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Vedder O, Moiron M, Bichet C, Bauch C, Verhulst S, Becker PH, Bouwhuis S. Telomere length is heritable and genetically correlated with lifespan in a wild bird. Mol Ecol 2022; 31:6297-6307. [PMID: 33460462 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 01/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Telomeres are protective caps at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes that shorten with age and in response to stressful or resource-demanding conditions. Their length predicts individual health and lifespan across a wide range of animals, but whether the observed positive association between telomere length and lifespan is environmentally induced, or set at conception due to a shared genetic basis, has not been tested in wild animals. We applied quantitative genetic "animal models" to longitudinal telomere measurements collected over a 10-year period from individuals of a wild seabird (common tern; Sterna hirundo) with known pedigree. We found no variation in telomere shortening with age among individuals at the phenotypic and genetic level, and only a small permanent environmental effect on adult telomere length. Instead, we found telomere length to be highly heritable and strongly positively genetically correlated with lifespan. Such heritable differences between individuals that are set at conception may present a hitherto underappreciated component of variation in somatic state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oscar Vedder
- Institute of Avian Research, Wilhelmshaven, Germany.,Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Maria Moiron
- Institute of Avian Research, Wilhelmshaven, Germany.,CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France
| | | | - Christina Bauch
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Simon Verhulst
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
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Monroe JG, Cai H, Des Marais DL. Diversity in nonlinear responses to soil moisture shapes evolutionary constraints in Brachypodium. G3 (BETHESDA, MD.) 2021; 11:jkab334. [PMID: 34570202 PMCID: PMC8664479 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkab334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2021] [Accepted: 09/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Water availability is perhaps the greatest environmental determinant of plant yield and fitness. However, our understanding of plant-water relations is limited because-like many studies of organism-environment interaction-it is primarily informed by experiments considering performance at two discrete levels-wet and dry-rather than as a continuously varying environmental gradient. Here, we used experimental and statistical methods based on function-valued traits to explore genetic variation in responses to a continuous soil moisture gradient in physiological and morphological traits among 10 genotypes across two species of the model grass genus Brachypodium. We find that most traits exhibit significant genetic variation and nonlinear responses to soil moisture variability. We also observe differences in the shape of these nonlinear responses between traits and genotypes. Emergent phenomena arise from this variation including changes in trait correlations and evolutionary constraints as a function of soil moisture. Our results point to the importance of considering diversity in nonlinear organism-environment relationships to understand plastic and evolutionary responses to changing climates.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Grey Monroe
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Haoran Cai
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - David L Des Marais
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, MA 02130, USA
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3
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The phenotypic correlates and quantitative genetics of masculinization in the rodent, Octodon degus. Heredity (Edinb) 2017; 119:136-141. [PMID: 28402328 DOI: 10.1038/hdy.2017.20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2016] [Revised: 02/22/2017] [Accepted: 03/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
In some mammals, female characteristics have been shown to depend, in part, on the intrauterine position during development of female fetuses relative to male fetuses. Females developing in close proximity to males show behavioral, physiological and life history characteristics that are masculinized. With the exception of one inconclusive study, nothing is known of the genetic basis of this phenomenon. In this paper, we reported an analysis of the quantitative genetic basis of masculinization, as indicated by the anogenital distance (AGD) at birth and weaning, in the rodent Octodon degus. Because AGD is related to weight, we included a genetic analysis of pup weight at birth and weaning. Pairwise correlations showed that AGD at birth varied negatively with litter size and parturition number but positively with weaning AGD, birth weight, dam AGD and percentage of males in the litter. AGD at weaning varied similarly except that it tended to vary positively with litter size. Genetic (co)variances of AGD at birth and weight at birth differed in females and males. In females, the best genetic model included substantial effects of direct additive, additive maternal and a negative additive genetic covariance between these two. In males, variances were small and there was difficulty in discriminating between additive maternal and common environmental variances. By weaning, genetic (co)variances had somewhat declined in weight and were not statistically significant in AGD in either sex. This paper showed the occurrence of both phenotypic and genetic components in masculinization with effects being greater in females.
