Tumors alter life history traits in the freshwater cnidarian, .
Justine Boutry, Sophie Tissot, Narimène Mekaoui, Antoine Dujon, Jordan Meliani, Rodrigo Hamede, Beata Ujvari, Benjamin Roche, Aurora M Nedelcu, Jácint Tokolyi, Frédéric Thomas
Author Information
Justine Boutry: CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Sophie Tissot: CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Narimène Mekaoui: CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Antoine Dujon: CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Jordan Meliani: CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Rodrigo Hamede: School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Beata Ujvari: CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Benjamin Roche: CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Aurora M Nedelcu: Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Jácint Tokolyi: MTA-DE "Momentum" Ecology, Evolution and Developmental Biology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary.
Frédéric Thomas: CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Although tumors can occur during the lifetime of most multicellular organisms and have the potential to influence health, how they alter life-history traits in tumor-bearing individuals remains poorly documented. This question was explored using the freshwater cnidarian , a species sometimes affected by vertically transmitted tumors. We found that tumorous polyps have a reduced survival compared to healthy ones. However, they also displayed higher asexual reproductive effort, by producing more often multiple buds than healthy ones. A similar acceleration is observed for the sexual reproduction (estimated through gamete production). Because tumoral cells are not transmitted through this reproductive mode, this finding suggests that hosts may adaptively respond to tumors, compensating the expected fitness losses by increasing their immediate reproductive effort. This study supports the hypothesis that tumorigenesis has the potential to influence the biology, ecology, and evolution of multicellular species, and thus should be considered more by evolutionary ecologists.
