Ubiquitous Selfish Toxin-Antidote Elements in Caenorhabditis Species
Eyal Ben‐David, Pinelopi Pliota, Sonya A. Widen, Alevtina Koreshova, Tzitziki Lemus, Philipp Verpukhovskiy, Sridhar Mandali, Christian Braendle, Alejandro Burga, Leonid Kruglyak
Abstract
hybrid progeny of two Caribbean isolates. We identified the genes underlying one of the novel TAs, slow-1/grow-1, and found that its toxin, slow-1, is homologous to nuclear hormone receptors. Remarkably, although previously known TAs act during embryonic development, maternal loading of slow-1 in oocytes specifically slows down larval development, delaying the onset of reproduction by several days. Finally, we found that balancing selection acting on linked, conflicting TAs hampers their ability to spread in populations, leading to more stable genetic incompatibilities. Our findings indicate that TAs are widespread in Caenorhabditis species and target a wide range of developmental processes and that antagonism between them may cause lasting incompatibilities in natural populations. We expect that similar phenomena exist in other animal species.