Molecular basis of the copulatory plug polymorphism in Caenorhabditis elegans

Michael F. Palopoli (), Matthew V. Rockman, Aye TinMaung, Camden Ramsay, Stephen Curwen, Andrea Aduna, Jason Laurita and Leonid Kruglyak
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Michael F. Palopoli: Bowdoin College, 6500 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011, USA
Matthew V. Rockman: Carl Icahn Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
Aye TinMaung: Bowdoin College, 6500 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011, USA
Camden Ramsay: Bowdoin College, 6500 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011, USA
Stephen Curwen: Bowdoin College, 6500 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011, USA
Andrea Aduna: Bowdoin College, 6500 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011, USA
Jason Laurita: Bowdoin College, 6500 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011, USA
Leonid Kruglyak: Carl Icahn Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 454, issue 7207, 1019-1022

Abstract: Abstract Heritable variation is the raw material for evolutionary change, and understanding its genetic basis is one of the central problems in modern biology. We investigated the genetic basis of a classic phenotypic dimorphism in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Males from many natural isolates deposit a copulatory plug after mating, whereas males from other natural isolates?including the standard wild-type strain (N2 Bristol) that is used in most research laboratories?do not deposit plugs1. The copulatory plug is a gelatinous mass that covers the hermaphrodite vulva, and its deposition decreases the mating success of subsequent males2. We show that the plugging polymorphism results from the insertion of a retrotransposon into an exon of a novel mucin-like gene, plg-1, whose product is a major structural component of the copulatory plug. The gene is expressed in a subset of secretory cells of the male somatic gonad, and its loss has no evident effects beyond the loss of male mate-guarding. Although C. elegans descends from an obligate-outcrossing, male?female ancestor3,4, it occurs primarily as self-fertilizing hermaphrodites5,6,7. The reduced selection on male?male competition associated with the origin of hermaphroditism may have permitted the global spread of a loss-of-function mutation with restricted pleiotropy.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07171

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