Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 17 No. 1 (2020)

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https://hdl.handle.net/1794/25548
Cover art by Audrey Kalman

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Browsing Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 17 No. 1 (2020) by Author "Lancaster, Ruben"

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    Mating Affects Lifespan Differently in Two Strains of Pseudo-female Caenorhabditis elegans
    (University of Oregon, 2020-08) Lancaster, Ruben
    Mating is vital for sexually reproducing species, yet the ideal mating strategy for males and females can differ. The ensuing conflict between the sexes – namely, sexual conflict – results in a decrease in population level fitness. The degree of sexual conflict can be affected by the behavior, physiology, and life history of a population. Previous studies in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have shown that mating causes lifespan to decrease in pseudo-females and hermaphrodites, which was interpreted as evidence of sexual conflict. However, it is still an open question whether variations in mating condition and strain type can affect the degree of sexual conflict and lifespan decrease. Here, I investigate whether lifespan is affected by mating in conditions other than sex- skewed individual mating scenarios used in previous work. I conducted population-based mating assays in two different strains of C. elegans using both natural and male-skewed sex ratios. Counter to expectations, I found no effect of mating on lifespan in a wild isolate of C. elegans, while virgins from a canonical laboratory strain had a decreased lifespan relative to their counterparts mated in groups. My data offers a counterpoint to the literature, which agrees that mating universally decreases the lifespan of C. elegans pseudo-females and hermaphrodites. These results highlight the flexibility of reproductive costs and the importance of life histories in experimental populations.