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Voicu AA, Krützen M, Bilgin Sonay T. Short Tandem Repeats as a High-Resolution Marker for Capturing Recent Orangutan Population Evolution. FRONTIERS IN BIOINFORMATICS 2021; 1:695784. [PMID: 36303734 PMCID: PMC9581056 DOI: 10.3389/fbinf.2021.695784] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The genus Pongo is ideal to study population genetics adaptation, given its remarkable phenotypic divergence and the highly contrasting environmental conditions it’s been exposed to. Studying its genetic variation bears the promise to reveal a motion picture of these great apes’ evolutionary and adaptive history, and also helps us expand our knowledge of the patterns of adaptation and evolution. In this work, we advance the understanding of the genetic variation among wild orangutans through a genome-wide study of short tandem repeats (STRs). Their elevated mutation rate makes STRs ideal markers for the study of recent evolution within a given population. Current technological and algorithmic advances have rendered their sequencing and discovery more accurate, therefore their potential can be finally leveraged in population genetics studies. To study patterns of population variation within the wild orangutan population, we genotyped the short tandem repeats in a population of 21 individuals spanning four Sumatran and Bornean (sub-) species and eight Southeast Asian regions. We studied the impact of sequencing depth on our ability to genotype STRs and found that the STR copy number changes function as a powerful marker, correctly capturing the demographic history of these populations, even the divergences as recent as 10 Kya. Moreover, gene ontology enrichments for genes close to STR variants are aligned with local adaptations in the two islands. Coupled with more advanced STR-compatible population models, and selection tests, genomic studies based on STRs will be able to reduce the gap caused by the missing heritability for species with recent adaptations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Michael Krützen
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Tugce Bilgin Sonay
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States
- *Correspondence: Tugce Bilgin Sonay,
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Mostajo-Radji MA, Schmitz MT, Montoya ST, Pollen AA. Reverse engineering human brain evolution using organoid models. Brain Res 2020; 1729:146582. [PMID: 31809699 PMCID: PMC7058376 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2019.146582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2019] [Revised: 11/25/2019] [Accepted: 11/29/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Primate brains vary dramatically in size and organization, but the genetic and developmental basis for these differences has been difficult to study due to lack of experimental models. Pluripotent stem cells and brain organoids provide a potential opportunity for comparative and functional studies of evolutionary differences, particularly during the early stages of neurogenesis. However, many challenges remain, including isolating stem cell lines from additional great ape individuals and species to capture the breadth of ape genetic diversity, improving the reproducibility of organoid models to study evolved differences in cell composition and combining multiple brain regions to capture connectivity relationships. Here, we describe strategies for identifying evolved developmental differences between humans and non-human primates and for isolating the underlying cellular and genetic mechanisms using comparative analyses, chimeric organoid culture, and genome engineering. In particular, we focus on how organoid models could ultimately be applied beyond studies of progenitor cell evolution to decode the origin of recent changes in cellular organization, connectivity patterns, myelination, synaptic development, and physiology that have been implicated in human cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammed A Mostajo-Radji
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA; The Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
| | - Matthew T Schmitz
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA; The Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
| | - Sebastian Torres Montoya
- Health Co-creation Laboratory, Medellin General Hospital, Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia; Baskin School of Engineering, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
| | - Alex A Pollen
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA; The Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
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Bilgin Sonay T, Carvalho T, Robinson MD, Greminger MP, Krützen M, Comas D, Highnam G, Mittelman D, Sharp A, Marques-Bonet T, Wagner A. Tandem repeat variation in human and great ape populations and its impact on gene expression divergence. Genome Res 2015; 25:1591-1599. [PMID: 26290536 DOI: 10.1101/015784] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2015] [Accepted: 08/14/2015] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Tandem repeats (TRs) are stretches of DNA that are highly variable in length and mutate rapidly. They are thus an important source of genetic variation. This variation is highly informative for population and conservation genetics. It has also been associated with several pathological conditions and with gene expression regulation. However, genome-wide surveys of TR variation in humans and closely related species have been scarce due to technical difficulties derived from short-read technology. Here we explored the genome-wide diversity of TRs in a panel of 83 human and nonhuman great ape genomes, in a total of six different species, and studied their impact on gene expression evolution. We found that population diversity patterns can be efficiently captured with short TRs (repeat unit length, 1-5 bp). We examined the potential evolutionary role of TRs in gene expression differences between humans and primates by using 30,275 larger TRs (repeat unit length, 2-50 bp). Genes that contained TRs in the promoters, in their 3' untranslated region, in introns, and in exons had higher expression divergence than genes without repeats in the regions. Polymorphic small repeats (1-5 bp) had also higher expression divergence compared with genes with fixed or no TRs in the gene promoters. Our findings highlight the potential contribution of TRs to human evolution through gene regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tugce Bilgin Sonay
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, CH-805 Zurich, Switzerland; The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Tiago Carvalho
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Mark D Robinson
- The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Maja P Greminger
- Evolutionary Genetics Group, Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Michael Krützen
- Evolutionary Genetics Group, Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - David Comas
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Gareth Highnam
- Department of Biological Science and Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
| | - David Mittelman
- Department of Biological Science and Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
| | - Andrew Sharp
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai School, New York, New York 10029, USA
| | - Tomàs Marques-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), PCB, Barcelona, 08028 Catalonia, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Andreas Wagner
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, CH-805 Zurich, Switzerland; The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA
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Bilgin Sonay T, Carvalho T, Robinson MD, Greminger MP, Krützen M, Comas D, Highnam G, Mittelman D, Sharp A, Marques-Bonet T, Wagner A. Tandem repeat variation in human and great ape populations and its impact on gene expression divergence. Genome Res 2015; 25:1591-9. [PMID: 26290536 PMCID: PMC4617956 DOI: 10.1101/gr.190868.115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2015] [Accepted: 08/14/2015] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Tandem repeats (TRs) are stretches of DNA that are highly variable in length and mutate rapidly. They are thus an important source of genetic variation. This variation is highly informative for population and conservation genetics. It has also been associated with several pathological conditions and with gene expression regulation. However, genome-wide surveys of TR variation in humans and closely related species have been scarce due to technical difficulties derived from short-read technology. Here we explored the genome-wide diversity of TRs in a panel of 83 human and nonhuman great ape genomes, in a total of six different species, and studied their impact on gene expression evolution. We found that population diversity patterns can be efficiently captured with short TRs (repeat unit length, 1–5 bp). We examined the potential evolutionary role of TRs in gene expression differences between humans and primates by using 30,275 larger TRs (repeat unit length, 2–50 bp). Genes that contained TRs in the promoters, in their 3′ untranslated region, in introns, and in exons had higher expression divergence than genes without repeats in the regions. Polymorphic small repeats (1–5 bp) had also higher expression divergence compared with genes with fixed or no TRs in the gene promoters. Our findings highlight the potential contribution of TRs to human evolution through gene regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tugce Bilgin Sonay
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, CH-805 Zurich, Switzerland; The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Tiago Carvalho
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Mark D Robinson
- The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Maja P Greminger
- Evolutionary Genetics Group, Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Michael Krützen
- Evolutionary Genetics Group, Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - David Comas
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Gareth Highnam
- Department of Biological Science and Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
| | - David Mittelman
- Department of Biological Science and Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
| | - Andrew Sharp
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai School, New York, New York 10029, USA
| | - Tomàs Marques-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), PCB, Barcelona, 08028 Catalonia, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Andreas Wagner
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, CH-805 Zurich, Switzerland; The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA
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