Correlated evolution of senescence and ephemeral substrate use in the Sordariomycetes

Evolutionary theory predicts that senescence—a decline in reproduction and survival with increasing age—can evolve as a trade‐off between investment in reproduction on one side and in somatic maintenance and repair on the other. The ecology of a species is crucial because it provides the external ca...

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Published in:Molecular ecology 2012-06, Vol.21 (11), p.2816-2828
Main Authors: GEYDAN, THOMAS D., DEBETS, ALFONS J. M., VERKLEY, GERARD J. M., Van DIEPENINGEN, ANNE D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ageing
Aging - physiology
Animals
ascomycota
Ascomycota - physiology
Biological Evolution
colony sectorization
correlated evolution
Culture collections
dna
ecology
Evolutionary biology
Feces - microbiology
filamentous fungi
Fungi
genes
metarhizium-anisopliae
Molecular Sequence Data
Phylogenetics
phylogenies
Phylogeny
plasmids
Podospora - physiology
Podospora anserina
populations
Rabbits
Substrates
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Summary:Evolutionary theory predicts that senescence—a decline in reproduction and survival with increasing age—can evolve as a trade‐off between investment in reproduction on one side and in somatic maintenance and repair on the other. The ecology of a species is crucial because it provides the external causes of death that determine the statistical limit to a species’ lifespan. Filamentous fungi are generally believed to be nonsenescent, and there are indeed spectacular examples of very old fungal individuals in nature. However, some fungi utilize ephemeral resources, and therefore, senescence is expected to have evolved, like in the coprophilic Podospora anserina, the only well‐studied filamentous fungus with intrinsic senescence. Here, we hypothesize that rapid senescence is more common in fungi than generally believed and that the phylogenetic distribution of senescence correlates with ecology. We collected lifespan data for a set of Sordariomycetes and constructed phylogenies based on several nuclear sequences. Several of the strains were from the CBS culture collection, originally isolated from various substrates, some of which ephemeral. In addition, we isolated new strains from short‐lived substrates. Senescence was observed throughout the phylogeny. Correlation tests support the hypothesis that in the Sordariomycetes, senescence is a trait that has arisen in response to ephemeral substrates, and that it has evolved repeatedly and independently along the phylogeny.
ISSN:0962-1083
1365-294X
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05569.x