1
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Tawfeeq MT, Voordeckers K, van den Berg P, Govers SK, Michiels J, Verstrepen KJ. Mutational robustness and the role of buffer genes in evolvability. EMBO J 2024; 43:2294-2307. [PMID: 38719995 PMCID: PMC11183146 DOI: 10.1038/s44318-024-00109-1] [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: 11/08/2023] [Revised: 03/19/2024] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Organisms rely on mutations to fuel adaptive evolution. However, many mutations impose a negative effect on fitness. Cells may have therefore evolved mechanisms that affect the phenotypic effects of mutations, thus conferring mutational robustness. Specifically, so-called buffer genes are hypothesized to interact directly or indirectly with genetic variation and reduce its effect on fitness. Environmental or genetic perturbations can change the interaction between buffer genes and genetic variation, thereby unmasking the genetic variation's phenotypic effects and thus providing a source of variation for natural selection to act on. This review provides an overview of our understanding of mutational robustness and buffer genes, with the chaperone gene HSP90 as a key example. It discusses whether buffer genes merely affect standing variation or also interact with de novo mutations, how mutational robustness could influence evolution, and whether mutational robustness might be an evolved trait or rather a mere side-effect of complex genetic interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammed T Tawfeeq
- VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Karin Voordeckers
- VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Pieter van den Berg
- Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | | | - Jan Michiels
- VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Kevin J Verstrepen
- VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, Belgium.
- Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
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2
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Wagner A. Genotype sampling for deep-learning assisted experimental mapping of a combinatorially complete fitness landscape. Bioinformatics 2024; 40:btae317. [PMID: 38745436 PMCID: PMC11132821 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btae317] [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: 01/22/2024] [Revised: 03/21/2024] [Accepted: 05/14/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Experimental characterization of fitness landscapes, which map genotypes onto fitness, is important for both evolutionary biology and protein engineering. It faces a fundamental obstacle in the astronomical number of genotypes whose fitness needs to be measured for any one protein. Deep learning may help to predict the fitness of many genotypes from a smaller neural network training sample of genotypes with experimentally measured fitness. Here I use a recently published experimentally mapped fitness landscape of more than 260 000 protein genotypes to ask how such sampling is best performed. RESULTS I show that multilayer perceptrons, recurrent neural networks, convolutional networks, and transformers, can explain more than 90% of fitness variance in the data. In addition, 90% of this performance is reached with a training sample comprising merely ≈103 sequences. Generalization to unseen test data is best when training data is sampled randomly and uniformly, or sampled to minimize the number of synonymous sequences. In contrast, sampling to maximize sequence diversity or codon usage bias reduces performance substantially. These observations hold for more than one network architecture. Simple sampling strategies may perform best when training deep learning neural networks to map fitness landscapes from experimental data. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The fitness landscape data analyzed here is publicly available as described previously (Papkou et al. 2023). All code used to analyze this landscape is publicly available at https://github.com/andreas-wagner-uzh/fitness_landscape_sampling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Wagner
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge-Batiment Genopode,1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, 87501 NM, United States
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3
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Ma C, Luo Y, Zhang C, Cheng C, Hua N, Liu X, Wu J, Qin L, Yu P, Luo J, Yang F, Jiang LH, Zhang G, Yang W. Evolutionary trajectory of TRPM2 channel activation by adenosine diphosphate ribose and calcium. Sci Bull (Beijing) 2024:S2095-9273(24)00301-3. [PMID: 38734586 DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2024.04.052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2023] [Revised: 02/07/2024] [Accepted: 04/19/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024]
Abstract
Ion channel activation upon ligand gating triggers a myriad of biological events and, therefore, evolution of ligand gating mechanism is of fundamental importance. TRPM2, a typical ancient ion channel, is activated by adenosine diphosphate ribose (ADPR) and calcium and its activation has evolved from a simple mode in invertebrates to a more complex one in vertebrates, but the evolutionary process is still unknown. Molecular evolutionary analysis of TRPM2s from more than 280 different animal species has revealed that, the C-terminal NUDT9-H domain has evolved from an enzyme to a ligand binding site for activation, while the N-terminal MHR domain maintains a conserved ligand binding site. Calcium gating pattern has also evolved, from one Ca2+-binding site as in sea anemones to three sites as in human. Importantly, we identified a new group represented by olTRPM2, which has a novel gating mode and fills the missing link of the channel gating evolution. We conclude that the TRPM2 ligand binding or activation mode evolved through at least three identifiable stages in the past billion years from simple to complicated and coordinated. Such findings benefit the evolutionary investigations of other channels and proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheng Ma
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China; Protein Facility, Core Facilities, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Yanping Luo
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Congyi Zhang
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Cheng Cheng
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Ning Hua
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Xiaocao Liu
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Jianan Wu
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Luying Qin
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Peilin Yu
- Department of Toxicology, and Department of Medical Oncology of The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Jianhong Luo
- Department of Neurobiology, Affiliated Mental Health Center, College of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Fan Yang
- Department of Biophysics, and Kidney Disease Center of The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Lin-Hua Jiang
- Sino-UK Joint Laboratory of Brain Function and Injury of Henan Province, and Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453004, China; Henan Collaborative Innovation Center of Prevention and Treatment of Mental Disorder, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453004, China
| | - Guojie Zhang
- Evolutionary & Organismal Biology Research Center, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Wei Yang
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurosurgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China; GuiZhou University Medical College, Guiyang 550025, China.
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4
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Dasmeh P, Zheng J, Erdoğan AN, Tokuriki N, Wagner A. Rapid evolutionary change in trait correlations of single proteins. Nat Commun 2024; 15:3327. [PMID: 38637501 PMCID: PMC11026499 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46658-1] [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: 05/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/06/2024] [Indexed: 04/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Many organismal traits are genetically determined and covary in evolving populations. The resulting trait correlations can either help or hinder evolvability - the ability to bring forth new and adaptive phenotypes. The evolution of evolvability requires that trait correlations themselves must be able to evolve, but we know little about this ability. To learn more about it, we here study two evolvable systems, a yellow fluorescent protein and the antibiotic resistance protein VIM-2 metallo beta-lactamase. We consider two traits in the fluorescent protein, namely the ability to emit yellow and green light, and three traits in our enzyme, namely the resistance against ampicillin, cefotaxime, and meropenem. We show that correlations between these traits can evolve rapidly through both mutation and selection on short evolutionary time scales. In addition, we show that these correlations are driven by a protein's ability to fold, because single mutations that alter foldability can dramatically change trait correlations. Since foldability is important for most proteins and their traits, mutations affecting protein folding may alter trait correlations mediated by many other proteins. Thus, mutations that affect protein foldability may also help shape the correlations of complex traits that are affected by hundreds of proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pouria Dasmeh
- Center for Human Genetics, Marburg University, Marburg, 35043, Germany.
- Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, 8057, Switzerland.
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland.
| | - Jia Zheng
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, 310030, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, 310030, Hangzhou, China
- Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 310030, Hangzhou, China
| | - Ayşe Nisan Erdoğan
- Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Nobuhiko Tokuriki
- Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Andreas Wagner
- Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, 8057, Switzerland.
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland.
- The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87501, US.
- Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa.
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5
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Mackay TFC, Anholt RRH. Pleiotropy, epistasis and the genetic architecture of quantitative traits. Nat Rev Genet 2024:10.1038/s41576-024-00711-3. [PMID: 38565962 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-024-00711-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
Pleiotropy (whereby one genetic polymorphism affects multiple traits) and epistasis (whereby non-linear interactions between genetic polymorphisms affect the same trait) are fundamental aspects of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits. Recent advances in the ability to characterize the effects of polymorphic variants on molecular and organismal phenotypes in human and model organism populations have revealed the prevalence of pleiotropy and unexpected shared molecular genetic bases among quantitative traits, including diseases. By contrast, epistasis is common between polymorphic loci associated with quantitative traits in model organisms, such that alleles at one locus have different effects in different genetic backgrounds, but is rarely observed for human quantitative traits and common diseases. Here, we review the concepts and recent inferences about pleiotropy and epistasis, and discuss factors that contribute to similarities and differences between the genetic architecture of quantitative traits in model organisms and humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Trudy F C Mackay
- Center for Human Genetics, Clemson University, Greenwood, SC, USA.
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA.
| | - Robert R H Anholt
- Center for Human Genetics, Clemson University, Greenwood, SC, USA.
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA.
