Harvey S C, Viney M E
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, UK.
J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol. 2007 Jul 15;308(4):409-16. doi: 10.1002/jez.b.21161.
The free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is distributed globally and found in many varied habitats. However, in comparison to our understanding of the genetics of the species, little is known about natural variation and many major life history traits appear to show only limited differences between isolates. Here we show that temperature affects the lifetime fecundity and the reproductive timing of C. elegans and that there is a genotype by environment interaction, with isolates varying in how lifetime fecundity changes with temperature. We show that the lower lifetime fecundity observed at higher temperatures is primarily due to a reduction in the number of functional sperm. Further, isolates vary in their lifetime fecundity because of inter-isolate differences in this effect of temperature on the number of functional sperm.
自由生活的线虫秀丽隐杆线虫分布于全球，见于多种不同的栖息地。然而，与我们对该物种遗传学的了解相比，对其自然变异知之甚少，而且许多主要生活史特征在不同分离株之间似乎仅表现出有限的差异。在此我们表明，温度会影响秀丽隐杆线虫的终生繁殖力和生殖时间，并且存在基因型与环境的相互作用，不同分离株在终生繁殖力随温度变化的方式上存在差异。我们表明，在较高温度下观察到的较低终生繁殖力主要是由于功能性精子数量的减少。此外，不同分离株的终生繁殖力存在差异，原因是温度对功能性精子数量的这种影响在不同分离株之间存在差异。
