The Experimental Production of Life Cycles in Ciliates

1930 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-142
Author(s):  
HUGH H. DARBY

Constant division rate in ciliates can be maintained by keeping the culture medium at constant optimum H-ion concentration. The variations in division rate found in the typical protozoan life history, including gradual decline and death, can be reproduced experimentally by altering the pH of the medium. When cultures are maintained under optimum conditions, encystment and conjugation can take place at any age; the life cycle disappears. An explanation based on experiment is given for the apparently contradictory findings of Maupas. Neither conjugation nor endomixis has any effect on the division rate under constant conditions. The length of the endomictic period is affected by the H-ion concentration of the medium.

The Condor ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry D. Jacobs ◽  
John C. Wingfield

Abstract Most organisms live in seasonal environments that fluctuate on a predictable schedule and sometimes unpredictably. Individuals must, therefore, adjust so as to maximize their survival and reproductive success over a wide range of environmental conditions. In birds, as in other vertebrates, endocrine secretions regulate morphological, physiological, and behavioral changes in anticipation of future events. The individual thus prepares for predictable fluctuations in its environment by changing life-cycle stages. We have applied finite-state machine theory to define and compare different life-history cycles. The ability of birds to respond to predictable and unpredictable regimes of environmental variation may be constrained by the adaptability of their endocrine control systems. We have applied several theoretical approaches to natural history data of birds to compare the complexity of life cycles, the degree of plasticity of timing of stages within the cycle, and to determine whether endocrine control mechanisms influence the way birds respond to their environments. The interactions of environmental cues on the timing of life-history stages are not uniform in all populations. Taking the reproductive life-history stage as an example, arctic birds that have short breeding seasons in severe environments appear to use one reliable environmental cue to time reproduction and they ignore other factors. Birds having longer breeding seasons exhibit greater plasticity of onset and termination and appear to integrate several environmental cues. Theoretical approaches may allow us to predict how individuals respond to their environment at the proximate level and, conversely, predict how constraints imposed by endocrine control systems may limit the complexity of life cycles.


Parasitology ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 116 (S1) ◽  
pp. S47-S55 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Koella ◽  
P. Agnew ◽  
Y. Michalakis

SummarySeveral recent studies have discussed the interaction of host life-history traits and parasite life cycles. It has been observed that the life-history of a host often changes after infection by a parasite. In some cases, changes of host life-history traits reduce the costs of parasitism and can be interpreted as a form of resistance against the parasite. In other cases, changes of host life-history traits increase the parasite's transmission and can be interpreted as manipulation by the parasite. Alternatively, changes of host's life-history traits can also induce responses in the parasite's life cycle traits. After a brief review of recent studies, we treat in more detail the interaction between the microsporidian parasite Edhazardia aedis and its host, the mosquito Aedes aegypti. We consider the interactions between the host's life-history and parasite's life cycle that help shape the evolutionary ecology of their relationship. In particular, these interactions determine whether the parasite is benign and transmits vertically or is virulent and transmits horizontally.Key words: host-parasite interaction, life-history, life cycle, coevolution.


Parasitology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 144 (4) ◽  
pp. 464-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. LAGRUE ◽  
R. RINNEVALLI ◽  
R. POULIN

SUMMARYA number of parasites with complex life cycles can abbreviate their life cycles to increase the likelihood of reproducing. For example, some trematodes can facultatively skip the definitive host and produce viable eggs while still inside their intermediate host. The resulting shorter life cycle is clearly advantageous when transmission probabilities to the definitive hosts are low. Coitocaecum parvum can mature precociously (progenesis), and produce eggs by selfing inside its amphipod second intermediate host. Environmental factors such as definitive host density and water temperature influence the life-history strategy adopted by C. parvum in their crustacean host. However, it is also possible that information about transmission opportunities gathered earlier in the life cycle (i.e. by cercariae-producing sporocysts in the first intermediate host) could have priming effects on the adoption of one or the other life strategy. Here we document the effects of environmental parameters (host chemical cues and temperature) on cercarial production within snail hosts and parasite life-history strategy in the amphipod host. We found that environmental cues perceived early in life have limited priming effects on life-history strategies later in life and probably account for only a small part of the variation among conspecific parasites. External cues gathered at the metacercarial stage seem to largely override potential effects of the environmental conditions experienced by early stages of the parasite.


Parasitology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 135 (10) ◽  
pp. 1243-1251 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. LAGRUE ◽  
R. POULIN

SUMMARYParasites with complex life cycles have developed numerous and very diverse adaptations to increase the likelihood of completing this cycle. For example, some parasites can abbreviate their life cycles by skipping the definitive host and reproducing inside their intermediate host. The resulting shorter life cycle is clearly advantageous when definitive hosts are absent or rare. In species where life-cycle abbreviation is facultative, this strategy should be adopted in response to seasonally variable environmental conditions. The hermaphroditic trematode Coitocaecum parvum is able to mature precociously (progenesis), and produce eggs by selfing while still inside its amphipod second intermediate host. Several environmental factors such as fish definitive host density and water temperature are known to influence the life-history strategy adopted by laboratory raised C. parvum. Here we document the seasonal variation of environmental parameters and its association with the proportion of progenetic individuals in a parasite population in its natural environment. We found obvious seasonal patterns in both water temperature and C. parvum host densities. However, despite being temporally variable, the proportion of progenetic C. parvum individuals was not correlated with any single parameter. The results show that C. parvum life-history strategy is not as flexible as previously thought. It is possible that the parasite's natural environment contains so many layers of heterogeneity that C. parvum does not possess the ability to adjust its life-history strategy to accurately match the current conditions.


