Mutations in two independent pathways are sufficient to create hermaphroditic nematodes.
Although the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans produces self-fertile hermaphrodites, it descended from a male/female species, so hermaphroditism provides a model for the origin of novel traits. In the related species C. remanei, which has only male and female sexes, lowering the activity of tra-2 by RNA interference created XX animals that made spermatids as well as oocytes, but their spermatids could not activate without the addition of male seminal fluid. However, by lowering the expression of both tra-2 and swm-1, a gene that regulates sperm activation in C. elegans, we produced XX animals with active sperm that were self-fertile. Thus, the evolution of hermaphroditism in Caenorhabditis probably required two steps: a mutation in the sex-determination pathway that caused XX spermatogenesis and a mutation that allowed these spermatids to self-activate.
Baldi
Chris
C
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA.
Cho
Soochin
S
Ellis
Ronald E
RE
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002107:Caenorhabditis / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D012734:Disorders of Sex Development / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009866:Oogenesis; D010060:Ovulation; D010802:Phylogeny; D012098:Reproduction; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D019849:Sex Determination Processes; D013087:Spermatids / Q000502:physiology; D013091:Spermatogenesis
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C515185:SWM-1 protein, C elegans; C076107:tra-2 protein, C elegans