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Ports BL, Jensen-Seaman MI. Convergent rates of protein evolution identify novel targets of sexual selection in primates. Evolution 2024; 78:364-377. [PMID: 37864838 PMCID: PMC10834059 DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpad188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/23/2023]
Abstract
Sexual selection is the differential reproductive success of individuals, resulting from competition for mates, mate choice, or success in fertilization. In primates, this selective pressure often leads to the development of exaggerated traits which play a role in sexual competition and successful reproduction. In order to gain insight into the mechanisms driving the development of sexually selected traits, we used an unbiased genome-wide approach across 21 primate species to correlate individual rates of protein evolution to relative testes size and sexual dimorphism in body size, 2 anatomical hallmarks of sexual selection in mammals. Among species with presumed high levels of sperm competition, we detected strong conservation of testes-specific proteins responsible for spermatogenesis and ciliary form and function. In contrast, we identified accelerated evolution of female reproductive proteins expressed in the vagina, cervix, and fallopian tubes in these same species. Additionally, we found accelerated protein evolution in lymphoid tissue, indicating that adaptive immune functions may also be influenced by sexual selection. This study demonstrates the distinct complexity of sexual selection in primates revealing contrasting patterns of protein evolution between male and female reproductive tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bri L Ports
- Department of Biological Sciences, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
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Johnson MR, Li S, Guerrero-Juarez CF, Miller P, Brack BJ, Mereby SA, Moreno JA, Feigin CY, Gaska J, Rivera-Perez JA, Nie Q, Ploss A, Shvartsman SY, Mallarino R. A multifunctional Wnt regulator underlies the evolution of rodent stripe patterns. Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:2143-2159. [PMID: 37813945 PMCID: PMC10839778 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02213-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023]
Abstract
Animal pigment patterns are excellent models to elucidate mechanisms of biological organization. Although theoretical simulations, such as Turing reaction-diffusion systems, recapitulate many animal patterns, they are insufficient to account for those showing a high degree of spatial organization and reproducibility. Here, we study the coat of the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) to uncover how periodic stripes form. Combining transcriptomics, mathematical modelling and mouse transgenics, we show that the Wnt modulator Sfrp2 regulates the distribution of hair follicles and establishes an embryonic prepattern that foreshadows pigment stripes. Moreover, by developing in vivo gene editing in striped mice, we find that Sfrp2 knockout is sufficient to alter the stripe pattern. Strikingly, mutants exhibited changes in pigmentation, revealing that Sfrp2 also regulates hair colour. Lastly, through evolutionary analyses, we find that striped mice have evolved lineage-specific changes in regulatory elements surrounding Sfrp2, many of which may be implicated in modulating the expression of this gene. Altogether, our results show that a single factor controls coat pattern formation by acting both as an orienting signalling mechanism and a modulator of pigmentation. More broadly, our work provides insights into how spatial patterns are established in developing embryos and the mechanisms by which phenotypic novelty originates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew R Johnson
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Sha Li
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Christian F Guerrero-Juarez
- Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
- Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Complex Biological Systems, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
- NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Pearson Miller
- Center for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY, USA
| | - Benjamin J Brack
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Sarah A Mereby
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Jorge A Moreno
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Charles Y Feigin
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Jenna Gaska
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | | | - Qing Nie
- Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
- Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Complex Biological Systems, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
- NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Alexander Ploss
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Stanislav Y Shvartsman
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- Center for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY, USA
- The Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Ricardo Mallarino
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
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Li S, Mereby SA, Rothstein M, Johnson MR, Brack BJ, Mallarino R. TIGER: Single-step in vivo genome editing in a non-traditional rodent. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112980. [PMID: 37573509 PMCID: PMC10528174 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Revised: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Rodents are taxonomically diverse and have evolved a variety of traits. A mechanistic understanding of such traits has remained elusive, however, largely because genome editing in non-traditional model species remains challenging. Here, using the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio), we describe TIGER (targeted in vivo genome editing in rodents), a method that relies on a simple intraoviductal injecting technique and uses recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs) as the sole vehicle to deliver reagents into pregnant females. We demonstrate that TIGER generates knockout and knockin (up to 3 kb) lines with high efficiency. Moreover, we engineer a double-cleaving repair rAAV template and find that it significantly increases knockin frequency and germline transmission rates. Lastly, we show that an oversized double-cleaving rAAV template leads to an insertion of 3.8 kb. Thus, TIGER constitutes an attractive alternative to traditional ex vivo genome-editing methods and has the potential to be extended to a broad range of species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sha Li
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
| | - Sarah A Mereby
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
| | - Megan Rothstein
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
| | - Matthew R Johnson
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
| | - Benjamin J Brack
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
| | - Ricardo Mallarino
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
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