Parasitology ◽  
1933 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 518-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Benton Talbot

1. The life histories of Lechriorchis primus Stafford, L. tygarti n.sp. and Caudorchis eurinus n.gen. et sp. have been experimentally completed in three hosts, the first complete life histories to be worked out for species of the subfamily Reniferinae.2. The definitive hosts of the three forms were found to be two species of garter snakes, Thamnophis sauritus and T. sirtalis.3. Three species of snails, Physella gyrina, P. parkeri, and P. ancillaria, have been found to serve as the first intermediate host in the life cycles of Lechriorchis primus and Caudorchis eurinus n.gen. et sp., and two species of snails, Physella gyrina and P. heterostropha, in the life cycle of Lechriorchis tygarti n.sp.4. The tadpoles of two species of frogs, Rana clamitans and R. pipiens, were found to serve as the second intermediate hosts in the life cycles of all three trematodes. The cercariae penetrate larvae of Triturus and small fish, but live only a short time in these animals.5. Every stage in the life history of Lechriorchis primus, including egg, miracidium, mother sporocyst, daughter sporocyst, cercaria, metacercaria, and developmental stages in the definitive host, has been described in detail.6. The mother sporocyst of forms having a stylet cercaria is described for the first time.7. The flame cell pattern of the cercariae of L. primus, L. tygarti n.sp., and Caudorchis eurinus n.gen. et sp. has been determined to be of the “2 × 6 × 3’ type. Also the adult stage of C. eurinus was determined to have the same type.8. It has been pointed out that the life histories of the members of the subfamily are uniform in that their life history stages display a remarkable similarity.9. It has been suggested that this uniform type of life cycle and remarkable similarity of larval stages offer the most logical basis for establishing the subfamily Reniferinae as a natural group.


1977 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 1464-1466 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Weatherley

Perca fluviatilis was introduced into Australia during the nineteenth century. Its extensive distribution in Australia and the range of climatic and topographic conditions over which it occurs make it possible to distinguish the roles of high temperature, breeding conditions, and flow characteristics in rivers in limiting the spread of the species. By extrapolation the distributional limits of the species throughout the world can be largely explained and, by analogy, those of the closely related species P. flavescens in North America. A model of a fish life cycle arising out of knowledge of Perca life cycles is presented as a possible tool for clarifying and predicting the success or failure of species introduced into new environments. Key words: Percidae, Perca, zoogeography, life history, introduction in Australia, predictive model, management, Eurasian perch


1978 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Madhavi

ABSTRACTThe life history of Allocreadium fasciatusi which occurs in the intestine of a freshwater fish Aplocheilus melastigma has been worked out in detail. The snail Amnicola travancorica acts as the first intermediate host. The miracidium hatching out from the eggs attacks the snail and passes through two generations of rediae. Cercariae are of ophthalmoxiphidiocercous type with very long tail and are identical to Cercariae Indicae XLIX Sewell, 1922. The cercariae penetrate and develop into metacercariae in the haemecoel of the copepods Mesocyclops leuckarti, Microcyclops varicans and Marcocyclops distructus. Upon ingestion by the definitive host, the metacercariae excyst and develop into adults. All the stages in the life cycle are described and the life cycle is compared with other allocreadiid life cycles. The original description of A. fasciatusi is revised and Psilostomum chilkai Chatterji, 1956 from Lates calcalifer is synonymized with it.


1957 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reino S. Freeman

Paruterina rauschi n.sp. is described from the barred owl, and P. candelabraria (Goeze, 1782) is redescribed from the snowy owl; both species grow in the great horned owl. The life history and development of the plerocercoid of both species of worms in various rodents is described. Natural infections with the plerocercoid of P. rauschi n.sp. are reported from Tamias striatus and Peromyscus leucopus. Plerocercoids are not uncommon in cyclophyllidean life cycles, and their significance in the taxonomy of the order Cyclophyllidea is discussed. It is concluded that any future taxonomic revision of this order must consider the morphology of the immature stages if such a revision is intended to clarify natural relationships.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja Heesch ◽  
Martha Serrano-Serrano ◽  
Rémy Luthringer ◽  
Akira F. Peters ◽  
Christophe Destombe ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBrown algae are characterized by a remarkable diversity of life cycles, sexual systems, and reproductive modes, and these traits seem to be very labile across the whole group. This diversity makes them ideal models to test existing theories on the evolution of alternation between generations, and to examine correlations between life cycle and reproductive life history traits. In this study, we investigate the dynamics of trait evolution for four life-history traits: life cycle, sexual system, level of gamete dimorphism and gamete parthenogenetic capacity. We assign states to up to 70 species in a multi-gene phylogeny of brown algae, and use maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of correlated evolution, taking phylogeny into account, to test for correlations between life history traits and sexual systems, and to investigate the sequence of trait acquisition. Our analyses are consistent with the prediction that diploid growth may evolve because it allows the complementation of deleterious mutations, and that haploid sex determination is ancestral in relation to diploid sex determination. However, the idea that increased zygotic and diploid growth is associated with increased sexual dimorphism is not supported by our analysis. Finally, it appears that in the brown algae isogamous species evolved from anisogamous ancestors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (10) ◽  
pp. 26-35
Author(s):  
E. A. SHUBINA ◽  
◽  
Yu. A. KOMAROVSKY ◽  
A. V. MERKUSHEV ◽  
◽  
...  

The article is devoted to the study of the largest mergers and acquisitions (M&A, “Mergers & Acquisitions”) in Russia for 2017–2019. (the acquired block of shares is not less than 99%). The concept of life cycles of organizations and theoretical aspects of mergers and acquisitions are described. The stages of the life cycle of the merged and reorganized companies, the goals of mergers and acquisitions, depending on the stages of the life cycle are analyzed.


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