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A maternal-effect genetic incompatibility in Caenorhabditis elegans

View ORCID ProfileEyal Ben-David, View ORCID ProfileAlejandro Burga, View ORCID ProfileLeonid Kruglyak
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/112524
Eyal Ben-David
Department of Human Genetics, Department of Biological Chemistry, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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  • ORCID record for Eyal Ben-David
  • For correspondence: ebd@ucla.edu aburga@mednet.ucla.edu lkruglyak@mednet.ucla.edu
Alejandro Burga
Department of Human Genetics, Department of Biological Chemistry, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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  • For correspondence: ebd@ucla.edu aburga@mednet.ucla.edu lkruglyak@mednet.ucla.edu
Leonid Kruglyak
Department of Human Genetics, Department of Biological Chemistry, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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  • ORCID record for Leonid Kruglyak
  • For correspondence: ebd@ucla.edu aburga@mednet.ucla.edu lkruglyak@mednet.ucla.edu
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Abstract

Selfish genetic elements spread in natural populations and have an important role in genome evolution. We discovered a selfish element causing a genetic incompatibility between strains of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The element is made up of sup-35, a maternal-effect toxin that kills developing embryos, and pha-1, its zygotically expressed antidote. pha-1 has long been considered essential for pharynx development based on its mutant phenotype, but this phenotype in fact arises from a loss of suppression of sup-35 toxicity. Inactive copies of the sup-35/pha-1 element show high sequence divergence from active copies, and phylogenetic reconstruction suggests that they represent ancestral stages in the evolution of the element. Our results suggest that other essential genes identified by genetic screens may turn out to be components of selfish elements.

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Posted March 01, 2017.
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A maternal-effect genetic incompatibility in Caenorhabditis elegans
Eyal Ben-David, Alejandro Burga, Leonid Kruglyak
bioRxiv 112524; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/112524
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A maternal-effect genetic incompatibility in Caenorhabditis elegans
Eyal Ben-David, Alejandro Burga, Leonid Kruglyak
bioRxiv 112524; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/112524

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