Establishing laboratory cultures and performing ecological and evolutionary experiments with the emerging model species Chironomus riparius

• Published in: Journal of applied entomology (1986) Vol. 143; no. 5; pp. 584 - 592
• Main Authors: Foucault, Quentin, Wieser, Andreas, Waldvogel, Ann‐Marie, Pfenninger, Markus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2019
• Subjects: Biological evolution; Chironomus; Chironomus riparius; Ecological monitoring; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; experimental evolution; Experimental methods; experiments; Fruit flies; Genomics; laboratory cultures; long term; methods; Mutation; Population genetics; Recombination; Research methodology; Species
• ISSN: 0931-2048; 1439-0418
• DOI: 10.1111/jen.12606

Chironomus riparius is a well‐established model organism in various fields such as ecotoxicology and ecology, and therefore, environmental preferences, ecological interactions and metabolic traits are well‐studied. With the recent publication of a high‐quality draft genome, as well as different population genetic parameters such as mutation and recombination rate, the species can be used as an alternative to the Drosophila models in experimental population genomics or molecular ecology. To facilitate access to this promising experimental model species for a wider range of researchers, we describe experimental methods to first create and sustain long‐term cultures of C. riparius and then use them to perform repeatable and comparable experiments for various research questions.