Experimental determination of invasive fitness in Caenorhabditis elegans

Microbes are potential key players in the evolution of life histories and aging in Caenorhabditis elegans

Microbes can have profound effects on host fitness and health and the appearance of late-onset diseases. Host-microbe interactions thus represent a major environmental context for healthy aging of the host and might also mediate trade-offs between life-history traits in the evolution of host senescence. Here, we have used the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to study how host-microbe interactions may modulate the evolution of life histories and aging. We first characterized the effects of two non-pathogenic and one pathogenic Escherichia coli strains, together with the pathogenic Serratia marcescens DB11 strain, on population growth rates and survival of C. elegans from five different genetic backgrounds. We then focused on an outbred C. elegans population, to understand if microbe-specific effects on the reproductive schedule and in traits such as developmental rate and survival were also expressed in the presence of males and standing genetic variation, which could be relevant for the evolution of C. elegans and other nematode species in nature. Our results show that host-microbe interactions have a substantial host-genotype-dependent impact on the reproductive aging and survival of the nematode host. Although both pathogenic bacteria reduced host survival in comparison with benign strains, they differed in how they affected other host traits. Host fertility and population growth rate were affected by S. marcescens DB11 only during early adulthood, whereas this occurred at later ages with the pathogenic E. coli IAI1. In both cases, these effects were largely dependent on the host genotypes. Given such microbe-specific genotypic differences in host life history, we predict that the evolution of reproductive schedules and senescence might be critically contingent on host-microbe interactions in nature.

Competitive fitness analysis using Convolutional Neural Network

We developed a procedure for estimating competitive fitness by using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism and a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) as a tool. Competitive fitness is usually the most informative fitness measure, and competitive fitness assays often rely on green fluorescent protein (GFP) marker strains. CNNs are a class of deep learning neural networks, which are well suited for image analysis and object classification. Our model analyses involved image classification of nematodes as wild-type vs. GFP-expressing, and counted both categories. The performance was analyzed with (i) precision and recall parameters, and (ii) comparison of the wild-type frequency calculated from the model against that obtained by visual scoring of the same images. The average precision and recall varied from 0.79 to 0.87 and from 0.84 to 0.92, respectively, depending on worm density in the images. Compared with manual counting, the model decreased counting time at least 20-fold while preventing human errors. Given the rapid development in the field of CNN, the model, which is fully available on GitHub, can be further optimized and adapted for other image-based uses.

The evolution of adhesiveness as a social adaptation

Cellular adhesion is a key ingredient to sustain collective functions of microbial aggregates. Here, we investigate the evolutionary origins of adhesion and the emergence of groups of genealogically unrelated cells with a game-theoretical model. The considered adhesiveness trait is costly, continuous and affects both group formation and group-derived benefits. The formalism of adaptive dynamics reveals two evolutionary stable strategies, at each extreme on the axis of adhesiveness. We show that cohesive groups can evolve by small mutational steps, provided the population is already endowed with a minimum adhesiveness level. Assortment between more adhesive types, and in particular differential propensities to leave a fraction of individuals ungrouped at the end of the aggregation process, can compensate for the cost of increased adhesiveness. We also discuss the change in the social nature of more adhesive mutations along evolutionary trajectories, and find that altruism arises before directly beneficial behavior, despite being the most challenging form of cooperation.

Reproductive assurance drives transitions to self-fertilization in experimental Caenorhabditis elegans

BACKGROUND

Evolutionary transitions from outcrossing between individuals to selfing are partly responsible for the great diversity of animal and plant reproduction systems. The hypothesis of 'reproductive assurance' suggests that transitions to selfing occur because selfers that are able to reproduce on their own ensure the persistence of populations in environments where mates or pollination agents are unavailable. Here we test this hypothesis by performing experimental evolution in Caenorhabditis elegans.

RESULTS

We show that self-compatible hermaphrodites provide reproductive assurance to a male-female population facing a novel environment where outcrossing is limiting. Invasions of hermaphrodites in male-female populations, and subsequent experimental evolution in the novel environment, led to successful transitions to selfing and adaptation. Adaptation was not due to the loss of males during transitions, as shown by evolution experiments in exclusively hermaphroditic populations and in male-hermaphrodite populations. Instead, adaptation was due to the displacement of females by hermaphrodites. Genotyping of single-nucleotide polymorphisms further indicated that the observed evolution of selfing rates was not due to selection of standing genetic diversity. Finally, numerical modelling and evolution experiments in male-female populations demonstrate that the improvement of male fitness components may diminish the opportunity for reproductive assurance.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings support the hypothesis that reproductive assurance can drive the transition from outcrossing to selfing, and further suggest that the success of transitions to selfing hinges on adaptation of obligate outcrossing populations to the environment where outcrossing was once a limiting factor.