A new research suggests that life of female roundworms can be shortened by the mere presence of male roundworms.
Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have revealed that male roundworms secrete signaling molecules that considerably reduce the life expectancy of female roundworms.
Previous studies have indicated the fact that the presence of male roundworms reduces the lifespan of females or hermaphrodites around them but none of the previous researchers could clearly indicate the reasons for the same.
Some scientists have previously estimated that stress of mating may have been the reason for the reduced life of female roundworms, but recent studies reveal other reasons. The researchers say that males usually plan to kill the females after they give birth to young ones.
The researchers studied the common laboratory roundworm, which are known as Caenorhabditis elegans, or C. elegans. The roundworms measure one millimeter long and the translucent worms generally live for around 20 days. The normal population of the colony consists of around 0.01 to 0.1 percent males and the rest is of hermaphrodites, which have both male and female reproductive organs. Even though, hermaphrodites have the ability to self-fertilize, they can produce more offspring if they were to mate with a male roundworm.
"We've found that males induce the expression of a large number of genes involved in sensation and signaling in hermaphrodites," said Anne Brunet, PhD, associate professor of genetics. "This raises the possibility that the male-induced demise is not just due to the physical stress of copulation but instead involves some degree of active signaling. Indeed, we found that just placing hermaphrodites on plates where males had previously been present was sufficient to induce the premature demise of hermaphrodites."
The research indicates that male roundworms can actually initiate the killing process of female or hermaphrodites even when they are at a distance.
The new research suggests that this behavior of roundworms is also found in other worms. However, the researchers want to determine if the presence of male reduces the life span of females in other species as well, such as mammals.
