TY  - GEN
T1  - Temperature stressed Caenorhabditis elegans males fail to mate successfully and successful males produce very few viable cross progeny
AU  - Sepulveda, Nicholas B
AU  - Petrella, Lisa N
DO  - 10.17912/micropub.biology.000475
UR  - http://beta.micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-000475/
AB  - Like most species, Caenorhabditis elegans show a dramatic decrease in fertility when exposed to increasing temperatures (Harvey and Viney, 2007; Petrella, 2014; Poullet et al., 2015). In hermaphrodites, the susceptibility of sperm to temperature stress is the foremost factor defining the decline in fertility observed in several wild type strains of the species (Harvey and Viney, 2007; Petrella, 2014; Poullet et al., 2015). While some studies have looked directly at the impact of temperature stress on the males of the species (Nett et al., 2019; Petrella, 2014; Poullet et al., 2015), the conflation of temperature effects on male mating behavior, mating success, and male sperm function have made these studies more difficult. Previously, we showed that C. elegans males of several wild type strains have low mating success when exposed to moderate temperature stress (27°C), as measured by the percentage of males that had any viable cross progeny when crossed with unc-119 hermaphrodites (Petrella, 2014). However, we did not assess if those males that show some level of fertility had a decrease in the number of viable cross progeny that they could produce, as is seen in hermaphrodites exposed to moderate temperature stress (Harvey and Viney, 2007; Petrella, 2014; Poullet et al., 2015). These previous experiments were also done with males of each wild type strain crossed with the unc-119 mutant hermaphrodites in the N2 background, thus genetic incompatibilities could not be ruled out as playing a role in the decreased mating success. To avoid genetic incompatibilities and assess male fertility in a way that would more accurately recapitulate the most likely scenario in the natural habitat of C. elegans (Barrière and Félix, 2005; Richaud et al., 2018), we crossed males of three wild type strains of C. elegans: JU1171, LKC34, and N2 with strain matched wild type hermaphrodites. As genetic incompatibility may not be a strong factor, we also crossed wild type males with unc-24(e138) hermaphrodites in the N2 background because Unc hermaphrodites have limited motility, which would facilitate higher male mating success. Thus, we may be more likely to capture any viable progeny that could be produced by males of each strain because they are more likely to successfully mate.
PY  - 2021
JO  - microPublication Biology
ER  -