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Sex allocation pattern of the diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana.

ABSTRACT: Sex allocation is one of the most successful applications of evolutionary game theory. This theory has usually been applied to multicellular organisms; however, conditional sex allocation in unicellular organisms remains an unexplored field of research. Observations at the cellular level are indispensable for an understanding of the phenotypic sex allocation strategy among individuals within clonal unicellular organisms. The diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana, in which the sexes are generated from vegetative cells, is suitable for investigating effects of phenotypic plasticity factors on sex allocation while excluding genetic differences. We designed a microfluidic system that allowed us to trace the fate of individual cells. Sex allocation by individual mother cells was affected by cell lineage, cell size and cell density. Sibling cell pairs tended to differentiate into the same fates (split sex ratio). We found a significant negative correlation between the cell area of the mother cell and sex ratio of the two sibling cells. The male-biased sex ratio declined with higher local cell population density, supporting the fertility insurance hypothesis. Our results characterize multiple non-genetic factors that affect the phenotypic single cell-level sex allocation. Sex allocation in diatoms may provide a model system for testing evolutionary game theory in unicellular organisms.

SUBMITTER: Shirokawa Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3652442 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sex allocation pattern of the diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana.

Shirokawa Y Y Shimada M M

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20130501 1761

Sex allocation is one of the most successful applications of evolutionary game theory. This theory has usually been applied to multicellular organisms; however, conditional sex allocation in unicellular organisms remains an unexplored field of research. Observations at the cellular level are indispensable for an understanding of the phenotypic sex allocation strategy among individuals within clonal unicellular organisms. The diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana, in which the sexes are generated from v ...[more]

PMID: 23760641

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Project description:ImportanceDifferences in local organ supply and demand have introduced geographic inequities in the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score-based liver allocation system, prompting national debate and patient-initiated lawsuits. No study to our knowledge has quantified the sex disparities in allocation associated with clinical vs geographic characteristics.ObjectiveTo estimate the proportion of sex disparity in wait list mortality and deceased donor liver transplant (DDLT) associated with clinical and geographic characteristics.Design, setting, and participantsThis retrospective cohort study used adult (age ≥18 years) liver-only transplant listings reported to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network from June 18, 2013, through March 1, 2018.ExposureLiver transplant waiting list.Main outcomes and measuresPrimary outcomes included wait list mortality and DDLT. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were constructed, and inverse odds ratio weighting was used to estimate the proportion of disparity across geographic location, MELD score, and candidate anthropometric and liver measurements.ResultsAmong 81 357 adults wait-listed for liver transplant only, 36.1% were women (mean [SD] age, 54.7 [11.3] years; interquartile range, 49.0-63.0 years) and 63.9% were men (mean [SD] age, 55.7 [10.1] years; interquartile range, 51.0-63.0 years). Compared with men, women were 8.6% more likely to die while on the waiting list (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.11; 95% CI, 1.04-1.18) and were 14.4% less likely to receive a DDLT (aHR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.84-0.88). In the geographic domain, organ procurement organization was the only variable that was significantly associated with increased disparity between female sex and wait list mortality (22.1% increase; aHR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.09-1.30); no measure of the geographic domain was associated with DDLT. Laboratory and allocation MELD scores were associated with increases in disparities in wait list mortality: 1.14 (95% CI, 1.09-1.19; 50.1% increase among women) and DDLT: 0.87 (95% CI, 0.86-0.88; 10.3% increase among women). Candidate anthropometric and liver measurements had the strongest association with disparities between men and women in wait list mortality (125.8% increase among women) and DDLT (49.0% increase among women).Conclusions and relevanceOur findings suggest that addressing geographic disparities alone may not mitigate sex-based disparities, which were associated with the inability of the MELD score to accurately estimate disease severity in women and to account for candidate anthropometric and liver measurements in this study.

Project description:In some vertebrates, offspring help their parents produce additional offspring. Often individuals of one sex are more likely to become "helpers at the nest". We analyze how such sex-biased offspring helping can influence sex-ratio evolution. It is essential to account for age-structure because the sex ratios of early broods influence how much help is available for later broods; previous authors have not correctly accounted for this fact. When each female produces the same sex ratio in all broods (as assumed in all previous analyses of sex-biased helping), the optimal investment strategy is biased towards the more-helpful sex. When a female has facultative control over the sex ratio in each brood and each helper of a given sex increases the resource available for offspring production by a fixed amount, the optimal strategy is to produce only the more-helpful sex in early broods and only the less-helpful sex in later broods. When there are nonlinear returns from helping, i.e., each helper increases the amount of resource available for reproduction by an amount dependent upon the number of helpers, the optimal strategy is to maximize resource accrual from helping in early broods (which may involve the production of both sexes) and then switch to the exclusive production of the less-helpful sex in later broods. The population sex ratio is biased towards the more-helpful sex regardless of whether the sex ratio is fixed or age-dependent. When fitness returns from helping exhibit environmental patchiness, females are selected to produce only males on some patches and only females on others, and the population sex ratio may be biased in either direction. We discuss our results in light of empirical information on offspring helping, and we show via meta-analysis that there is no support for the claim of Griffin et al. [Griffin, A.S., Sheldon, B.C., West, S.A., 2005. Cooperative breeders adjust offspring sex ratios to produce helpful helpers. Amer. Nat. 166, 628-632] that parents produce more of the helpful sex when that sex is rare or absent.

Dataset Information

Sex allocation pattern of the diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana.

Publications

Sex allocation pattern of the diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana.

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