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Projekt Druckansicht

Wirt-Parasit-Interaktionen in hybridisierenden Daphnien; von Zusammenhängen zu Experimenten.

Antragstellerin Dr. Justyna Wolinska
Fachliche Zuordnung Ökologie und Biodiversität der Tiere und Ökosysteme, Organismische Interaktionen
Förderung Förderung von 2016 bis 2021
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 312929216
 

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Eutrophication is a global environmental problem that is accelerated by global warming. It affects the stability of aquatic ecosystems and has long-term consequences. In this research project, we investigated whether and how eutrophication influences two interacting evolutionary processes: disease spread and interspecific hybridization. We investigated the influence of eutrophication on host-parasite interactions in a species complex of hybridizing water fleas and on the hybridization success per se. We used water fleas (Daphnia) as the hybridizing host and the Daphnia intestinal parasite "Caullerya" as the pathogen. This "Lead Agency Project" was a collaboration between a research team from Germany (Wolinska: IGB / FU) and one from Switzerland (Spaak: Eawag). We combined field studies from lakes Greifensee (CH) and Müggelsee (DE) with experimental studies (e.g. in twenty test ponds (CH), or under laboratory settings (DE)). We used molecular techniques to investigate the transcription profiles of the stressed water fleas and to follow the evolution of host in infected populations. Moreover, we generated the first genomic data available for the model parasite species, Caullerya. Overall, we showed that eutrophication promotes hybridization, and it likewise promotes disease spread of some, but not all, Daphnia pathogens. We also demonstrated how interactions between foundation species cause surprisingly strong deviations from the expected responses of aquatic ecosystems to perturbations such as nutrient additions. This project, which resulted from a close collaboration between Swiss and German science teams, will further our understanding of the impact of environmental conditions on evolutionary processes in natural systems. We published a popular article about our research, which is freely available: Spaak, P., and J. Wolinska. 2020. How does hybridization affect ecological processes? EU Research Autumn: 48-49 (https://issuu.com/euresearcher/docs/host-parasite_interactions_in_hybridizing_daphnia_).

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

Zusatzinformationen

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