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6
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Zheng J, Guo N, Huang Y, Guo X, Wagner A. High temperature delays and low temperature accelerates evolution of a new protein phenotype. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2495. [PMID: 38553445 PMCID: PMC10980763 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46332-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Since the origin of life, temperatures on earth have fluctuated both on short and long time scales. How such changes affect the rate at which Darwinian evolution can bring forth new phenotypes remains unclear. On the one hand, high temperature may accelerate phenotypic evolution because it accelerates most biological processes. On the other hand, it may slow phenotypic evolution, because proteins are usually less stable at high temperatures and therefore less evolvable. Here, to test these hypotheses experimentally, we evolved a green fluorescent protein in E. coli towards the new phenotype of yellow fluorescence at different temperatures. Yellow fluorescence evolved most slowly at high temperature and most rapidly at low temperature, in contradiction to the first hypothesis. Using high-throughput population sequencing, protein engineering, and biochemical assays, we determined that this is due to the protein-destabilizing effect of neofunctionalizing mutations. Destabilization is highly detrimental at high temperature, where neofunctionalizing mutations cannot be tolerated. Their detrimental effects can be mitigated through excess stability at low temperature, leading to accelerated adaptive evolution. By modifying protein folding stability, temperature alters the accessibility of mutational paths towards high-fitness genotypes. Our observations have broad implications for our understanding of how temperature changes affect evolutionary adaptations and innovations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Zheng
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China.
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, China.
- Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, China.
| | - Ning Guo
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, China
- Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yuxiang Huang
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, China
- Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xiang Guo
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, China
- Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, China
| | - Andreas Wagner
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, USA.
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7
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Dibyachintan S, Dube AK, Bradley D, Lemieux P, Dionne U, Landry CR. Cryptic genetic variation shapes the fate of gene duplicates in a protein interaction network. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.02.23.581840. [PMID: 38464075 PMCID: PMC10925128 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.23.581840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2024]
Abstract
Paralogous genes are often redundant for long periods of time before they diverge in function. While their functions are preserved, paralogous proteins can accumulate mutations that, through epistasis, could impact their fate in the future. By quantifying the impact of all single-amino acid substitutions on the binding of two myosin proteins to their interaction partners, we find that the future evolution of these proteins is highly contingent on their regulatory divergence and the mutations that have silently accumulated in their protein binding domains. Differences in the promoter strength of the two paralogs amplify the impact of mutations on binding in the lowly expressed one. While some mutations would be sufficient to non-functionalize one paralog, they would have minimal impact on the other. Our results reveal how functionally equivalent protein domains could be destined to specific fates by regulatory and cryptic coding sequence changes that currently have little to no functional impact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soham Dibyachintan
- PROTEO-Regroupement Québécois de Recherche sur la Fonction, l'Ingénierie et les Applications des Protéines, Québec, QC, Canada
- Centre de Recherche en Données Massives de l'Université Laval, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Département de Biochimie, de Microbiologie et de Bio-Informatique, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
| | - Alexandre K Dube
- PROTEO-Regroupement Québécois de Recherche sur la Fonction, l'Ingénierie et les Applications des Protéines, Québec, QC, Canada
- Centre de Recherche en Données Massives de l'Université Laval, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Département de Biochimie, de Microbiologie et de Bio-Informatique, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
| | - David Bradley
- PROTEO-Regroupement Québécois de Recherche sur la Fonction, l'Ingénierie et les Applications des Protéines, Québec, QC, Canada
- Centre de Recherche en Données Massives de l'Université Laval, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Département de Biochimie, de Microbiologie et de Bio-Informatique, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
| | - Pascale Lemieux
- PROTEO-Regroupement Québécois de Recherche sur la Fonction, l'Ingénierie et les Applications des Protéines, Québec, QC, Canada
- Centre de Recherche en Données Massives de l'Université Laval, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Département de Biochimie, de Microbiologie et de Bio-Informatique, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
| | - Ugo Dionne
- PROTEO-Regroupement Québécois de Recherche sur la Fonction, l'Ingénierie et les Applications des Protéines, Québec, QC, Canada
- Centre de Recherche en Données Massives de l'Université Laval, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Current affiliation: Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Christian R Landry
- PROTEO-Regroupement Québécois de Recherche sur la Fonction, l'Ingénierie et les Applications des Protéines, Québec, QC, Canada
- Centre de Recherche en Données Massives de l'Université Laval, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Département de Biochimie, de Microbiologie et de Bio-Informatique, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
- Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
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8
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Subramanian S, Zhang W, Nimkar S, Kamel M, O’Donnell M, Kuriyan J. Adaptive Capacity of a DNA Polymerase Clamp-loader ATPase Complex. Mol Biol Evol 2024; 41:msae013. [PMID: 38298175 PMCID: PMC10924251 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msae013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
The ability of mutations to facilitate adaptation is central to evolution. To understand how mutations can lead to functional adaptation in a complex molecular machine, we created a defective version of the T4 clamp-loader complex, which is essential for DNA replication. This variant, which is ∼5,000-fold less active than the wild type, was made by replacing the catalytic domains with those from another phage. A directed-evolution experiment revealed that multiple substitutions to a single negatively charged residue in the chimeric clamp loader-Asp 86-restore fitness to within ∼20-fold of wild type. These mutations remove an adventitious electrostatic repulsive interaction between Asp 86 and the sliding clamp. Thus, the fitness decrease of the chimeric clamp loader is caused by a reduction in affinity between the clamp loader and the clamp. Deep mutagenesis shows that the reduced fitness of the chimeric clamp loader is also compensated for by lysine and arginine substitutions of several DNA-proximal residues in the clamp loader or the sliding clamp. Our results demonstrate that there is a latent capacity for increasing the affinity of the clamp loader for DNA and the sliding clamp, such that even single-point mutations can readily compensate for the loss of function due to suboptimal interactions elsewhere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Subu Subramanian
- Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Weilin Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Siddharth Nimkar
- Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Mazzin Kamel
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Michael O’Donnell
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - John Kuriyan
- Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
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9
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López-Pérez M, Aguirre-Garrido F, Herrera-Zúñiga L, Fernández FJ. Gene as a dynamical notion: An extensive and integrative vision. Redefining the gene concept, from traditional to genic-interaction, as a new dynamical version. Biosystems 2023; 234:105060. [PMID: 37844827 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2023.105060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 09/08/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 10/18/2023]
Abstract
The current concept of gene has been very useful during the 20th and 21st centuries. However, recent advances in molecular biology and bioinformatics, which have further diversified the functional and adaptive profile of genetic information and its integration with cell physiology and environmental response, have contributed to focusing on additional new gene properties besides the traditional definition. Considering the inherent complexity of gene expression, whose adaptive objective must be referred to the Tortoise-Hare model, in which two tendencies converge, one focused on rapid adaptation to achieve survival, and the other that prevents an over-adaptation effect. In this context, a revision of the gene concept must be made, which must include these new mechanisms and approaches. In this paper, we propose a new conception of the idea of a gene that moves from a static and defined version of hereditary information to a dynamic idea that preponderates gene interaction (circumscribed to that established between protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid, and nucleic acid-nucleic acid) and the selection it exerts, as the irreducible element that works in a coordinated way in a genomic regulatory network (GRN).
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcos López-Pérez
- Environmental Sciences Department, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Lerma Unit) Av. de las Garzas N° 10, Col. El Panteón, Municipio de Lerma de Villada, Estado de México, C.P. 52005, Mexico.
| | - Félix Aguirre-Garrido
- Environmental Sciences Department, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Lerma Unit) Av. de las Garzas N° 10, Col. El Panteón, Municipio de Lerma de Villada, Estado de México, C.P. 52005, Mexico
| | - Leonardo Herrera-Zúñiga
- Chemistry Department, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Iztapalapa Unit), C.P. 09340, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Francisco J Fernández
- Biotechnology Department, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Iztapalapa Unit), C.P. 09340, Mexico City, Mexico.
