Glial expression of a steroidogenic enzyme underlies natural variation in hitchhiking behavior

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Yang, Heeseung; Lee, Daehan; Kim, Heekyeong; Cook, Daniel E.; Paik, Young - Ki; Andersen, Erik C.; Lee, Junho
• 署名单位: Seoul National University (SNU); Northwestern University; Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU); Yonsei University; Seoul National University (SNU); Johns Hopkins University
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-13458
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2320796121
• 发表日期: 2024-07-09
• 关键词: phoretic dispersal; dauer formation; c-elegans; identification; pheromone; reveals

摘要

Phoresy is an interspecies interaction that facilitates spatial dispersal by attaching to a more mobile species. Hitchhiking species have evolved specific traits for physical contact and successful phoresy, but the regulatory mechanisms involved in such traits and their evolution are largely unexplored. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans displays a hitchhiking behavior known as nictation during its stress- induced developmental stage. Dauer- specific nictation behavior has an important role in natural C. elegans populations, which experience boom- and- bust population dynamics. In this study, we investigated the nictation behavior of 137 wild C. elegans strains sampled throughout the world. We identified species- wide natural variation in nictation and performed a genome- wide association mapping. We show that the variants in the promoter of nta- 1, encoding a putative steroidogenic enzyme, underlie differences in nictation. This difference is due to the changes in nta- 1 expression in glial cells, which implies that glial steroid metabolism regulates phoretic behavior. Population genetic analysis and geographic distribution patterns suggest that balancing selection maintained two nta- 1 haplotypes that existed in ancestral C. elegans populations. Our findings contribute to further understanding of the molecular mechanism of species interaction and the maintenance of genetic diversity within natural populations.