Natural Variation in plep-1 Causes Male-Male Copulatory Behavior in C. elegans.

ABSTRACT: In sexual species, gametes have to find and recognize one another. Signaling is thus central to sexual reproduction and involves a rapidly evolving interplay of shared and divergent interests [1-4]. Among Caenorhabditis nematodes, three species have evolved self-fertilization, changing the balance of intersexual relations [5]. Males in these androdioecious species are rare, and the evolutionary interests of hermaphrodites dominate. Signaling has shifted accordingly, with females losing behavioral responses to males [6, 7] and males losing competitive abilities [8, 9]. Males in these species also show variable same-sex and autocopulatory mating behaviors [6, 10]. These behaviors could have evolved by relaxed selection on male function, accumulation of sexually antagonistic alleles that bene

SUBMITTER: Noble LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4618159 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature