Enigma variations control of sexual fate in nematode germ cells.docVIP

Minireview Enigma variations: control of sexual fate in nematode germ cells Ronald E Ellis Address: Department of Molecular Biology, The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, B303 Science Center, 2 Medical Center Drive, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA. Email: ron.ellis@ Published: 28 July 2006 Genome Biology 2006, 7:227 (doi:10.1186/gb-2006-7-7-227) The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at /2006/7/7/227 ? 2006 BioMed Central Ltd Abstract A new study showing that neither FEM-2 nor FEM-3 is required for spermatogenesis in Caenorhabditis briggsae, unlike in Caenorhabditis elegans, implies that the sex-determination pathway in these species is evolving rapidly, and supports the proposal that they evolved hermaphroditism independently. Years ago, French pop star Patrick Juvet raised a question that evolutionary biologists are pondering anew in the after- math of a paper about nematode sex determination from Eric Haag, David Pilgrim and their colleagues published recently in Developmental Cell [1]: “Où sont les femmes?” - Where are the fems? By showing that the fem genes, which are essential for spermatogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans, are dispensable in Caenorhabditis briggsae germ cells, they proved that the regulatory pathways in these species have undergone recent and dramatic change. which they use for self-fertilization. Surprisingly, self-fertile hermaphrodites have evolved independently many times in the Rhabditidae [4]. Even during recent evolution, these mating systems have changed multiple times within a small subgroup of the genus Caenorhabditis [5,6]. Thus, these nematodes provide a terrific model for studying the rapid evolution of sexual traits, and the recent work by Hill et al. [1] is the first major advance in this developing field. The fem genes promote male sexual fates in C. e