1. Evolutionary Biology
  2. Genetics and Genomics

Self-sperm induce resistance to the detrimental effects of sexual encounters with males in hermaphroditic nematodes

  1. Lauren N Booth
  2. Travis J Maures
  3. Robin W Yeo
  4. Cindy Tantilert
  5. Anne Brunet  Is a corresponding author
  1. Stanford University, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46418
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  1. Lauren N Booth
  2. Travis J Maures
  3. Robin W Yeo
  4. Cindy Tantilert
  5. Anne Brunet
(2019)
Self-sperm induce resistance to the detrimental effects of sexual encounters with males in hermaphroditic nematodes
eLife 8:e46418.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46418
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Abstract

Sexual interactions have a potent influence on health in several species, including mammals. Previous work in C. elegans identified strategies used by males to accelerate the demise of the opposite sex (hermaphrodites). But whether hermaphrodites evolved counter-strategies against males remains unknown. Here we discover that young C. elegans hermaphrodites are remarkably resistant to brief sexual encounters with males, whereas older hermaphrodites succumb prematurely. Surprisingly, it is not their youthfulness that protects young hermaphrodites, but the fact that they have self-sperm. The beneficial effect of self-sperm is mediated by a sperm-sensing pathway acting on the soma rather than by fertilization. Activation of this pathway in females triggers protection from the negative impact of males. Interestingly, the role of self-sperm in protecting against the detrimental effects of males evolved independently in hermaphroditic nematodes. Endogenous strategies to delay the negative effect of mating may represent a key evolutionary innovation to maximize reproductive success.

Data availability

Sequencing data have been deposited in NCBI SRA under accession code PRJNA508378

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Lauren N Booth

    Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  2. Travis J Maures

    Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    Travis J Maures, is affiliated with Synthego. The author has no financial interests to declare..

  3. Robin W Yeo

    Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  4. Cindy Tantilert

    Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  5. Anne Brunet

    Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    For correspondence
    abrunet1@stanford.edu
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4608-6845

Funding

National Institutes of Health (DP1 AG044848)

  • Anne Brunet

National Institutes of Health (R01 AG054201)

  • Anne Brunet

Helen Hay Whitney Foundation (Joan Whitney Payson Scholar)

  • Lauren N Booth

National Institutes of Health (K99 AG051738)

  • Lauren N Booth

Genentech Foundation (Genentech Foundation Predoctoral Fellow)

  • Robin W Yeo

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2019, Booth et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Lauren N Booth
  2. Travis J Maures
  3. Robin W Yeo
  4. Cindy Tantilert
  5. Anne Brunet
(2019)
Self-sperm induce resistance to the detrimental effects of sexual encounters with males in hermaphroditic nematodes
eLife 8:e46418.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46418

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46418

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Further reading

    1. Genetics and Genomics

    Insulin-like peptides and the mTOR-TFEB pathway protect Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodites from mating-induced death

    Cheng Shi, Lauren N Booth, Coleen T Murphy
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    Lifespan is shortened by mating, but these deleterious effects must be delayed long enough for successful reproduction. Susceptibility to brief mating-induced death is caused by the loss of protection upon self-sperm depletion. Self-sperm maintains the expression of a DAF-2 insulin-like antagonist, INS-37, which promotes the nuclear localization of intestinal HLH-30/TFEB, a key pro-longevity regulator. Mating induces the agonist INS-8, promoting HLH-30 nuclear exit and subsequent death. In opposition to the protective role of HLH-30 and DAF-16/FOXO, TOR/LET-363 and the IIS-regulated Zn-finger transcription factor PQM-1 promote seminal-fluid-induced killing. Self-sperm maintenance of nuclear HLH-30/TFEB allows hermaphrodites to resist mating-induced death until self-sperm are exhausted, increasing the chances that mothers will survive through reproduction. Mothers combat males’ hijacking of their IIS pathway by expressing an insulin antagonist that keeps her healthy through the activity of pro-longevity factors, as long as she has her own sperm to utilize.

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    Heterozygote advantage can explain the extraordinary diversity of immune genes

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    Research Article Updated

    The majority of highly polymorphic genes are related to immune functions and with over 100 alleles within a population, genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are the most polymorphic loci in vertebrates. How such extraordinary polymorphism arose and is maintained is controversial. One possibility is heterozygote advantage (HA), which can in principle maintain any number of alleles, but biologically explicit models based on this mechanism have so far failed to reliably predict the coexistence of significantly more than 10 alleles. We here present an eco-evolutionary model showing that evolution can result in the emergence and maintenance of more than 100 alleles under HA if the following two assumptions are fulfilled: first, pathogens are lethal in the absence of an appropriate immune defence; second, the effect of pathogens depends on host condition, with hosts in poorer condition being affected more strongly. Thus, our results show that HA can be a more potent force in explaining the extraordinary polymorphism found at MHC loci than currently recognised.