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EVOLUTION OF INCREASED SELF‐SPERM PRODUCTION IN POSTDAUER HERMAPHRODITIC NEMATODES
Author(s) -
Chasnov Jeffrey R.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01272.x
Subject(s) - biology , hermaphrodite , sperm , diapause , natural selection , sperm competition , brood , population , zoology , evolutionary biology , selection (genetic algorithm) , ecology , genetics , demography , larva , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science
A recent study suggests that postdauer Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodites produce more self‐sperm and have larger brood sizes than worms that bypass diapause. Why might natural selection favor increased self‐sperm production in postdauer hermaphrodites? This question is addressed by developing an age‐structured model for an exponentially growing worm population descending from a founder postdauer hermaphrodite. It is assumed that natural selection favors those founders that have the largest number of living descendants at some fixed future time. Increased self‐sperm production in postdauer hermaphrodites can then evolve when the diapause‐bypassing descendants suffer a higher mortality rate than their parental postdauer founders.