Date of Presentation

5-4-2023 12:00 AM

College

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine

Poster Abstract

The heterochronic genes of C. elegans comprise the best-studied pathway controlling the timing of tissue and organ formation in an animal. To begin to understand the evolution of this pathway, the significance of each factor, and the relationships among the components, we characterized 11 C. briggsae orthologs of C. elegans heterochronic genes. Using CRISPR/Cas9, we made a variety of alleles and found that several mutant phenotypes differ in significant ways from those of C. elegans. Although most orthologs displayed defects in developmental timing, those phenotypes could differ in which stages they controlled, the penetrance and expressivity of the phenotypes, or by having additional pleiotropic effects that were not obviously connected to developmental timing. However, when examining pairwise epistasis and synergistic relationships, we found those paralleled the known relationships between their C. elegans orthologs, suggesting that the arrangements of these genes in functional modules is conserved, but the modules’ relationships to each other and/or to their targets has drifted since the time of the species’ last common ancestor. Furthermore, our investigation has revealed a relationship to this pathway to other aspects of the animal’s growth and development, including gonad development, that may be relevant to both species.

Keywords

C. elegans, Caenorhabditis elegans, heterochronic genes, tissue development, organ development, orthologs, mutation

Disciplines

Cell and Developmental Biology | Genetic Phenomena | Genetic Processes | Laboratory and Basic Science Research | Medicine and Health Sciences | Molecular Genetics

Document Type

Poster

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May 4th, 12:00 AM

Orthologs of the C. elegans Heterochronic Genes Have Divergent Functions in C. briggsae

The heterochronic genes of C. elegans comprise the best-studied pathway controlling the timing of tissue and organ formation in an animal. To begin to understand the evolution of this pathway, the significance of each factor, and the relationships among the components, we characterized 11 C. briggsae orthologs of C. elegans heterochronic genes. Using CRISPR/Cas9, we made a variety of alleles and found that several mutant phenotypes differ in significant ways from those of C. elegans. Although most orthologs displayed defects in developmental timing, those phenotypes could differ in which stages they controlled, the penetrance and expressivity of the phenotypes, or by having additional pleiotropic effects that were not obviously connected to developmental timing. However, when examining pairwise epistasis and synergistic relationships, we found those paralleled the known relationships between their C. elegans orthologs, suggesting that the arrangements of these genes in functional modules is conserved, but the modules’ relationships to each other and/or to their targets has drifted since the time of the species’ last common ancestor. Furthermore, our investigation has revealed a relationship to this pathway to other aspects of the animal’s growth and development, including gonad development, that may be relevant to both species.

 

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