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10
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Riley CL, Oostra V, Plaistow SJ. Does the definition of a novel environment affect the ability to detect cryptic genetic variation? J Evol Biol 2023; 36:1618-1629. [PMID: 37897127 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.14238] [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: 04/03/2023] [Revised: 07/09/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023]
Abstract
Anthropogenic change exposes populations to environments that have been rare or entirely absent from their evolutionary past. Such novel environments are hypothesized to release cryptic genetic variation, a hidden store of variance that can fuel evolution. However, support for this hypothesis is mixed. One possible reason is a lack of clarity in what is meant by 'novel environment', an umbrella term encompassing conditions with potentially contrasting effects on the exposure or concealment of cryptic variation. Here, we use a meta-analysis approach to investigate changes in the total genetic variance of multivariate traits in ancestral versus novel environments. To determine whether the definition of a novel environment could explain the mixed support for a release of cryptic genetic variation, we compared absolute novel environments, those not represented in a population's evolutionary past, to extreme novel environments, those involving frequency or magnitude changes to environments present in a population's ancestry. Despite sufficient statistical power, we detected no broad-scale pattern of increased genetic variance in novel environments, and finding the type of novel environment did not explain any significant variation in effect sizes. When effect sizes were partitioned by experimental design, we found increased genetic variation in studies based on broad-sense measures of variance, and decreased variation in narrow-sense studies, in support of previous research. Therefore, the source of genetic variance, not the definition of a novel environment, was key to understanding environment-dependant genetic variation, highlighting non-additive genetic variance as an important component of cryptic genetic variation and avenue for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camille L Riley
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behaviour, IVES, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Vicencio Oostra
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Stewart J Plaistow
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behaviour, IVES, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
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11
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Richardson K, Steffen W, Lucht W, Bendtsen J, Cornell SE, Donges JF, Drüke M, Fetzer I, Bala G, von Bloh W, Feulner G, Fiedler S, Gerten D, Gleeson T, Hofmann M, Huiskamp W, Kummu M, Mohan C, Nogués-Bravo D, Petri S, Porkka M, Rahmstorf S, Schaphoff S, Thonicke K, Tobian A, Virkki V, Wang-Erlandsson L, Weber L, Rockström J. Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadh2458. [PMID: 37703365 PMCID: PMC10499318 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh2458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 73.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/12/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023]
Abstract
This planetary boundaries framework update finds that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. Ocean acidification is close to being breached, while aerosol loading regionally exceeds the boundary. Stratospheric ozone levels have slightly recovered. The transgression level has increased for all boundaries earlier identified as overstepped. As primary production drives Earth system biosphere functions, human appropriation of net primary production is proposed as a control variable for functional biosphere integrity. This boundary is also transgressed. Earth system modeling of different levels of the transgression of the climate and land system change boundaries illustrates that these anthropogenic impacts on Earth system must be considered in a systemic context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine Richardson
- Globe Institute, Faculty of Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Will Steffen
- Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Wolfgang Lucht
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
- Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jørgen Bendtsen
- Globe Institute, Faculty of Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Sarah E. Cornell
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Jonathan F. Donges
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Markus Drüke
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Ingo Fetzer
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Govindasamy Bala
- Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka – 560012, India
| | - Werner von Bloh
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Georg Feulner
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Stephanie Fiedler
- GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Faculty for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Dieter Gerten
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
- Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Tom Gleeson
- Department of Civil Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Matthias Hofmann
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Willem Huiskamp
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Matti Kummu
- Water and Development Research Group, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Chinchu Mohan
- GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Faculty for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Waterplan (YC S21), San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - David Nogués-Bravo
- Globe Institute, Faculty of Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Stefan Petri
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Miina Porkka
- Water and Development Research Group, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Stefan Rahmstorf
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
- Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Sibyll Schaphoff
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Kirsten Thonicke
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Arne Tobian
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Vili Virkki
- Water and Development Research Group, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Lan Wang-Erlandsson
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Lisa Weber
- GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Faculty for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Johan Rockström
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Institute for Environmental Science and Geography, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
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12
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Buda K, Miton CM, Fan XC, Tokuriki N. Molecular determinants of protein evolvability. Trends Biochem Sci 2023; 48:751-760. [PMID: 37330341 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibs.2023.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Revised: 05/18/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
The plethora of biological functions that sustain life is rooted in the remarkable evolvability of proteins. An emerging view highlights the importance of a protein's initial state in dictating evolutionary success. A deeper comprehension of the mechanisms that govern the evolvability of these initial states can provide invaluable insights into protein evolution. In this review, we describe several molecular determinants of protein evolvability, unveiled by experimental evolution and ancestral sequence reconstruction studies. We further discuss how genetic variation and epistasis can promote or constrain functional innovation and suggest putative underlying mechanisms. By establishing a clear framework for these determinants, we provide potential indicators enabling the forecast of suitable evolutionary starting points and delineate molecular mechanisms in need of deeper exploration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karol Buda
- Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Charlotte M Miton
- Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Xingyu Cara Fan
- Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Nobuhiko Tokuriki
- Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
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13
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Fait A, Andersson DI, Ingmer H. Evolutionary history of Staphylococcus aureus influences antibiotic resistance evolution. Curr Biol 2023; 33:3389-3397.e5. [PMID: 37494936 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Revised: 05/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023]
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance often confers a fitness cost to the resistant cell and thus raises key questions of how resistance is maintained in the absence of antibiotics and, if lost, whether cells are genetically primed for re-evolving resistance. To address these questions, we have examined vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) strains that arise during vancomycin therapy. VISA strains harbor a broad spectrum of mutations, and they are known to be unstable both in patients and in the laboratory. Here, we show that loss of resistance in VISA strains is correlated with a fitness increase and is attributed to adaptive mutations, leaving the initial VISA-adaptive mutations intact. Importantly, upon a second exposure to vancomycin, such revertants evolve significantly faster to become VISA, and they reach higher resistance levels than vancomycin-naive cells. Further, we find that sub-lethal concentrations of vancomycin stabilize the VISA phenotype, as do the human β-defensin 3 (hBD-3) and the bacteriocin nisin that both, like vancomycin, bind to the peptidoglycan building block, lipid II. Thus, factors binding lipid II may stabilize VISA both in vivo and in vitro, and in case resistance is lost, mutations remain that predispose to resistance development. These findings may explain why VISA infections often are re-occurring and suggest that previous vancomycin adaptation should be considered a risk factor when deciding on antimicrobial chemotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anaëlle Fait
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark; Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Dan I Andersson
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Hanne Ingmer
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark.
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14
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Nucci A, Rocha EPC, Rendueles O. Latent evolution of biofilm formation depends on life-history and genetic background. NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes 2023; 9:53. [PMID: 37537176 PMCID: PMC10400614 DOI: 10.1038/s41522-023-00422-3] [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: 04/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Adaptation to one environment can often generate phenotypic and genotypic changes which impact the future ability of an organism to thrive in other environmental conditions. In the context of host-microbe interactions, biofilm formation can increase survival rates in vivo upon exposure to stresses, like the host's immune system or antibiotic therapy. However, how the generic process of adaptation impacts the ability to form biofilm and how it may change through time has seldomly been studied. To do so, we used a previous evolution experiment with three strains of the Klebsiella pneumoniae species complex, in which we specifically did not select for biofilm formation. We observed that changes in the ability to form biofilm happened very fast at first and afterwards reverted to ancestral levels in many populations. Biofilm changes were associated to changes in population yield and surface polysaccharide production. Genotypically, mutations in the tip adhesin of type III fimbriae (mrkD) or the fim switch of type I fimbriae were shaped by nutrient availability during evolution, and their impact on biofilm formation was dependent on capsule production. Analyses of natural isolates revealed similar mutations in mrkD, suggesting that such mutations also play an important role in adaptation outside the laboratory. Our work reveals that the latent evolution of biofilm formation, and its temporal dynamics, depend on nutrient availability, the genetic background and other intertwined phenotypic and genotypic changes. Ultimately, it suggests that small differences in the environment can alter an organism's fate in more complex niches like the host.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amandine Nucci
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS, UMR3525, Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, F-75015, Paris, France
| | - Eduardo P C Rocha
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS, UMR3525, Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, F-75015, Paris, France
| | - Olaya Rendueles
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS, UMR3525, Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, F-75015, Paris, France.
