背景:运动是动物的一个决定性方面,但是很少在微观无脊椎动物中使用定量方法进行研究。Bdelloid轮虫是一种世界性的水生无脊椎动物,具有极大的科学兴趣,因为它们能够在非常恶劣的环境中生存,也因为它们代表了仅包括无性繁殖物种的古代血统的罕见例子。在这个课上,Adinetaricciae已成为模型物种,因为它异常容易培养。然而,人们对它的行为学知之甚少,对它在进食过程中的行为几乎一无所知。
方法:为了探索李草的摄食行为,以及提供计算行为学在微观无脊椎动物中的应用示例,我们将Procrustes运动分析与排序和聚类方法相结合,应用于饲喂过程中记录的实验室繁殖样本。
结果:我们证明了在喂食过程中的运动可以在具有三种主要\'运动模式\'的简单二维形状空间中准确描述。脚伸缩,身体保持笔直,是最常见的\'模式\',但它伴随着脚的周期性旋转和弯曲,而脚大多是缩回的。
结论:Procrustes运动分析是一种相对简单但有效的工具,用于描述Ricciae的摄食过程中的运动。这种方法的应用产生了定量数据,可以在各种实验环境中分析与遗传和生态差异有关的数据。该研究提供了一个易于在其他无脊椎动物中复制的例子,包括其他行为生态学通常鲜为人知的微观动物。
BACKGROUND: Movement is a defining aspect of animals, but it is rarely studied using quantitative methods in microscopic invertebrates. Bdelloid rotifers are a cosmopolitan class of aquatic invertebrates of great scientific interest because of their ability to survive in very harsh environment and also because they represent a rare example of an ancient lineage that only includes asexually reproducing species. In this class, Adineta ricciae has become a model species as it is unusually easy to culture. Yet, relatively little is known of its ethology and almost nothing on how it behaves during feeding.
METHODS: To explore feeding behaviour in A. ricciae, as well as to provide an example of application of computational ethology in a microscopic invertebrate, we apply Procrustes motion analysis in combination with ordination and clustering methods to a laboratory bred sample of individuals recorded during feeding.
RESULTS: We demonstrate that movement during feeding can be accurately described in a simple two-dimensional shape space with three main \'modes\' of motion. Foot telescoping, with the body kept straight, is the most frequent \'mode\', but it is accompanied by periodic rotations of the foot together with bending while the foot is mostly retracted.
CONCLUSIONS: Procrustes motion analysis is a relatively simple but effective tool for describing motion during feeding in A. ricciae. The application of this method generates quantitative data that could be analysed in relation to genetic and ecological differences in a variety of experimental settings. The study provides an example that is easy to replicate in other invertebrates, including other microscopic animals whose behavioural ecology is often poorly known.