Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38267842›Full record

ArticleBMC ecology and evolution2024

Colony level fitness analysis identifies a trade-off between population growth rate and dauer yield in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Hannah Chapman, Kuei Ching Hsiung, Isadora Rawlinson, Evgeniy R Galimov, David Gems

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PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC ecology and evolution, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
1.4field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Hannah ChapmanInstitute of Healthy Ageing, and Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
Kuei Ching HsiungInstitute of Healthy Ageing, and Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
Isadora RawlinsonInstitute of Healthy Ageing, and Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
Evgeniy R GalimovInstitute of Healthy Ageing, and Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
David GemsInstitute of Healthy Ageing, and Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. david.gems@ucl.ac.uk.
University College London · GB

Funding

Wellcome Trust 215574
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIn the evolution from unicellular to multicellular life forms, natural selection favored reduced cell proliferation and even programmed cell death if this increased organismal fitness. Could reduced individual fertility or even programmed organismal death similarly increase the fitness of colonies of closely-related metazoan organisms? This possibility is at least consistent with evolutionary theory, and has been supported by computer modelling. Caenorhabditis elegans has a boom and bust life history, where populations of nematodes that are sometimes near clonal subsist on and consume food patches, and then generate dauer larva dispersal propagules. A recent study of an in silico model of C. elegans predicted that one determinant of colony fitness (measured as dauer yield) is minimization of futile food consumption (i.e. that which does not contribute to dauer yield). One way to achieve this is to optimize colony population structure by adjustment of individual fertility.

resultsHere we describe development of a C. elegans colony fitness assay, and its use to investigate the effect of altering population structure on colony fitness after population bust. Fitness metrics measured were speed of dauer production, and dauer yield, an indirect measure of efficiency of resource utilization (i.e. conversion of food into dauers). We find that with increasing founder number, speed of dauer production increases (due to earlier bust) but dauer yield rises and falls. In addition, some dauer recovery was detected soon after the post-colony bust peak of dauer yield, suggesting possible bet hedging among dauers.

conclusionsThese results suggest the presence of a fitness trade-off at colony level between speed and efficiency of resource utilization in C. elegans. They also provide indirect evidence that population structure is a determinant of colony level fitness, potentially by affecting level of futile food consumption.

Indexed as

Caenorhabditis elegansPopulation GrowthAnimalsApoptosisBiological AssayAdaptive deathCaenorhabditis elegans ecologyEvolution of agingInclusive fitnessTrade-off

Identifiers

PMID38267842
PMCPMC10809635
OpenAlexW4391228687

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.