What about the males? the C. elegans sexually dimorphic nervous system and a CRISPR-based tool to study males in a hermaphroditic species. (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Walsh, Jonathon D.; Boivin, Olivier; Barr, Maureen M.
• Is Part Of: Journal of neurogenetics. Volume 34:Number 3/4(2020)
• Page Start: 323
• Page End: 334
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: C. elegans -- cilia -- polycystin -- sexual dimorphism -- male -- nervous system -- behavior; Neurogenetics -- Periodicals; 616.80442
• DOI: 10.1080/01677063.2020.1789978
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0167-7063

Abstract

Abstract: Sexual dimorphism is a device that supports genetic diversity while providing selective pressure against speciation. This phenomenon is at the core of sexually reproducing organisms. Caenorhabditis elegans provides a unique experimental system where males exist in a primarily hermaphroditic species. Early works of John Sulston, Robert Horvitz, and John White provided a complete map of the hermaphrodite nervous system, and recently the male nervous system was added. This addition completely realized the vision of C. elegans pioneer Sydney Brenner: a model organism with an entirely mapped nervous system. With this 'connectome' of information available, great strides have been made toward understanding concepts such as how a sex-shared nervous system (in hermaphrodites and males) can give rise to sex-specific functions, how neural plasticity plays a role in developing a dimorphic nervous system, and how a shared nervous system receives and processes external cues in a sexually-dimorphic manner to generate sex-specific behaviors. In C. elegans, the intricacies of male-mating behavior have been crucial for studying the function and circuitry of the male-specific nervous system and used as a model for studying human autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). With the emergence of CRISPR, a seemingly limitless tool for generating genomic mutations with pinpoint precision, the C. elegans model system will continue to be a useful instrument for pioneering research in the fields of behavior, reproductive biology, and neurogenetics.