Sex-specific growth and lifespan effects of germline removal in the dioecious nematodeCaenorhabditis remanei

• DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.07.570570
• Publication Date: 2023-12-08T23:30:11Z
• Authors: Martin I Lind; Brian S Mautz; Hanne Carlsson; Andrea Hinas; Erik Gudmunds; Alexei A Maklakov

Abstract Germline regulates the expression of life-history traits and mediates trade-off between reproduction somatic maintenance. However, germline maintenance in itself can be costly, costs vary sexes depending on number gametes produced across lifetime. We tested this directly by ablation using glp-1 RNAi a dioecious nematode Caenorhabditis remanei . removal strongly increased heat-shock resistance both sexes, thus confirming role regulating resulted lifespan only males. High mating reduced obliterated survival benefit germline-less males even though neither sex any offspring. Furthermore, male growth before maturation but not adulthood, while female rate was especially after maturation. Thus, improves without major costs, females grow slower do live longer than reproductively functional counterparts absence environmental stress. Overall, these results suggest that is costlier for females.