The genetic control and the phenotypic response of major life-history traits of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans under environmental stress.

所有的有机体都生活在千变万化的环境中。环境在很多方面都不同，比如有多少食物和温度。其中一些变化可能是可以预测的，例如由于季节的原因而产生的温度。其他方面则更难预测，例如食物的供应情况可能取决于有多少其他人在吃它。因此，有机体进化出了在这种不断变化的环境中最大化生存和繁殖的方法。对于一种土栖线虫(称为秀丽线虫)，我们研究了它是如何阻止其幼虫发育的，以及当环境变化时它如何改变其繁殖。通过对这一物种的实验室菌株的研究，我们发现，蠕虫在环境变化时如何改变它们的幼虫捕获和繁殖方式是不同的。我们认为，来自世界不同地区的蠕虫之间存在这些差异，是因为它们在不同的环境中进化，而这些不同的反应最适合这些不同的环境。这些对环境变化的反应是由基因控制的，我们已经发现了基因组中控制这一反应的10个区域。总而言之，这项先前的工作表明，环境变化如何影响幼虫停滞和成虫繁殖；这些变化在不同的蠕虫品系之间是不同的，并且这些对环境变化的反应是由相对较少的基因组区域控制的。我们现在想要进一步检验这些发现。特别是，我们想知道最近从野外采集的秀丽线虫菌株是否以同样的方式对环境变化做出反应，以及这些反应是否可以通过人工选择来改变。我们还将进一步研究基因组的10个区域，试图识别控制这些环境反应的特定基因。这样做的原因是为了找出我们关于秀丽线虫如何以及为什么以这些方式对环境变化做出反应的想法是否正确。因此，这项工作试图深入了解一个经过充分研究的物种如何对环境变化做出反应，以及控制这一反应的基因。这项工作很重要，因为环境变化是所有有机体生命的共同特征。非常详细地了解一个物种的这种关系将有助于我们加深对适用于其他生物的一般原则的理解。了解这一点具有一定的紧迫性，因为许多有机体的环境正在发生变化，这主要是由于人类活动带来的变化。

All organisms live in environments that vary. Environments vary in very many ways, such as how much food there is available and the temperature. Some of this variation may be predictable, such as temperature because of seasons. Other aspects are less predictable, such as food availability which may depend on how many other individuals are eating it. Organisms have therefore evolved ways to maximise their survival and reproduction in such changing environments. For one soil-dwelling nematode worm (called Caenorhabditis elegans) we have investigated how it arrests its development as an immature larva and how it alters its reproduction when the environment changes. Studying laboratory strains of this species, we have found that worms differ in how they alter their larval arrest and reproduction when the environment changes. We think that these differences between worms from different parts of the world occur because they have evolved in different environments and that these different responses are best for these different environments. These responses to changes in the environment are controlled by genes and we have discovered the 10 regions of the genome that control this. In summary, this previous work has shown how larval arrest and adult reproduction can be affected by environmental change; that these changes differ between different worm strains and that these responses to environmental change are controlled by relatively few regions of the genome. We now want to test these findings further. In particular, we want to see whether strains of Caenorhabditis elegans recently taken from the wild, respond in the same way to environmental change and whether these responses can be altered by artificial selection. We also will investigate further the 10 regions of the genome to try and identify the particular genes that control these environmental responses. The reason for doing this is to work out if our ideas for how and why we think Caenorhabditis elegans responds to environmental change in these ways are correct. This work is therefore seeking to deeply understand how one well studied species responds to environmental change and the genes that control this. This work is important because environmental change is a common feature of the life of all organisms. Understanding this relationship in great detail for one species will help us to develop our understanding of the general principles that apply to other organisms. Understanding this has some urgency because the environment of many organisms is changing, largely due to changes brought about by human activity.