The male pheromone signal is conserved and affects brood size of gonochoristic Caenorhabditis nematodes.

<p>(A) Fraction of <i>C</i>. <i>elegans</i> hermaphrodites that recover self-fecundity after heat stress on plates with male scent of three related species. See <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005729#pgen.1005729.s013" target="_blank">S1 Table</a> for raw experimental data including numbers of independent trials and worms tested in each trial. Recovery on control and <i>C</i>. <i>elegans</i> male-scented plates are given for comparison (shown as white bars); these data are the same as shown in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005729#pgen.1005729.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1B</a>. Error bars are ±SD among separate trials. (B) Brood sizes of <i>C</i>. <i>remanei</i> females exposed to male scent for 16 hours were significantly higher than naïve females after 10-minute matings (at 20°C) (<i>P</i> = 9.5 x 10⁻³, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Red lines mark the median values. Means are: control = 160.1 and male-scented = 205. See <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005729#pgen.1005729.s014" target="_blank">S2 Table</a> for numbers of independent trials and worms tested in each trial.