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15
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Zavarzina DG, Merkel AY, Klyukina AA, Elizarov IM, Pikhtereva VA, Rusakov VS, Chistyakova NI, Ziganshin RH, Maslov AA, Gavrilov SN. Iron or sulfur respiration-an adaptive choice determining the fitness of a natronophilic bacterium Dethiobacter alkaliphilus in geochemically contrasting environments. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1108245. [PMID: 37520367 PMCID: PMC10376724 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1108245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/26/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Haloalkaliphilic microorganisms are double extremophiles functioning optimally at high salinity and pH. Their typical habitats are soda lakes, geologically ancient yet widespread ecosystems supposed to harbor relict microbial communities. We compared metabolic features and their determinants in two strains of the natronophilic species Dethiobacter alkaliphilus, the only cultured representative of the class "Dethiobacteria" (Bacillota). The strains of D. alkaliphilus were previously isolated from geographically remote Mongolian and Kenyan soda lakes. The type strain AHT1T was described as a facultative chemolithoautotrophic sulfidogen reducing or disproportionating sulfur or thiosulfate, while strain Z-1002 was isolated as a chemolithoautotrophic iron reducer. Here, we uncovered the iron reducing ability of strain AHT1T and the ability of strain Z-1002 for thiosulfate reduction and anaerobic Fe(II) oxidation. Key catabolic processes sustaining the growth of both D. alkaliphilus strains appeared to fit the geochemical settings of two contrasting natural alkaline environments, sulfur-enriched soda lakes and iron-enriched serpentinites. This hypothesis was supported by a meta-analysis of Dethiobacterial genomes and by the enrichment of a novel phylotype from a subsurface alkaline aquifer under Fe(III)-reducing conditions. Genome analysis revealed multiheme c-type cytochromes to be the most probable determinants of iron and sulfur redox transformations in D. alkaliphilus. Phylogeny reconstruction showed that all the respiratory processes in this organism are likely provided by evolutionarily related early forms of unconventional octaheme tetrathionate and sulfite reductases and their structural analogs, OmhA/OcwA Fe(III)-reductases. Several phylogenetically related determinants of anaerobic Fe(II) oxidation were identified in the Z-1002 genome, and the oxidation process was experimentally demonstrated. Proteomic profiling revealed two distinct sets of multiheme cytochromes upregulated in iron(III)- or thiosulfate-respiring cells and the cytochromes peculiar for Fe(II) oxidizing cells. We suggest that maintaining high variation in multiheme cytochromes is an effective adaptive strategy to occupy geochemically contrasting alkaline environments. We propose that sulfur-enriched soda lakes could be secondary habitats for D. alkaliphilus compared to Fe-rich serpentinites, and that the ongoing evolution of Dethiobacterales could retrace the evolutionary path that may have occurred in prokaryotes at a turning point in the biosphere's history, when the intensification of the sulfur cycle outweighed the global significance of the iron cycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daria G. Zavarzina
- Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, FRC Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Alexander Yu Merkel
- Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, FRC Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Alexandra A. Klyukina
- Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, FRC Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Ivan M. Elizarov
- Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, FRC Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Valeria A. Pikhtereva
- Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, FRC Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
- Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
| | | | | | - Rustam H. Ziganshin
- Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Alexey A. Maslov
- Faculty of Geology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
| | - Sergey N. Gavrilov
- Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, FRC Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
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16
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Wagner ER, Nightingale NM, Jen A, Overmyer KA, McGee M, Coon JJ, Gasch AP. PKA regulatory subunit Bcy1 couples growth, lipid metabolism, and fermentation during anaerobic xylose growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. PLoS Genet 2023; 19:e1010593. [PMID: 37410771 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Organisms have evolved elaborate physiological pathways that regulate growth, proliferation, metabolism, and stress response. These pathways must be properly coordinated to elicit the appropriate response to an ever-changing environment. While individual pathways have been well studied in a variety of model systems, there remains much to uncover about how pathways are integrated to produce systemic changes in a cell, especially in dynamic conditions. We previously showed that deletion of Protein Kinase A (PKA) regulatory subunit BCY1 can decouple growth and metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineered for anaerobic xylose fermentation, allowing for robust fermentation in the absence of division. This provides an opportunity to understand how PKA signaling normally coordinates these processes. Here, we integrated transcriptomic, lipidomic, and phospho-proteomic responses upon a glucose to xylose shift across a series of strains with different genetic mutations promoting either coupled or decoupled xylose-dependent growth and metabolism. Together, results suggested that defects in lipid homeostasis limit growth in the bcy1Δ strain despite robust metabolism. To further understand this mechanism, we performed adaptive laboratory evolutions to re-evolve coupled growth and metabolism in the bcy1Δ parental strain. The evolved strain harbored mutations in PKA subunit TPK1 and lipid regulator OPI1, among other genes, and evolved changes in lipid profiles and gene expression. Deletion of the evolved opi1 gene partially reverted the strain's phenotype to the bcy1Δ parent, with reduced growth and robust xylose fermentation. We suggest several models for how cells coordinate growth, metabolism, and other responses in budding yeast and how restructuring these processes enables anaerobic xylose utilization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen R Wagner
- Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Center for Genomic Science Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Nicole M Nightingale
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Annie Jen
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Katherine A Overmyer
- Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Mick McGee
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Joshua J Coon
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Center for Genomic Science Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Audrey P Gasch
- Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Center for Genomic Science Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
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17
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Wagner A. Evolvability-enhancing mutations in the fitness landscapes of an RNA and a protein. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3624. [PMID: 37336901 PMCID: PMC10279741 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39321-8] [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: 09/26/2022] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Can evolvability-the ability to produce adaptive heritable variation-itself evolve through adaptive Darwinian evolution? If so, then Darwinian evolution may help create the conditions that enable Darwinian evolution. Here I propose a framework that is suitable to address this question with available experimental data on adaptive landscapes. I introduce the notion of an evolvability-enhancing mutation, which increases the likelihood that subsequent mutations in an evolving organism, protein, or RNA molecule are adaptive. I search for such mutations in the experimentally characterized and combinatorially complete fitness landscapes of a protein and an RNA molecule. I find that such evolvability-enhancing mutations indeed exist. They constitute a small fraction of all mutations, which shift the distribution of fitness effects of subsequent mutations towards less deleterious mutations, and increase the incidence of beneficial mutations. Evolving populations which experience such mutations can evolve significantly higher fitness. The study of evolvability-enhancing mutations opens many avenues of investigation into the evolution of evolvability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Wagner
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge-Batiment Genopode, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
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18
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Santos-Moreno J, Tasiudi E, Kusumawardhani H, Stelling J, Schaerli Y. Robustness and innovation in synthetic genotype networks. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2454. [PMID: 37117168 PMCID: PMC10147661 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38033-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2022] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Genotype networks are sets of genotypes connected by small mutational changes that share the same phenotype. They facilitate evolutionary innovation by enabling the exploration of different neighborhoods in genotype space. Genotype networks, first suggested by theoretical models, have been empirically confirmed for proteins and RNAs. Comparative studies also support their existence for gene regulatory networks (GRNs), but direct experimental evidence is lacking. Here, we report the construction of three interconnected genotype networks of synthetic GRNs producing three distinct phenotypes in Escherichia coli. Our synthetic GRNs contain three nodes regulating each other by CRISPR interference and governing the expression of fluorescent reporters. The genotype networks, composed of over twenty different synthetic GRNs, provide robustness in face of mutations while enabling transitions to innovative phenotypes. Through realistic mathematical modeling, we quantify robustness and evolvability for the complete genotype-phenotype map and link these features mechanistically to GRN motifs. Our work thereby exemplifies how GRN evolution along genotype networks might be driving evolutionary innovation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier Santos-Moreno
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, Pompeu Fabra University, 00803, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Eve Tasiudi
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Hadiastri Kusumawardhani
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Joerg Stelling
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Basel, Switzerland.
| | - Yolanda Schaerli
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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19
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Impact of anthropogenic contamination on glacier surface biota. Curr Opin Biotechnol 2023; 80:102900. [PMID: 36764028 DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2023.102900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2022] [Revised: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Glaciers are ecosystems and they host active biological communities. Despite their remoteness, glaciers act as cold condensers where high precipitation rates and cold temperatures favor the deposition of pollutants. These contaminants include a broad range of substances, including legacy pollutants, but also compounds still largely used. Some of these compounds are monitored in the environment and their effects on the ecosystems are known, in contrast others can be defined as emerging pollutants since their presence and their impact on the environment are still poorly understood (e.g. microplastics, radionuclides). This review aim to provide an overview of the studies that have investigated the effects of pollutants on the supraglacial ecosystem so far. Despite the distribution of the pollutants in glacier environments has been discussed in several studies, no review paper has summarized the current knowledge on the effects of these substances on the ecological communities living in glacier ecosystems.
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20
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Segredo-Otero E, Sanjuán R. Genetic complementation fosters evolvability in complex fitness landscapes. Sci Rep 2023; 13:662. [PMID: 36635310 PMCID: PMC9837146 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-26588-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability of natural selection to optimize traits depends on the topology of the genotype-fitness map (fitness landscape). Epistatic interactions produce rugged fitness landscapes, where adaptation is constrained by the presence of low-fitness intermediates. Here, we used simulations to explore how evolvability in rugged fitness landscapes is influenced by genetic complementation, a process whereby different sequence variants mutually compensate for their deleterious mutations. We designed our model inspired by viral populations, in which genetic variants are known to interact frequently through coinfection. Our simulations indicate that genetic complementation enables a more efficient exploration of rugged fitness landscapes. Although this benefit may be undermined by genetic parasites, its overall effect on evolvability remains positive in populations that exhibit strong relatedness between interacting sequences. Similar processes could operate in contexts other than viral coinfection, such as in the evolution of ploidy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernesto Segredo-Otero
- grid.4711.30000 0001 2183 4846Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universitat de València, C/ Catedrático Agustín Escardino 9, 46980 Paterna, València, Spain
| | - Rafael Sanjuán
- Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universitat de València, C/ Catedrático Agustín Escardino 9, 46980, Paterna, València, Spain.