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The effects of resource availability and the demographic transition on the genetic correlation between number of children and grandchildren in humans. Heredity (Edinb) 2016; 118:186-192. [PMID: 27624115 DOI: 10.1038/hdy.2016.81] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2016] [Revised: 07/29/2016] [Accepted: 08/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies of evolutionary change require an estimate of fitness, and lifetime reproductive success is widely used for this purpose. However, many species face a trade-off between the number and quality of offspring and in such cases number of grandoffspring may better represent the genetic contribution to future generations. Here, we apply quantitative genetic methods to a genealogical data set on humans from Finland to address how the genetic correlation between number of children and grandchildren is influenced by the severity of the trade-off between offspring quality and quantity, as estimated by different levels of resource access among individuals in the population. Further, we compare the genetic correlation before and after the demographic transition to low mortality and fertility rates. The genetic correlation was consistently high (0.79-0.92) with the strongest correlations occurring in individuals with higher access to resources and before the demographic transition, and a tendency for lower correlations in resource poor individuals and after the transition. These results indicate that number of grandoffspring is a slightly better predictor of long-term genetic fitness than number of offspring in a human population across a range of environmental conditions, and more generally, that patterns of resource availability need to be taken into account when estimating genetic covariances with fitness.
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Seppälä O, Langeloh L. Estimating Genetic and Maternal Effects Determining Variation in Immune Function of a Mixed-Mating Snail. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0161584. [PMID: 27551822 PMCID: PMC4995018 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161584] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2016] [Accepted: 08/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolution of host defenses such as immune function requires heritable genetic variation in them. However, also non-genetic maternal effects can contribute to phenotypic variation, thus being an alternative target for natural selection. We investigated the role of individuals' genetic background and maternal effects in determining immune defense traits (phenoloxidase and antibacterial activity of hemolymph), as well as in survival and growth, in the simultaneously hermaphroditic snail Lymnaea stagnalis. We utilized the mixed mating system of this species by producing full-sib families in which each parental snail had produced offspring as both a dam and as a sire, and tested whether genetic background (family) and non-genetic maternal effects (dam nested within family) explain trait variation. Immune defense traits and growth were affected solely by individuals' genetic background. Survival of snails did not show family-level variation. Additionally, some snails were produced through self-fertilization. They showed reduced growth and survival suggesting recessive load or overdominance. Immune defense traits did not respond to inbreeding. Our results suggest that the variation in snail immune function and growth was due to genetic differences. Since immune traits did not respond to inbreeding, this variation is most likely due to additive or epistatic genetic variance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Otto Seppälä
- Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
- * E-mail:
| | - Laura Langeloh
- Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
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Bolund E, Hayward A, Pettay JE, Lummaa V. Effects of the demographic transition on the genetic variances and covariances of human life-history traits. Evolution 2015; 69:747-55. [DOI: 10.1111/evo.12598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2014] [Accepted: 12/05/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Elisabeth Bolund
- Department of Animal & Plant Sciences; University of Sheffield; Sheffield S10 2TN United Kingdom
- Evolutionary Biology Centre; Uppsala University; Uppsala SE-752 36 Sweden
| | - Adam Hayward
- Department of Animal & Plant Sciences; University of Sheffield; Sheffield S10 2TN United Kingdom
| | - Jenni E. Pettay
- Department of Biology; University of Turku; Turku FIN-20014 Finland
| | - Virpi Lummaa
- Department of Animal & Plant Sciences; University of Sheffield; Sheffield S10 2TN United Kingdom
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Asanuma H, Kakishima S, Ito H, Kobayashi K, Hasegawa E, Asami T, Matsuura K, Roff DA, Yoshimura J. Evolutionary optimality in sex differences of longevity and athletic performances. Sci Rep 2014; 4:5425. [PMID: 24958071 PMCID: PMC4067624 DOI: 10.1038/srep05425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2014] [Accepted: 06/05/2014] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Many sexual differences are known in human and animals. It is well known that females are superior in longevity, while males in athletic performances. Even though some sexual differences are attributed to the evolutionary tradeoff between survival and reproduction, the aforementioned sex differences are difficult to explain by this tradeoff. Here we show that the evolutionary tradeoff occurs among three components: (1) viability, (2) competitive ability and (3) reproductive effort. The sexual differences in longevity and athletic performances are attributed to the tradeoff between viability (survival) and competitive ability that belongs to the physical makeup of an individual, but not related to the tradeoff between survival and reproduction. This provides a new perspective on sex differences in human and animals: females are superior in longevity and disease recovery, while males are superior in athletic performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiromi Asanuma
