Highly Polygenic Variation in Environmental Perception Determines Dauer Larvae Formation in Growing Populations of Caenorhabditis elegans
Highly Polygenic Variation in Environmental Perception Determines Dauer Larvae Formation in Growing Populations of Caenorhabditis elegans
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0112830
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发表时间：
2014-11-13
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Harvey, Simon C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Green, James W. M.;Stastna, Jana J.;Harvey, Simon C.
背景：如果我们要预测复杂性状如何进化以及它们对选择的反应如何，就必须确定复杂性状是如何受到基因控制的。这需要了解不同的、通常更简单的生活史特征如何根据环境条件相互作用和变化。为了开始解决这些问题，我们一直在分析不同条件下秀丽隐杆线虫发育停滞的幼虫的形成。结果：我们发现，通过确定食物斑耗尽时存在的幼虫数量进行分析，我们发现先前确定的 22 个数量性状位点 (QTL) 中的 18 个影响生长群体中幼虫的形成，可以在各种环境条件下恢复。我们还表明，食物斑块的大小会影响 QTL 检测的能力和效应大小的估计，并证明 nath-10 的等位基因会影响不断增长的种群中 dauer 幼虫的形成。为了研究影响生长群体中 dauer 幼虫形成的组成性状，我们使用相同的基因渗入系绘制了影响 dauer 幼虫形成的 QTL，以响应规定量的信息素。这鉴定了 36 个 QTL，再次证明了 dauer 幼虫形成背后的遗传变异的高度多基因性质。结论：这些数据表明，在秀丽隐杆线虫生长种群中，影响食物耗尽时 dauer 幼虫数量的 QTL 具有高度可重复性，并且几乎所有 QTL 都可以通过影响 dauer 幼虫形成的变异来解释，该变异影响了对确定数量的信息素的反应。这表明，不断增长的种群中多尔幼虫形成的大部分变化是对食物和信息素环境的感知变化（即化学感应变化）以及这些线索整合的结果。
Background: Determining how complex traits are genetically controlled is a requirement if we are to predict how they evolve and how they might respond to selection. This requires understanding how distinct, and often more simple, life history traits interact and change in response to environmental conditions. In order to begin addressing such issues, we have been analyzing the formation of the developmentally arrested dauer larvae of Caenorhabditis elegans under different conditions.Results: We find that 18 of 22 previously identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting dauer larvae formation in growing populations, assayed by determining the number of dauer larvae present at food patch exhaustion, can be recovered under various environmental conditions. We also show that food patch size affects both the ability to detect QTLs and estimates of effect size, and demonstrate that an allele of nath-10 affects dauer larvae formation in growing populations. To investigate the component traits that affect dauer larvae formation in growing populations we map, using the same introgression lines, QTLs that affect dauer larvae formation in response to defined amounts of pheromone. This identifies 36 QTLs, again demonstrating the highly polygenic nature of the genetic variation underlying dauer larvae formation.Conclusions: These data indicate that QTLs affecting the number of dauer larvae at food exhaustion in growing populations of C. elegans are highly reproducible, and that nearly all can be explained by variation affecting dauer larvae formation in response to defined amounts of pheromone. This suggests that most variation in dauer larvae formation in growing populations is a consequence of variation in the perception of the food and pheromone environment (i.e. chemosensory variation) and in the integration of these cues.