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21
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Draghi JA, Ogbunugafor CB. Exploring the expanse between theoretical questions and experimental approaches in the modern study of evolvability. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY. PART B, MOLECULAR AND DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTION 2023; 340:8-17. [PMID: 35451559 PMCID: PMC10083935 DOI: 10.1002/jez.b.23134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2021] [Revised: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 03/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Despite several decades of computational and experimental work across many systems, evolvability remains on the periphery with regards to its status as a widely accepted and regularly applied theoretical concept. Here we propose that its marginal status is partly a result of large gaps between the diverse but disconnected theoretical treatments of evolvability and the relatively narrower range of studies that have tested it empirically. To make this case, we draw on a range of examples-from experimental evolution in microbes, to molecular evolution in proteins-where attempts have been made to mend this disconnect. We highlight some examples of progress that has been made and point to areas where synthesis and translation of existing theory can lead to further progress in the still-new field of empirical measurements of evolvability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy A Draghi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
| | - C Brandon Ogbunugafor
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
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22
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Wortel MT, Agashe D, Bailey SF, Bank C, Bisschop K, Blankers T, Cairns J, Colizzi ES, Cusseddu D, Desai MM, van Dijk B, Egas M, Ellers J, Groot AT, Heckel DG, Johnson ML, Kraaijeveld K, Krug J, Laan L, Lässig M, Lind PA, Meijer J, Noble LM, Okasha S, Rainey PB, Rozen DE, Shitut S, Tans SJ, Tenaillon O, Teotónio H, de Visser JAGM, Visser ME, Vroomans RMA, Werner GDA, Wertheim B, Pennings PS. Towards evolutionary predictions: Current promises and challenges. Evol Appl 2023; 16:3-21. [PMID: 36699126 PMCID: PMC9850016 DOI: 10.1111/eva.13513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2022] [Revised: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 11/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolution has traditionally been a historical and descriptive science, and predicting future evolutionary processes has long been considered impossible. However, evolutionary predictions are increasingly being developed and used in medicine, agriculture, biotechnology and conservation biology. Evolutionary predictions may be used for different purposes, such as to prepare for the future, to try and change the course of evolution or to determine how well we understand evolutionary processes. Similarly, the exact aspect of the evolved population that we want to predict may also differ. For example, we could try to predict which genotype will dominate, the fitness of the population or the extinction probability of a population. In addition, there are many uses of evolutionary predictions that may not always be recognized as such. The main goal of this review is to increase awareness of methods and data in different research fields by showing the breadth of situations in which evolutionary predictions are made. We describe how diverse evolutionary predictions share a common structure described by the predictive scope, time scale and precision. Then, by using examples ranging from SARS-CoV2 and influenza to CRISPR-based gene drives and sustainable product formation in biotechnology, we discuss the methods for predicting evolution, the factors that affect predictability and how predictions can be used to prevent evolution in undesirable directions or to promote beneficial evolution (i.e. evolutionary control). We hope that this review will stimulate collaboration between fields by establishing a common language for evolutionary predictions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meike T. Wortel
- Swammerdam Institute for Life SciencesUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | - Deepa Agashe
- National Centre for Biological SciencesBangaloreIndia
| | | | - Claudia Bank
- Institute of Ecology and EvolutionUniversity of BernBernSwitzerland
- Swiss Institute of BioinformaticsLausanneSwitzerland
- Gulbenkian Science InstituteOeirasPortugal
| | - Karen Bisschop
- Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem DynamicsUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
- Origins CenterGroningenThe Netherlands
- Laboratory of Aquatic Biology, KU Leuven KulakKortrijkBelgium
| | - Thomas Blankers
- Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem DynamicsUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
- Origins CenterGroningenThe Netherlands
| | | | - Enrico Sandro Colizzi
- Origins CenterGroningenThe Netherlands
- Mathematical InstituteLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands
| | | | | | - Bram van Dijk
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary BiologyPlönGermany
| | - Martijn Egas
- Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem DynamicsUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | - Jacintha Ellers
- Department of Ecological ScienceVrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | - Astrid T. Groot
- Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem DynamicsUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | | | | | - Ken Kraaijeveld
- Leiden Centre for Applied BioscienceUniversity of Applied Sciences LeidenLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Joachim Krug
- Institute for Biological PhysicsUniversity of CologneCologneGermany
| | - Liedewij Laan
- Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of NanoscienceTU DelftDelftThe Netherlands
| | - Michael Lässig
- Institute for Biological PhysicsUniversity of CologneCologneGermany
| | - Peter A. Lind
- Department Molecular BiologyUmeå UniversityUmeåSweden
| | - Jeroen Meijer
- Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of BiologyUtrecht UniversityUtrechtThe Netherlands
| | - Luke M. Noble
- Institute de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, InsermParisFrance
| | | | - Paul B. Rainey
- Department of Microbial Population BiologyMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary BiologyPlönGermany
- Laboratoire Biophysique et Évolution, CBI, ESPCI Paris, Université PSL, CNRSParisFrance
| | - Daniel E. Rozen
- Institute of Biology, Leiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Shraddha Shitut
- Origins CenterGroningenThe Netherlands
- Institute of Biology, Leiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands
| | | | | | | | | | - Marcel E. Visser
- Department of Animal EcologyNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW)WageningenThe Netherlands
| | - Renske M. A. Vroomans
- Origins CenterGroningenThe Netherlands
- Informatics InstituteUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | | | - Bregje Wertheim
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life SciencesUniversity of GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
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23
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Joshi BD, Singh SK, Singh VK, Jabin G, Ghosh A, Dalui S, Singh A, Priyambada P, Dolker S, Mukherjee T, Sharief A, Kumar V, Singh H, Thapa A, Sharma CM, Dutta R, Bhattacharjee S, Singh I, Mehar BS, Chandra K, Sharma LK, Thakur M. From poops to planning: A broad non-invasive genetic survey of large mammals from the Indian Himalayan Region. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 853:158679. [PMID: 36099955 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2021] [Revised: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Large forested landscapes often harbour significant amount of biodiversity and support mankind by rendering various livelihood opportunities and ecosystem services. Their periodic assessment for health and ecological integrity is essential for timely mitigation of any negative impact of human use due to over harvesting of natural resources or unsustainable developmental activities. In this context, monitoring of mega fauna may provide reasonable insights about the connectivity and quality of forested habitats. In the present study, we conducted a largest non-invasive genetic survey to explore mammalian diversity and genetically characterized 13 mammals from the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). We analyzed 4806 faecal samples using 103 autosomal microsatellites and with three mitochondrial genes, we identified 37 species of mammal. We observed low to moderate level of genetic variability and most species exhibited stable demographic history. We estimated an unbiased population genetic account (PGAunbias) for 13 species that may be monitored after a fixed time interval to understand species performance in response to the landscape changes. The present study has been evident to show pragmatic permeability with the representative sampling in the IHR in order to facilitate the development of species-oriented conservation and management programmes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bheem Dutt Joshi
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Sujeet Kumar Singh
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India; Present address: Amity Institute of Forestry and Wildlife, Amity University, Noida 201303, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Vinaya Kumar Singh
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Gul Jabin
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Avijit Ghosh
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Supriyo Dalui
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Abhishek Singh
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | | | - Stanzin Dolker
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Tanoy Mukherjee
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Amira Sharief
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Vineet Kumar
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Hemant Singh
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Avantika Thapa
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | | | - Ritam Dutta
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | | | - Inder Singh
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Balram Singh Mehar
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Kailash Chandra
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Lalit Kumar Sharma
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India
| | - Mukesh Thakur
- Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India.
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24
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Iwasawa J, Maeda T, Shibai A, Kotani H, Kawada M, Furusawa C. Analysis of the evolution of resistance to multiple antibiotics enables prediction of the Escherichia coli phenotype-based fitness landscape. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001920. [PMID: 36512529 PMCID: PMC9746992 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The fitness landscape represents the complex relationship between genotype or phenotype and fitness under a given environment, the structure of which allows the explanation and prediction of evolutionary trajectories. Although previous studies have constructed fitness landscapes by comprehensively studying the mutations in specific genes, the high dimensionality of genotypic changes prevents us from developing a fitness landscape capable of predicting evolution for the whole cell. Herein, we address this problem by inferring the phenotype-based fitness landscape for antibiotic resistance evolution by quantifying the multidimensional phenotypic changes, i.e., time-series data of resistance for eight different drugs. We show that different peaks of the landscape correspond to different drug resistance mechanisms, thus supporting the validity of the inferred phenotype-fitness landscape. We further discuss how inferred phenotype-fitness landscapes could contribute to the prediction and control of evolution. This approach bridges the gap between phenotypic/genotypic changes and fitness while contributing to a better understanding of drug resistance evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junichiro Iwasawa
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Tomoya Maeda
- Graduate School of Agriculture Research, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Atsushi Shibai
- Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, RIKEN, Suita, Japan
| | - Hazuki Kotani
- Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, RIKEN, Suita, Japan
| | - Masako Kawada
- Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, RIKEN, Suita, Japan
| | - Chikara Furusawa
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, RIKEN, Suita, Japan
- Universal Biology Institute, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- * E-mail:
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25
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Wagner A. Adaptive evolvability through direct selection instead of indirect, second-order selection. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY. PART B, MOLECULAR AND DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTION 2022; 338:395-404. [PMID: 34254439 PMCID: PMC9786751 DOI: 10.1002/jez.b.23071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 06/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Can evolvability itself be the product of adaptive evolution? To answer this question is challenging, because any DNA mutation that alters only evolvability is subject to indirect, "second order" selection on the future effects of this mutation. Such indirect selection is weaker than "first-order" selection on mutations that alter fitness, in the sense that it can operate only under restrictive conditions. Here I discuss a route to adaptive evolvability that overcomes this challenge. Specifically, a recent evolution experiment showed that some mutations can enhance both fitness and evolvability through a combination of direct and indirect selection. Unrelated evidence from gene duplication and the evolution of gene regulation suggests that mutations with such dual effects may not be rare. Through such mutations, evolvability may increase at least in part because it provides an adaptive advantage. These observations suggest a research program on the adaptive evolution of evolvability, which aims to identify such mutations and to disentangle their direct fitness effects from their indirect effects on evolvability. If evolvability is itself adaptive, Darwinian evolution may have created more than life's diversity. It may also have helped create the very conditions that made the success of Darwinian evolution possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Wagner
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental StudiesUniversity of ZurichZurichSwitzerland,Swiss Institute of BioinformaticsQuartier Sorge‐Batiment GenopodeLausanneSwitzerland,The Santa Fe InstituteSanta FeNew MexicoUSA,Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch UniversityStellenboschSouth Africa
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26
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Getting higher on rugged landscapes: Inversion mutations open access to fitter adaptive peaks in NK fitness landscapes. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1010647. [PMID: 36315581 PMCID: PMC9648849 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2022] [Revised: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 10/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Molecular evolution is often conceptualised as adaptive walks on rugged fitness landscapes, driven by mutations and constrained by incremental fitness selection. It is well known that epistasis shapes the ruggedness of the landscape’s surface, outlining their topography (with high-fitness peaks separated by valleys of lower fitness genotypes). However, within the strong selection weak mutation (SSWM) limit, once an adaptive walk reaches a local peak, natural selection restricts passage through downstream paths and hampers any possibility of reaching higher fitness values. Here, in addition to the widely used point mutations, we introduce a minimal model of sequence inversions to simulate adaptive walks. We use the well known NK model to instantiate rugged landscapes. We show that adaptive walks can reach higher fitness values through inversion mutations, which, compared to point mutations, allows the evolutionary process to escape local fitness peaks. To elucidate the effects of this chromosomal rearrangement, we use a graph-theoretical representation of accessible mutants and show how new evolutionary paths are uncovered. The present model suggests a simple mechanistic rationale to analyse escapes from local fitness peaks in molecular evolution driven by (intragenic) structural inversions and reveals some consequences of the limits of point mutations for simulations of molecular evolution. Ninety years ago, Wright translated Darwin’s core idea of survival of the fittest into rugged landscapes—a highly influential metaphor—with peaks representing high values of fitness separated by valleys of lower fitness. In this picture, once a population has reached a local peak, the adaptive dynamics may stall as further adaptation requires crossing a valley. At the DNA level, adaptation is often modelled as a space of genotypes that is explored through point mutations. Therefore, once a local peak is reached, any genotype fitter than that of the peak will be away from the neighbourhood of genotypes accessible through point mutations. Here we present a simple computational model for inversion mutations, one of the most frequent structural variations, and show that adaptive processes in rugged landscapes can escape from local peaks through intragenic inversion mutations. This new escape mechanism reveals the innovative role of inversions at the DNA level and provides a step towards more realistic models of adaptive dynamics, beyond the dominance of point mutations in theories of molecular evolution.
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27
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Tenaillon O, Matic I. L’impact des mutations neutres sur l’évolvabilité et l’évolution des génomes. Med Sci (Paris) 2022; 38:777-785. [DOI: 10.1051/medsci/2022122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Les mutations bénéfiques à forts effets sont rares et les mutations délétères sont éliminées par la sélection naturelle. La majorité des mutations qui s’accumulent dans les génomes ont donc des effets sélectifs très faibles, voire nuls ; elles sont alors appelées mutations neutres. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, il a été montré que les mutations, même en l’absence d’effet sur la valeur sélective des organismes, affectent leur évolvabilité, en donnant accès à de nouveaux phénotypes par le biais de mutations apparaissant ultérieurement, et qui n’auraient pas été disponibles autrement. En plus de cet effet, de nombreuses mutations neutres – indépendamment de leurs effets sélectifs – peuvent affecter la mutabilité de séquences d’ADN voisines, et moduler l’efficacité de la recombinaison homologue. De telles mutations ne modifient pas le spectre des phénotypes accessibles, mais plutôt la vitesse à laquelle de nouveaux phénotypes seront produits, un processus qui a des conséquences à long terme mais aussi potentiellement à court terme, en lien avec l’émergence de cancers.
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28
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Kim I, Dubrow A, Zuniga B, Zhao B, Sherer N, Bastiray A, Li P, Cho JH. Energy landscape reshaped by strain-specific mutations underlies epistasis in NS1 evolution of influenza A virus. Nat Commun 2022; 13:5775. [PMID: 36182933 PMCID: PMC9526705 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33554-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Elucidating how individual mutations affect the protein energy landscape is crucial for understanding how proteins evolve. However, predicting mutational effects remains challenging because of epistasis—the nonadditive interactions between mutations. Here, we investigate the biophysical mechanism of strain-specific epistasis in the nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) of influenza A viruses (IAVs). We integrate structural, kinetic, thermodynamic, and conformational dynamics analyses of four NS1s of influenza strains that emerged between 1918 and 2004. Although functionally near-neutral, strain-specific NS1 mutations exhibit long-range epistatic interactions with residues at the p85β-binding interface. We reveal that strain-specific mutations reshaped the NS1 energy landscape during evolution. Using NMR spin dynamics, we find that the strain-specific mutations altered the conformational dynamics of the hidden network of tightly packed residues, underlying the evolution of long-range epistasis. This work shows how near-neutral mutations silently alter the biophysical energy landscapes, resulting in diverse background effects during molecular evolution. Influenza A virus (IAV) nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) is a multifunctional virulence factor that interacts with several host factors such as phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K). NS1 binds specifically to the p85β regulatory subunit of PI3K and subsequently activates PI3K signaling. Here, Kim et al. show that functionally near-neutral, strain-specific NS1 mutations lead to variations in binding kinetics to p85β exhibit long-range epistatic interactions. Applying NMR they provide evidence that the structural dynamics of the NS1 hydrophobic core have evolved over time and contributed to epistasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iktae Kim
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Alyssa Dubrow
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Bryan Zuniga
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Baoyu Zhao
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Noah Sherer
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Abhishek Bastiray
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Pingwei Li
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Jae-Hyun Cho
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
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29
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Strobel HM, Stuart EC, Meyer JR. A Trait-Based Approach to Predicting Viral Host-Range Evolvability. Annu Rev Virol 2022; 9:139-156. [PMID: 36173699 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-virology-091919-092003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Predicting the evolution of virus host range has proven to be extremely difficult, in part because of the sheer diversity of viruses, each with unique biology and ecological interactions. We have not solved this problem, but to make the problem more tractable, we narrowed our focus to three traits intrinsic to all viruses that may play a role in host-range evolvability: mutation rate, recombination rate, and phenotypic heterogeneity. Although each trait should increase evolvability, they cannot do so unbounded because fitness trade-offs limit the ability of all three traits to maximize evolvability. By examining these constraints, we can begin to identify groups of viruses with suites of traits that make them especially concerning, as well as ecological and environmental conditions that might push evolution toward accelerating host-range expansion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah M Strobel
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA;
| | - Elizabeth C Stuart
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA;
| | - Justin R Meyer
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA;
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30
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The structure of genotype-phenotype maps makes fitness landscapes navigable. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:1742-1752. [PMID: 36175543 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01867-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2021] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Fitness landscapes are often described in terms of 'peaks' and 'valleys', indicating an intuitive low-dimensional landscape of the kind encountered in everyday experience. The space of genotypes, however, is extremely high dimensional, which results in counter-intuitive structural properties of genotype-phenotype maps. Here we show that these properties, such as the presence of pervasive neutral networks, make fitness landscapes navigable. For three biologically realistic genotype-phenotype map models-RNA secondary structure, protein tertiary structure and protein complexes-we find that, even under random fitness assignment, fitness maxima can be reached from almost any other phenotype without passing through fitness valleys. This in turn indicates that true fitness valleys are very rare. By considering evolutionary simulations between pairs of real examples of functional RNA sequences, we show that accessible paths are also likely to be used under evolutionary dynamics. Our findings have broad implications for the prediction of natural evolutionary outcomes and for directed evolution.
