Sex determination in polyploids of Caenorhabditis elegans

In Caenorhabditis elegans triploid animals with two X chromosomes (symbolized 3A;2X) are males. However, these triploid males can be feminized by making them mutant for recessive dosage compensation mutations, by adding X chromosome duplications or by microinjecting particular DNA sequences termed feminizing elements. None of these treatments affects diploid males. This study explores several aspects of these treatments in polyploids. The dosage compensation mutants exhibit a strong maternal effect, such that reduction of any of the dosage compensation gene functions in the mother leads to sex reversal of 3A;2X animals. Likewise, all X chromosome duplications tested cause both sex reversal and intersexual development of many 3A;2X animals. Microinjected feminizing element DNA does not cause extensive sex reversal, but does result in intersexual development in 3A;2X animals. Neither X chromosome duplications nor microinjected feminizing elements show that extreme maternal effect of the dosage compensation mutants, although there is indirect evidence for a maternal effect of the feminizing elements. In particular, very little feminizing element DNA needs to be microinjected in order to feminize triploid males, far less than what is needed for stable inheritance, implying that feminizing elements can work within the mother's gonad. However, even very high concentrations of microinjected feminizing elements do not affect sex determination in diploid males, suggesting that they are not part of the numerator of the X/A ratio. In addition, no pair of X chromosome duplications feminizes diploid males, suggesting that none of these duplications contains a numerator of the X/A ratio. Instead, I infer that an X-linked locus, as yet undefined, must be present in two copies for hermaphrodite development to ensue or that the two X chromosomes might interact.