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 PMID:34534386  

Virus infection modulates male sexual behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Lisa van Sluijs | Jie Liu | Mels Schrama | Sanne van Hamond | Sophie P J M Vromans | Marèl H Scholten | Nika Žibrat | Joost A G Riksen | Gorben P Pijlman | Mark G Sterken | Jan E Kammenga
Molecular ecology | 2021

Mating dynamics follow from natural selection on mate choice and individuals maximizing their reproductive success. Mate discrimination reveals itself by a plethora of behaviours and morphological characteristics, each of which can be affected by pathogens. A key question is how pathogens affect mate choice and outcrossing behaviour. Here we investigated the effect of Orsay virus on the mating dynamics of the androdiecious (male and hermaphrodite) nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. We tested genetically distinct strains and found that viral susceptibility differed between sexes in a genotype-dependent manner with males of reference strain N2 being more resistant than hermaphrodites. Males displayed a constitutively higher expression of intracellular pathogen response (IPR) genes, whereas the antiviral RNAi response did not have increased activity in males. Subsequent monitoring of sex ratios over 10 generations revealed that viral presence can change mating dynamics in isogenic populations. Sexual attraction assays showed that males preferred mating with uninfected rather than infected hermaphrodites. Together our results illustrate for the first time that viral infection can significantly affect male mating choice and suggest altered mating dynamics as a novel cause benefitting outcrossing under pathogenic stress conditions in C. elegans.

Pubmed ID: 34534386

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ArrayExpress (tool)

RRID:SCR_002964

International functional genomics data collection generated from microarray or next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. Repository of functional genomics data supporting publications. Provides genes expression data for reuse to the research community where they can be queried and downloaded. Integrated with the Gene Expression Atlas and the sequence databases at the European Bioinformatics Institute. Contains a subset of curated and re-annotated Archive data which can be queried for individual gene expression under different biological conditions across experiments. Data collected to MIAME and MINSEQE standards. Data are submitted by users or are imported directly from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus.

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LIMMA (tool)

RRID:SCR_010943

Software package for the analysis of gene expression microarray data, especially the use of linear models for analyzing designed experiments and the assessment of differential expression.

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Caenorhabditis Genetics Center (tool)

RRID:SCR_007341

Center that acquires, maintains, and distributes genetic stocks and information about stocks of the small free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans for use by investigators initiating or continuing research on this genetic model organism. A searchable strain database, general information about C. elegans, and links to key Web sites of use to scientists, including WormBase, WormAtlas, and WormBook are available.

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