A ubiquinone precursor analogue does not clearly increase the growth rate of Caenorhabditis inopinata.

Abstract

The evolution of developmental rates may drive morphological change. Caenorhabditis inopinata develops nearly twice as slowly as Caenorhabditis elegans . clk-1 encodes a hydroxylase required for synthesizing ubiquinone, and mutant clk-1 slow growth phenotypes can be rescued by supplying animals with a ubiquinone precursor analogue, 2,4-dihydroxybenzoate. RNA-seq data showing low clk-1 expression raised the possibility that C. inopinata grows slowly because of reduced ubiquinone biosynthesis. C. inopinata did not reveal a clear reduction in the age of maturation when reared on 2,4-dihydroxybenzoate. Further scrutiny of RNA-seq results revealed multiple ubiquinone metabolism genes have low expression in C. inopinata . Divergent clk-1 expression alone may not be a major driver of the evolution of slow development in this species.