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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

A Highly Scalable Approach to Perform Ecological Surveys of Selfing Caenorhabditis Nematodes
Published on: March 1, 2022
Caenorhabditis phylogeny predicts convergence of hermaphroditism and extensive intron loss
Karin Kiontke1, Nicholas P Gavin, Yevgeniy Raynes
1Department of Biology, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Abstract:
Despite the prominence of Caenorhabditis elegans as a major developmental and genetic model system, its phylogenetic relationship to its closest relatives has not been resolved. Resolution of these relationships is necessary for studying the steps that underlie life history, genomic, and morphological evolution of this important system. By using data from five different nuclear genes from 10 Caenorhabditis species currently in culture, we find a well resolved phylogeny that reveals three striking patterns in the evolution of this animal group: (i) Hermaphroditism has evolved independently in C. elegans and its close relative Caenorhabditis briggsae; (ii) there is a large degree of intron turnover within Caenorhabditis, and intron losses are much more frequent than intron gains; and (iii) despite the lack of marked morphological diversity, more genetic disparity is present within this one genus than has occurred within all vertebrates.
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