Functionally non-redundant paralogs spe-47 and spe-50 encode FB-MO associated proteins and interact with him-8.

ABSTRACT: The activation of C. elegans spermatids to crawling spermatozoa is affected by a number of genes including spe-47. Here, we investigate a paralog to spe-47: spe-50, which has a highly conserved sequence and expression, but which is not functionally redundant to spe-47. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the duplication event that produced the paralogs occurred prior to the radiation of the Caenorhabditis species included in the analysis, allowing a long period for the paralogs to diverge in function. Furthermore, we observed that knockout mutations in both genes, either alone or together, have little effect on sperm function. However, hermaphrodites harboring both knockout mutations combined with a third mutation in the him-8 gene are nearly self-sterile due to a sperm defect, even thoug

SUBMITTER: Clark JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7774929 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature