| Title: | Parallel evolution of domesticated Caenorhabditis species targets pheromone receptor genes |
| Author(s): | McGrath PT; Xu Y; Ailion M; Garrison JL; Butcher RA; Bargmann CI; |
| Address: | "Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1476-4687 (Electronic) 0028-0836 (Print) 0028-0836 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Evolution can follow predictable genetic trajectories, indicating that discrete environmental shifts can select for reproducible genetic changes. Conspecific individuals are an important feature of an animal's environment, and a potential source of selective pressures. Here we show that adaptation of two Caenorhabditis species to growth at high density, a feature common to domestic environments, occurs by reproducible genetic changes to pheromone receptor genes. Chemical communication through pheromones that accumulate during high-density growth causes young nematode larvae to enter the long-lived but non-reproductive dauer stage. Two strains of Caenorhabditis elegans grown at high density have independently acquired multigenic resistance to pheromone-induced dauer formation. In each strain, resistance to the pheromone ascaroside C3 results from a deletion that disrupts the adjacent chemoreceptor genes serpentine receptor class g (srg)-36 and -37. Through misexpression experiments, we show that these genes encode redundant G-protein-coupled receptors for ascaroside C3. Multigenic resistance to dauer formation has also arisen in high-density cultures of a different nematode species, Caenorhabditis briggsae, resulting in part from deletion of an srg gene paralogous to srg-36 and srg-37. These results demonstrate rapid remodelling of the chemoreceptor repertoire as an adaptation to specific environments, and indicate that parallel changes to a common genetic substrate can affect life-history traits across species" |
| Keywords: | "Adaptation, Physiological/genetics/physiology Animals *Biological Evolution Caenorhabditis elegans/classification/drug effects/*genetics/*physiology Environment Evolution, Molecular Glycolipids/metabolism/pharmacology Hibernation/genetics/physiology Larva;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineMcGrath, Patrick T Xu, Yifan Ailion, Michael Garrison, Jennifer L Butcher, Rebecca A Bargmann, Cornelia I eng GM07739/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ HHMI/Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ R00 GM087533/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ R00GM87533/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ T32 GM007739/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ K99 GM092859-02/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ K99 GM092859/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2011/08/19 Nature. 2011 Aug 17; 477(7364):321-5. doi: 10.1038/nature10378" |
