title: Experimental validation of Haldane's hypothesis on the role of infection as an evolutionary force for Metazoans.
abstract: A common drawback in evolutionary science is the fact that the evolution of organisms occurs in geological timing, completely out of the time scale of laboratory experimental work. For this reason, some relevant hypotheses on evolution of Metazoans are based on correlations more than on experimental data obtained for testing the robustness of those hypotheses. In the current work, we implement an experimental methodology to analyze the role of infections as a driving force in the evolution of Metazoans (Haldane's hypothesis). To that goal, we have used simple models of virulence with short reproduction times, large populations, and that are easily testable in the laboratory. Using the bacteriovirus nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism under evolution and their infection by the environmental opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa as the selective force, we have demonstrated that bacterial infection selects an evolved nematode lineage resistant to infection, with changes in its respiration and capability of consuming novel food resources. Using an experimental approach, we show that infection is a selective force in the evolution of Metazoans as proposed earlier by Haldane.
authors: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
authors: Alfonso
authors: A
authors: Navas
authors: Guillermo
authors: G
authors: Cobas
authors: Miguel
authors: M
authors: Talavera
authors: Juan A
authors: JA
authors: Ayala
authors: Juan A
authors: JA
authors: López
authors: José L
authors: JL
authors: Martínez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
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