Collembola regulates reproduction to adapt to the environment

Flexibility in reproduction - the ability to adjust the reproductive process and characteristics of progeny depending on social and environmental conditions - is an essential element for animals, including humans . Two warehouses of the Écologie & Évolution Laboratory (CNRS / Université Pierre et Marie Curie / École normale supérieure de Paris) have demonstrated the nature of this adaptation phenomenon.

Thomas Tully and Régis Ferrière, researchers at the Écologie & Évolution Laboratory, study Collembola, one of the oldest and most crowded arthropod groups on Earth. During evolution, some Collembola communities develop a special ability, which can regulate reproductive behavior in the face of sudden social or environmental changes.

Collembola.(Photo: web.uvic.ca)

Through many egg-laying periods, females can change the number and size of eggs so that offspring are more likely to survive in new environmental conditions. In food-rich environments, females often lay larger but smaller eggs. In a highly competitive environment, a large number of individuals while food is more scarce, the number of eggs will be less but larger in size, thereby allowing newborns more chances to survive. more in difficult conditions.

That flexibility makes it highly adaptable, but scientists say that the most versatile Collembola strains have the shortest lifespan. In this animal, two parallel survival strategies exist: flexible reproduction at the cost of a shorter life span, or prolonging the life cycle but without the ability to regulate reproduction. Comparison between these two strategies, separate from the early stages of the evolutionary history of animals, shows that the aging process is faster as a result of reproductive growth, and the degree of mobility and potential Genetic in reproduction.

Reference: Reproductive Flexibility: Genetic Variation, Genetic Costs and Long-Term Evolution in a Collembola Thomas Tully & Régis Ferriere, PLoS One, 15 September 2008