title: Comparative RNAi screens in C. elegans and C. briggsae reveal the impact of developmental system drift on gene function.
abstract: Although two related species may have extremely similar phenotypes, the genetic networks underpinning this conserved biology may have diverged substantially since they last shared a common ancestor. This is termed Developmental System Drift (DSD) and reflects the plasticity of genetic networks. One consequence of DSD is that some orthologous genes will have evolved different in vivo functions in two such phenotypically similar, related species and will therefore have different loss of function phenotypes. Here we report an RNAi screen in C. elegans and C. briggsae to identify such cases. We screened 1333 genes in both species and identified 91 orthologues that have different RNAi phenotypes. Intriguingly, we find that recently evolved genes of unknown function have the fastest evolving in vivo functions and, in several cases, we identify the molecular events driving these changes. We thus find that DSD has a major impact on the evolution of gene function and we anticipate that the C. briggsae RNAi library reported here will drive future studies on comparative functional genomics screens in these nematodes.
authors: The Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ; Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Adrian J
authors: AJ
authors: Verster
authors: The Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ; Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Arun K
authors: AK
authors: Ramani
authors: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States of America.
authors: Sheldon J
authors: SJ
authors: McKay
authors: The Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ; Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Andrew G
authors: AG
authors: Fraser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D010641:Phenotype; D034622:RNA Interference; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins