evolutionary patterns indicate that hybridization might decrease the alpha-diversity by dissolving species boundaries, weaken the structural host specificity by broadening ecological amplitudes, and increase the nuclear rDNA variability by overcoming concerted evolution within the P. lumbrici species complex.

show abstract

Comment on “Global distribution of earthworm diversity”

Cited by 13 publications

References 13 publications

Diversity and Eco-Evolutionary Associations of Endosymbiotic Astome Ciliates With Their Lumbricid Earthworm Hosts

Diversity and Eco-Evolutionary Associations of Endosymbiotic Astome Ciliates With Their Lumbricid Earthworm Hosts

Global distribution of soil fauna functional groups and their estimated litter consumption across biomes

First molecular evidence of hybridization in endosymbiotic ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About