TY  - GEN
T1  - Behavioral Differences between Male and Hermaphrodite C. elegans
AU  - Loxterkamp, Elizabeth
AU  - Cha, Jaaram
AU  - Wu, Katharine
AU  - Sullivan, Janessa
AU  - Holbrook, Olivia
AU  - Ghaith, Hazar
AU  - Srun, Lena
AU  - Bauer, Deborah E.
DO  - 10.17912/micropub.biology.000431
UR  - http://beta.micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-000431/
AB  - C. elegans males and hermaphrodites differ genetically, physiologically, and neurologically. Hermaphrodites possess both X chromosomes (XX), while males have only one (XO) due to spontaneous nondisjunction that can occur during meiosis (Chasnov and Chow 2002). Males differ physiologically from hermaphrodites in that they are smaller, unable to produce eggs, and possess a blunted, fan-shaped tail, as opposed to the hermaphrodites’ long pointed tail. The males’ fan-shaped tail is used for cross-fertilization with hermaphrodites. In regards to their neural circuit, hermaphrodites possess 302 neurons while males have 385. Many of the males’ additional neurons are connected to the tail and are therefore used for mating. In addition, male C. elegans possess 91 sex-specific neurons, while hermaphrodites possess 8, and the remaining 294 neurons are not sex-specific (Portman 2007). Egg-laying, mate-searching, and pheromone-releasing behaviors have been of great interest to researchers (Barrios, Nurrish, and Emmons 2008). A handful of papers have presented rich studies regarding non-mating behaviors across the sexes, such as chemosensory behavior (Lee and Portman 2007), and locomotion (Mowrey, Bennett, and Portman 2014; Suo et al. 2019). We chose to focus on basic behavioral differences tests similar to those studied before as well as mechanosensation and another assay for chemosensation.
PY  - 2021
JO  - microPublication Biology
ER  -