Evolutionary divergence of the swim bladder nematode Anguillicola crassus after colonization of a novel host, Anguilla anguilla

Weclawski, Urszula; Heitlinger, Emanuel; Baust, Tobias; Klar, Bernhard; Petney, Trevor N.; Han, Yu; Taraschewski, Horst

doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-78

Cited by 26 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…It was recently shown that genetically fixed changes in infectivity and developmental traits separate European A. crassus from their Taiwanese conspecifics [10]. The selective pressure of the novel host (European eel), not the genetic drif, was thus considered to have modified the developmental features in the European strains of A. crassus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We conducted a series of experiments infecting A. japonica and A. anguilla with A. crassus originating from Germany, Poland and Taiwan, as described in [10].…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, we demonstrated rapid genetic divergence of the introduced European parasite population compared to conspecifics from Taiwan in terms of infectivity and developmental dynamics, using a reciprocal transplant experiment under common garden conditions [10]. In this paper, we report on the morphological traits of parasites from these studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid evolution of Anguillicola crassusin Europe: species diagnostic traits are plastic and evolutionarily labile

et al. 2014

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Background: Since its introduction from Taiwan to Europe around 1980, Anguillicola crassus, a natural parasite of the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica), has acquired the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) as a novel definitive host. In this host the nematode differs noticeably in its body mass and reproductive capacity from its Asian conspecifics. We conducted a common garden experiment under a reciprocal transplant design to investigate whether differences in species-diagnostic morphological traits exist between two European and one Asian population of A. crassus and if yes whether these have a genetically fixed component. Results: We found that worms from Germany, Poland and Taiwan differ in the size and shape of their body, oesophagus and buccal capsule. These changes are induced by both phenotypic plasticity and genetic divergence: in the European eel, nematodes from Europe as well as from Taiwan responded plastically with larger body and oesophagus dimensions compared to infections in the Japanese eel. Interestingly, the oesophagus simultaneously shows a high degree of genetically based changes being largest in the Polish strain kept in A. anguilla. In addition, the size and shape of the buccal capsule has undergone a rapid evolutionary change. Polish nematodes evolved a genetically fixed larger buccal capsule than the German and Taiwanese populations. The German strain had the smallest buccal capsule. Conclusions: This study provides evidence for the genetic divergence of morphological traits in A. crassus which evolved over a timescale of about 30 years. Within Europe and in the European eel host these alternations affect characters used as diagnostic markers for species differentiation. Thus we provide an explanation of the discrepancy between morphological and molecular features reported for the parasitic nematode featured here, demanding general caution in morphological diagnosis of parasites discovered in new hosts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We conducted a series of experiments infecting A. japonica and A. anguilla with A. crassus originating from Germany, Poland and Taiwan, as described in [10].…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid evolution of Anguillicola crassusin Europe: species diagnostic traits are plastic and evolutionarily labile

et al. 2014

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“…In particular European nematodes had an accelerated development compared to Asian nematodes (Weclawski et al, 2013). In the same experiment two European isolates from Poland were found to be diverged from those from Germany and Taiwan for morphological traits used to differenciate Anguillicola species (Weclawski et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…This is unexpected, as large morphological differences are observed between nematodes from different host species in the wild (Münderle et al, 2006) and in laboratory infections (Knopf and Mahnke, 2004;Weclawski et al, 2013;Weclawski et al, 2014). A possible reason might be that nematodes are influenced by and respond to the host immune system only during the larval stages migrating through tissues.…”

Section: Differential Gene Expression Between Sexes Is Negatively Cormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Supplemental Information 3: Supplementary Data File 1 – Differential Expression Between Male and Female A. Crassus

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Gene expression response to a nematode parasite in novel and native eel hosts

Bracamonte

Johnston

Monaghan

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Invasive parasites are involved in population declines of new host species worldwide. The high susceptibilities observed in many novel hosts have been attributed to the lack of protective immunity to the parasites which native hosts acquired during their shared evolution. We experimentally infected Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) and European eels (Anguilla anguilla) with Anguillicola crassus, a nematode parasite that is native to the Japanese eel and invasive in the European eel. We inferred gene expression changes in head kidney tissue from both species, using RNA‐seq data to determine the responses at two time points during the early stages of infection (3 and 23 days postinfection). At both time points, the novel host modified the expression of a larger and functionally more diverse set of genes than the native host. Strikingly, the native host regulated immune gene expression only at the earlier time point and to a small extent while the novel host regulated these genes at both time points. A low number of differentially expressed immune genes, especially in the native host, suggest that a systemic immune response was of minor importance during the early stages of infection. Transcript abundance of genes involved in cell respiration was reduced in the novel host which may affect its ability to cope with harsh conditions and energetically demanding activities. The observed gene expression changes in response to a novel parasite that we observed in a fish follow a general pattern observed in amphibians and mammals, and suggest that the disruption of physiological processes, rather than the absence of an immediate immune response, is responsible for the higher susceptibility of the novel host.

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Evolutionary divergence of the swim bladder nematode Anguillicola crassus after colonization of a novel host, Anguilla anguilla

Cited by 26 publications

References 45 publications

Rapid evolution of Anguillicola crassusin Europe: species diagnostic traits are plastic and evolutionarily labile

Rapid evolution of Anguillicola crassusin Europe: species diagnostic traits are plastic and evolutionarily labile

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Gene expression response to a nematode parasite in novel and native eel hosts

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