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31
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La Fortezza M, Rendueles O, Keller H, Velicer GJ. Hidden paths to endless forms most wonderful: ecology latently shapes evolution of multicellular development in predatory bacteria. Commun Biol 2022; 5:977. [PMID: 36114258 PMCID: PMC9481553 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03912-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2021] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractEcological causes of developmental evolution, for example from predation, remain much investigated, but the potential importance of latent phenotypes in eco-evo-devo has received little attention. Using the predatory bacterium Myxococcus xanthus, which undergoes aggregative fruiting body development upon starvation, we tested whether adaptation to distinct growth environments that do not induce development latently alters developmental phenotypes under starvation conditions that do induce development. In an evolution experiment named MyxoEE-3, growing M. xanthus populations swarmed across agar surfaces while adapting to conditions varying at factors such as surface stiffness or prey identity. Such ecological variation during growth was found to greatly impact the latent evolution of development, including fruiting body morphology, the degree of morphological trait correlation, reaction norms, degrees of developmental plasticity and stochastic diversification. For example, some prey environments promoted retention of developmental proficiency whereas others led to its systematic loss. Our results have implications for understanding evolutionary interactions among predation, development and motility in myxobacterial life cycles, and, more broadly, how ecology can profoundly shape the evolution of developmental systems latently rather than by direct selection on developmental features.
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32
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Low protein expression enhances phenotypic evolvability by intensifying selection on folding stability. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:1155-1164. [PMID: 35798838 PMCID: PMC7613228 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01797-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Protein abundance affects the evolution of protein genotypes, but we do not know how it affects the evolution of protein phenotypes. Here we investigate the role of protein abundance in the evolvability of green fluorescent protein (GFP) towards the novel phenotype of cyan fluorescence. We evolve GFP in E. coli through multiple cycles of mutation and selection and show that low GFP expression facilitates the evolution of cyan fluorescence. A computational model whose predictions we test experimentally helps explain why: lowly expressed proteins are under stronger selection for proper folding, which facilitates their evolvability on short evolutionary time scales. The reason is that high fluorescence can be achieved by either few proteins that fold well or by many proteins that fold less well. In other words, we observe a synergy between a protein's scarcity and its stability. Because many proteins meet the essential requirements for this scarcity-stability synergy, it may be a widespread mechanism by which low expression helps proteins evolve new phenotypes and functions.
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33
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Cárdenas P, Corredor V, Santos-Vega M. Genomic epidemiological models describe pathogen evolution across fitness valleys. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabo0173. [PMID: 35857510 PMCID: PMC9278859 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo0173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2022] [Accepted: 05/26/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Genomics is fundamentally changing epidemiological research. However, systematically exploring hypotheses in pathogen evolution requires new modeling tools. Models intertwining pathogen epidemiology and genomic evolution can help understand processes such as the emergence of novel pathogen genotypes with higher transmissibility or resistance to treatment. In this work, we present Opqua, a flexible simulation framework that explicitly links epidemiology to sequence evolution and selection. We use Opqua to study determinants of evolution across fitness valleys. We confirm that competition can limit evolution in high-transmission environments and find that low transmission, host mobility, and complex pathogen life cycles facilitate reaching new adaptive peaks through population bottlenecks and decoupling of selective pressures. The results show the potential of genomic epidemiological modeling as a tool in infectious disease research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo Cárdenas
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Vladimir Corredor
- Departamento de Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
| | - Mauricio Santos-Vega
- Grupo Biología Matemática y Computacional, Departamento Ingeniería Biomédica, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
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34
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Kwon CT, Tang L, Wang X, Gentile I, Hendelman A, Robitaille G, Van Eck J, Xu C, Lippman ZB. Dynamic evolution of small signalling peptide compensation in plant stem cell control. NATURE PLANTS 2022; 8:346-355. [PMID: 35347264 DOI: 10.1038/s41477-022-01118-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Gene duplications are a hallmark of plant genome evolution and a foundation for genetic interactions that shape phenotypic diversity1-5. Compensation is a major form of paralogue interaction6-8 but how compensation relationships change as allelic variation accumulates is unknown. Here we leveraged genomics and genome editing across the Solanaceae family to capture the evolution of compensating paralogues. Mutations in the stem cell regulator CLV3 cause floral organs to overproliferate in many plants9-11. In tomato, this phenotype is partially suppressed by transcriptional upregulation of a closely related paralogue12. Tobacco lost this paralogue, resulting in no compensation and extreme clv3 phenotypes. Strikingly, the paralogues of petunia and groundcherry nearly completely suppress clv3, indicating a potent ancestral state of compensation. Cross-species transgenic complementation analyses show that this potent compensation partially degenerated in tomato due to a single amino acid change in the paralogue and cis-regulatory variation that limits its transcriptional upregulation. Our findings show how genetic interactions are remodelled following duplications and suggest that dynamic paralogue evolution is widespread over short time scales and impacts phenotypic variation from natural and engineered mutations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Choon-Tak Kwon
- School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Horticultural Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Republic of Korea
| | - Lingli Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, National Center for Plant Gene Research, CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science (CEPAMS), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xingang Wang
- School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA
| | - Iacopo Gentile
- School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA
| | - Anat Hendelman
- School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA
| | - Gina Robitaille
- School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA
| | - Joyce Van Eck
- Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, NY, USA
- Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Cao Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, National Center for Plant Gene Research, CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science (CEPAMS), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Zachary B Lippman
- School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA.
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Symmetry and simplicity spontaneously emerge from the algorithmic nature of evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2113883119. [PMID: 35275794 PMCID: PMC8931234 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2113883119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
SignificanceWhy does evolution favor symmetric structures when they only represent a minute subset of all possible forms? Just as monkeys randomly typing into a computer language will preferentially produce outputs that can be generated by shorter algorithms, so the coding theorem from algorithmic information theory predicts that random mutations, when decoded by the process of development, preferentially produce phenotypes with shorter algorithmic descriptions. Since symmetric structures need less information to encode, they are much more likely to appear as potential variation. Combined with an arrival-of-the-frequent mechanism, this algorithmic bias predicts a much higher prevalence of low-complexity (high-symmetry) phenotypes than follows from natural selection alone and also explains patterns observed in protein complexes, RNA secondary structures, and a gene regulatory network.
