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Molecular basis of the copulatory plug polymorphism in Caenorhabditis elegans
Authors
Andrea Aduna
Stephen Curwen
+6 more
Leonid Kruglyak
Jason Laurita
Michael F. Palopoli
Camden Ramsay
Matthew V. Rockman
Aye TinMaung
Publication date
21 August 2008
Publisher
Bowdoin Digital Commons
Abstract
Heritable variation is the raw material for evolutionary change, and understanding its genetic basis is one of the central problems in modern biology. We investigated the genetic basis of a classic phenotypic dimorphism in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Males from many natural isolates deposit a copulatory plug after mating, whereas males from other natural isolates-including the standard wild-type strain (N2 Bristol) that is used in most research laboratories-do not deposit plugs. The copulatory plug is a gelatinous mass that covers the hermaphrodite vulva, and its deposition decreases the mating success of subsequent males. We show that the plugging polymorphism results from the insertion of a retrotransposon into an exon of a novel mucin-like gene, plg-1, whose product is a major structural component of the copulatory plug. The gene is expressed in a subset of secretory cells of the male somatic gonad, and its loss has no evident effects beyond the loss of male mate-guarding. Although C. elegans descends from an obligate-outcrossing, male?female ancestor, it occurs primarily as self-fertilizing hermaphrodites. The reduced selection on male-male competition associated with the origin of hermaphroditism may have permitted the global spread of a loss-of-function mutation with restricted pleiotropy. ©2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
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Last time updated on 19/07/2023