Baird Lab Index
Ray Pattern Variation in Caenorhabditis briggsae
The caudal papillae (rays) of nematodes are male-specific
peripheral sense organs that mediate mating behavior. The pattern
of rays in the male tail often is used as a species-level diagnostic character.
In Caenorhabditis, ray pattern is used to distinguish between C.
briggsae and C. elegans; C. elegans exhibits an ancestral '2(1)3+3'
pattern whereas C. briggsae exhibits a derived '2/4+3' pattern (Nigon
and Dougherty, 1949; Friedman et al., 1977). Some strains of C. briggsae
exhibit the ancestral 2(1)3+3 pattern at high frequencies (Baird, 2001;
figure 1). This variation is being used to map the genes responsible
for ray pattern evolution.
Figure 1. Ray patterns in Caenorhabditis.
A) C. briggsae strain AF16. B, D, F) C. briggsae strain
PB800. C) C. remanei strain EM464. E) C. elegans
strain N2.
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Baird, S.E. (2001) Strain-specific variation
in the pattern of caudal papillae in Caenorhabditis briggsae (Nematoda:
Rhaditidae); implications for species identification. Nematology
3: 373-376.
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Friedman, P.A., E.G. Platzer, and J.E. Eby (1977)
Species differentiation in C. briggsae and C. elegans. J.
Nematology 9: 197-203.
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Nigon, V. and E.C. Dougherty (1949) Reproducxtive
patterns and attempts at reciprocal crossing of Rhabditis elegans
Maupas, 1900 and Rhabditis briggsae. J. Expt. Zool. 112: 485-503.
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Sudhaus, W. and K. Kiontke (1996) Phylogeny of
Rhabditis
subgenus Canorhabditis (Rhabditidae, Nematoda). J. Zool. Syst.
Evol. Res. 34, 217-233.