- 1] Department of Mathematical and Systems Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan [2]
| | - Satoshi Kakishima
- 1] Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan [2]
| | - Hiromu Ito
- Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan
| | - Kazuya Kobayashi
- Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Eisuke Hasegawa
- Department of Ecology and Systematics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8589, Japan
| | - Takahiro Asami
- Department of Biology, Shinshu University, Matsumoto, Nagano 390-8621, Japan
| | - Kenji Matsuura
- Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Derek A Roff
- Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
| | - Jin Yoshimura
- 1] Department of Mathematical and Systems Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan [2] Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan [3] Marine Biosystems Research Center, Chiba University, Kamogawa, Chiba 299-5502, Japan [4] Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
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Clark ES, Pompini M, Marques da Cunha L, Wedekind C. Maternal and paternal contributions to pathogen resistance dependent on development stage in a whitefish (
S
almonidae). Funct Ecol 2014. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.12214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Emily S. Clark
- Department of Ecology and Evolution Biophore University of Lausanne Lausanne 1015 Switzerland
| | - Manuel Pompini
- Department of Ecology and Evolution Biophore University of Lausanne Lausanne 1015 Switzerland
| | - Lucas Marques da Cunha
- Department of Ecology and Evolution Biophore University of Lausanne Lausanne 1015 Switzerland
| | - Claus Wedekind
- Department of Ecology and Evolution Biophore University of Lausanne Lausanne 1015 Switzerland
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Davis J. Perceived environmental threats as a factor in reproductive behavior: an examination of American youth. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Stinchcombe JR, Kirkpatrick M. Genetics and evolution of function-valued traits: understanding environmentally responsive phenotypes. Trends Ecol Evol 2012; 27:637-47. [PMID: 22898151 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2012.07.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 131] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2012] [Revised: 06/28/2012] [Accepted: 07/05/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Many central questions in ecology and evolutionary biology require characterizing phenotypes that change with time and environmental conditions. Such traits are inherently functions, and new 'function-valued' methods use the order, spacing, and functional nature of the data typically ignored by traditional univariate and multivariate analyses. These rapidly developing methods account for the continuous change in traits of interest in response to other variables, and are superior to traditional summary-based analyses for growth trajectories, morphological shapes, and environmentally sensitive phenotypes. Here, we explain how function-valued methods make flexible use of data and lead to new biological insights. These approaches frequently offer enhanced statistical power, a natural basis of interpretation, and are applicable to many existing data sets. We also illustrate applications of function-valued methods to address ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral hypotheses, and highlight future directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- John R Stinchcombe
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S3B2, Canada.
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Abstract
SummaryThis study examines local heterogeneity in the aptitude of Sardinian mothers towards late reproduction, and explores its temporal persistence and association with both post-reproductive longevity and propensity to consanguineous marriage. Data on women's fertility from 1961 and birth records for 1980–1996 from Vital Statistics were analysed by means of the following indicators: the incidence of old mothers at last childbirth, female mortality (1980–2001) at 80 years of age and over and the proportion of consanguineous marriages (1930–1969). A variable kernel-smoothing method was used to create interpretable representations of the true spatial structure of the indicators, and to highlight areas of higher than expected intensity. In particular, an area of reproductive and post-reproductive longevity was identified where the traits combine with a higher tendency to relatedness. Intriguingly, this area corresponds approximately to the geographically and historically well defined central-eastern zone, which was the refuge of Sardinians during past invasions, and overlaps the Ogliastra region, which has been widely studied for its genetic homogeneity.
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