Sex as a response to
oxidative stress: stress genes co-opted for sex
Aurora M. Nedelcu A1
A1 University of New Brunswick Department
of Biology Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada E3B 6E1
Abstract:
Despite a great deal of interest, the evolutionary origins
and roles of sex remain unclear. Recently, we showed that in
the multicellular green alga, Volvox carteri, sex is a
response to increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS),
which could be indicative of the ancestral role of sex as an
adaptive response to stress-induced ROS. To provide additional
support for the suggestion that sex evolved as a response to
oxidative stress, this study addresses the hypothesis that
genes involved in sexual induction are evolutionarily related
to genes associated with various stress responses. In
particular, this study investigates the evolutionary history
of genes specific to the sexual induction process in V.
carteri—including those encoding the sexual inducer (SI)
and several SI-induced extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins.
Surprisingly, (i) a highly diversified multigene family with
similarity to the V. carteri SI and SI-induced
pherophorin family is present in its unicellular relative,
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (which lacks both a SI and an
ECM) and (ii) at least half of the 12 identified gene members
are induced (as inferred from reported expressed sequence
tags) under various stress conditions. These findings suggest
an evolutionary connection between sex and stress at the gene
level, via duplication and/or co-option.
Keywords:
sex, oxidative stress, co-option, gene duplication,
pherophorins, Volvox carteri, Chlamydomonas
reinhardtii
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