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Published October 1, 2007 | Published
Journal Article Open

Genetic Analysis of Dauer Formation in Caenorhabditis briggsae

Abstract

Molecular changes that underlie evolutionary changes in behavior and physiology are not well understood. Dauer formation in Caenorhabditis elegans is a temperature-sensitive process controlled through a network of signaling pathways associated with sensory neurons and is potentially an excellent system in which to investigate molecular changes in neuronal function during evolution. To begin to investigate the evolution of dauer formation in the genus Caenorhabditis at the molecular level, we isolated dauer-formation mutations in C. briggsae, a species closely related to the model organism C. elegans. We identified mutations in orthologs of C. elegans genes daf-2 (insulin receptor), daf-3 (Smad), and daf-4 (TGF-β type 2 receptor), as well as genes required for formation of sensory cilia. Phenotypic analyses revealed that functions of these genes are conserved between C. elegans and C. briggsae. Analysis of C. briggsae mutations also revealed a significant difference between the two species in their responses to high temperatures (>26°). C. elegans is strongly induced to form dauers at temperatures above 26°, near the upper limit for growth of C. elegans. In contrast, C. briggsae, which is capable of growth at higher temperatures than C. elegans, lacks this response.

Additional Information

© 2007 by the Genetics Society of America. Manuscript received July 13, 2007; Accepted for publication July 18, 2007. We thank R. Johnsen and D. Baillie for C. briggsae mutants and mapping data. We thank S. Gharib and B. P. Gupta for technical assistance and useful reagents. We thank E. Hallem, X. Wang, and J. Srinivasan for comments on the manuscript. T.I. was supported by fellowship DRG-1646 from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. This work was supported by HHMI, where P.W.S. is an investigator. Some nematode strains used in this work were provided by the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources (NCRR).

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August 19, 2023
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