Gene expression analysis for comparative study between Caenorhabditis elegans and its sister species, C. inopinata.
The recently discovered nematode Caenorhabditis inopinata differs so greatly from its sibling species C. elegans across various traits. In particular, the body size of C. inopinata is more than two times larger than that of C. elegans, reaching nearly 3 mm. In this study, we focused on how the body size of this species has evolved and whether TEs play a role. We compared gene expression levels between C. inopinata (female) and C. elegans (temperature-sensitive feminized mutant, fem-1) during the L4 larval and young adult stages -- when growth rates differ most prominently between species -- to identify candidate genes that contribute to their evolution and examine whether genes with TE insertions are differentially expressed between species.