Sex as a response to oxidative stress: stress genes co-opted for sex.

ABSTRACT: Despite a great deal of interest, the evolutionary origins and roles of sex remain unclear. Recently, we showed that in the multicellular green alga, Volvox carteri, sex is a response to increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which could be indicative of the ancestral role of sex as an adaptive response to stress-induced ROS. To provide additional support for the suggestion that sex evolved as a response to oxidative stress, this study addresses the hypothesis that genes involved in sexual induction are evolutionarily related to genes associated with various stress responses. In particular, this study investigates the evolutionary history of genes specific to the sexual induction process in V. carteri--including those encoding the sexual inducer (SI) and several SI-induced extr

SUBMITTER: Nedelcu AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1559886 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature