dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaHigh local genetic diversity and low outcrossing rate in Caenorhabditis elegans natural populations
| Authors | Antoine Barrière, Marie-Anne Félix |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0508003 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0508003 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.cub.2005.06.022 |
| Journal | Current Biology 15 (2005) 1176-1184 |
Abstract
Background: Caenorhabditis elegans is a major model system in biology, yet very little is known about its biology outside the laboratory. Especially, its unusual mode of reproduction with self-fertile hermaphrodites and facultative males raises the question of its frequency of outcrossing in natural populations. Results: We describe the first analysis of C. elegans individuals sampled directly from natural populations. C. elegans is found predominantly in the dauer stage and with a very low frequency of males compared with hermaphrodites. While C. elegans was previously shown to display a low worldwide genetic diversity, we find by comparison a surprisingly high local genetic diversity of C. elegans populations; this local diversity is contributed in great part by immigration of new alleles rather than by mutation. Our results on heterozygote frequency, male frequency and linkage disequilibrium furthermore show that selfing is the predominant mode of reproduction in C. elegans natural populations, yet that infrequent outcrossing events occur, at a rate of approximately 1%. Conclusions: Our results give a first insight in the biology of C. elegans in the natural populations. They demonstrate that local populations of C. elegans are genetically diverse and that a low frequency of outcrossing allows for the recombination of these locally diverse genotypes.
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"abstract": "Background: Caenorhabditis elegans is a major model system in biology, yet\nvery little is known about its biology outside the laboratory. Especially, its\nunusual mode of reproduction with self-fertile hermaphrodites and facultative\nmales raises the question of its frequency of outcrossing in natural\npopulations. Results: We describe the first analysis of C. elegans individuals\nsampled directly from natural populations. C. elegans is found predominantly in\nthe dauer stage and with a very low frequency of males compared with\nhermaphrodites. While C. elegans was previously shown to display a low\nworldwide genetic diversity, we find by comparison a surprisingly high local\ngenetic diversity of C. elegans populations; this local diversity is\ncontributed in great part by immigration of new alleles rather than by\nmutation. Our results on heterozygote frequency, male frequency and linkage\ndisequilibrium furthermore show that selfing is the predominant mode of\nreproduction in C. elegans natural populations, yet that infrequent outcrossing\nevents occur, at a rate of approximately 1%. Conclusions: Our results give a\nfirst insight in the biology of C. elegans in the natural populations. They\ndemonstrate that local populations of C. elegans are genetically diverse and\nthat a low frequency of outcrossing allows for the recombination of these\nlocally diverse genotypes.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0508003",
"authors": [
"Antoine Barri\u00e8re",
"Marie-Anne F\u00e9lix"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.PE"
],
"doi": "10.1016/j.cub.2005.06.022",
"journal_ref": "Current Biology 15 (2005) 1176-1184",
"title": "High local genetic diversity and low outcrossing rate in Caenorhabditis elegans natural populations",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0508003"
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