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36
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Lalejini A, Ferguson AJ, Grant NA, Ofria C. Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity Stabilizes Evolution in Fluctuating Environments. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.715381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Fluctuating environmental conditions are ubiquitous in natural systems, and populations have evolved various strategies to cope with such fluctuations. The particular mechanisms that evolve profoundly influence subsequent evolutionary dynamics. One such mechanism is phenotypic plasticity, which is the ability of a single genotype to produce alternate phenotypes in an environmentally dependent context. Here, we use digital organisms (self-replicating computer programs) to investigate how adaptive phenotypic plasticity alters evolutionary dynamics and influences evolutionary outcomes in cyclically changing environments. Specifically, we examined the evolutionary histories of both plastic populations and non-plastic populations to ask: (1) Does adaptive plasticity promote or constrain evolutionary change? (2) Are plastic populations better able to evolve and then maintain novel traits? And (3), how does adaptive plasticity affect the potential for maladaptive alleles to accumulate in evolving genomes? We find that populations with adaptive phenotypic plasticity undergo less evolutionary change than non-plastic populations, which must rely on genetic variation from de novo mutations to continuously readapt to environmental fluctuations. Indeed, the non-plastic populations undergo more frequent selective sweeps and accumulate many more genetic changes. We find that the repeated selective sweeps in non-plastic populations drive the loss of beneficial traits and accumulation of maladaptive alleles, whereas phenotypic plasticity can stabilize populations against environmental fluctuations. This stabilization allows plastic populations to more easily retain novel adaptive traits than their non-plastic counterparts. In general, the evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity shifted evolutionary dynamics to be more similar to that of populations evolving in a static environment than to non-plastic populations evolving in an identical fluctuating environment. All natural environments subject populations to some form of change; our findings suggest that the stabilizing effect of phenotypic plasticity plays an important role in subsequent adaptive evolution.
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Applying Population Viability Analysis to Inform Genetic Rescue That Preserves Locally Unique Genetic Variation in a Critically Endangered Mammal. DIVERSITY 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/d13080382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Genetic rescue can reduce the extinction risk of inbred populations, but it has the poorly understood risk of ‘genetic swamping’—the replacement of the distinctive variation of the target population. We applied population viability analysis (PVA) to identify translocation rates into the inbred lowland population of Leadbeater’s possum from an outbred highland population that would alleviate inbreeding depression and rapidly reach a target population size (N) while maximising the retention of locally unique neutral genetic variation. Using genomic kinship coefficients to model inbreeding in Vortex, we simulated genetic rescue scenarios that included gene pool mixing with genetically diverse highland possums and increased the N from 35 to 110 within ten years. The PVA predicted that the last remaining population of lowland Leadbeater’s possum will be extinct within 23 years without genetic rescue, and that the carrying capacity at its current range is insufficient to enable recovery, even with genetic rescue. Supplementation rates that rapidly increased population size resulted in higher retention (as opposed to complete loss) of local alleles through alleviation of genetic drift but reduced the frequency of locally unique alleles. Ongoing gene flow and a higher N will facilitate natural selection. Accordingly, we recommend founding a new population of lowland possums in a high-quality habitat, where population growth and natural gene exchange with highland populations are possible. We also recommend ensuring gene flow into the population through natural dispersal and/or frequent translocations of highland individuals. Genetic rescue should be implemented within an adaptive management framework, with post-translocation monitoring data incorporated into the models to make updated predictions.
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Chu XL, Zhang QG, Buckling A, Castledine M. Interspecific Niche Competition Increases Morphological Diversity in Multi-Species Microbial Communities. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:699190. [PMID: 34394041 PMCID: PMC8362326 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.699190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Intraspecific competition for limited niches has been recognized as a driving force for adaptive radiation, but results for the role of interspecific competition have been mixed. Here, we report the adaptive diversification of the model bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens in the presence of different numbers and combinations of four competing bacterial species. Increasing the diversity of competitive community increased the morphological diversity of focal species, which is caused by impeding the domination of a single morphotype. Specifically, this pattern was driven by more diverse communities being more likely to contain key species that occupy the same niche as otherwise competitively superior morphotype, and thus preventing competitive exclusion within the focal species. Our results suggest that sympatric adaptive radiation is driven by the presence or absence of niche-specific competitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Lin Chu
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom.,State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and MOE Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Quan-Guo Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and MOE Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Angus Buckling
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom
| | - Meaghan Castledine
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom
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Wang Y, Xue P, Cao M, Yu T, Lane ST, Zhao H. Directed Evolution: Methodologies and Applications. Chem Rev 2021; 121:12384-12444. [PMID: 34297541 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.1c00260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 184] [Impact Index Per Article: 61.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Directed evolution aims to expedite the natural evolution process of biological molecules and systems in a test tube through iterative rounds of gene diversifications and library screening/selection. It has become one of the most powerful and widespread tools for engineering improved or novel functions in proteins, metabolic pathways, and even whole genomes. This review describes the commonly used gene diversification strategies, screening/selection methods, and recently developed continuous evolution strategies for directed evolution. Moreover, we highlight some representative applications of directed evolution in engineering nucleic acids, proteins, pathways, genetic circuits, viruses, and whole cells. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future perspectives in directed evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yajie Wang
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Pu Xue
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Mingfeng Cao
- DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Tianhao Yu
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Stephan T Lane
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Huimin Zhao
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
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40
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Zheng J, Guo N, Wagner A. Mistranslation reduces mutation load in evolving proteins through negative epistasis with DNA mutations. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:4792-4804. [PMID: 34255074 PMCID: PMC8557407 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Translational errors during protein synthesis cause phenotypic mutations that are several orders of magnitude more frequent than DNA mutations. Such phenotypic mutations may affect adaptive evolution through their interactions with DNA mutations. To study how mistranslation may affect the adaptive evolution of evolving proteins, we evolved populations of green fluorescent protein (GFP) in either high-mistranslation or low-mistranslation Escherichia coli hosts. In both hosts, we first evolved GFP under purifying selection for the ancestral phenotype green fluorescence, and then under directional selection toward the new phenotype yellow fluorescence. High-mistranslation populations evolved modestly higher yellow fluorescence during each generation of evolution than low-mistranslation populations. We demonstrate by high-throughput sequencing that elevated mistranslation reduced the accumulation of deleterious DNA mutations under both purifying and directional selection. It did so by amplifying the fitness effects of deleterious DNA mutations through negative epistasis with phenotypic mutations. In contrast, mistranslation did not affect the incidence of beneficial mutations. Our findings show that phenotypic mutations interact epistatically with DNA mutations. By reducing a population’s mutation load, mistranslation can affect an important determinant of evolvability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Zheng
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge-Batiment Genopode, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Ning Guo
- Zwirnereistrasse 11, Wallisellen, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Andreas Wagner
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge-Batiment Genopode, Lausanne, Switzerland.,The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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41
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Hawthorne-Madell J, Aaron E, Livingston K, Long JH. Embodied Computational Evolution: Feedback Between Development and Evolution in Simulated Biorobots. Front Robot AI 2021; 8:674823. [PMID: 34179109 PMCID: PMC8222576 DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2021.674823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2021] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Given that selection removes genetic variance from evolving populations, thereby reducing exploration opportunities, it is important to find mechanisms that create genetic variation without the disruption of adapted genes and genomes caused by random mutation. Just such an alternative is offered by random epigenetic error, a developmental process that acts on materials and parts expressed by the genome. In this system of embodied computational evolution, simulated within a physics engine, epigenetic error was instantiated in an explicit genotype-to-phenotype map as transcription error at the initiation of gene expression. The hypothesis was that transcription error would create genetic variance by shielding genes from the direct impact of selection, creating, in the process, masquerading genomes. To test this hypothesis, populations of simulated embodied biorobots and their developmental systems were evolved under steady directional selection as equivalent rates of random mutation and random transcriptional error were covaried systematically in an 11 × 11 fully factorial experimental design. In each of the 121 different experimental conditions (unique combinations of mutation and transcription error), the same set of 10 randomly created replicate populations of 60 individuals were evolved. Selection for the improved locomotor behavior of individuals led to increased mean fitness of populations over 100 generations at nearly all levels and combinations of mutation and transcription error. When the effects of both types of error were partitioned statistically, increasing transcription error was shown to increase the final genetic variance of populations, incurring a fitness cost but acting on variance independently and differently from genetic mutation. Thus, random epigenetic errors in development feed back through selection of individuals with masquerading genomes to the population’s genetic variance over generational time. Random developmental processes offer an additional mechanism for exploration by increasing genetic variation in the face of steady, directional selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Hawthorne-Madell
- Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, United States.,Department of Cognitive Science, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, United States
| | - Eric Aaron
- Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, United States.,Department of Computer Science, Colby College, Waterville, ME, United States
| | - Ken Livingston
- Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, United States.,Department of Cognitive Science, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, United States
| | - John H Long
- Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, United States.,Department of Cognitive Science, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, United States
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42
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Maddamsetti R. Universal Constraints on Protein Evolution in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 13:evab070. [PMID: 33856016 PMCID: PMC8233687 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Although it is well known that abundant proteins evolve slowly across the tree of life, there is little consensus for why this is true. Here, I report that abundant proteins evolve slowly in the hypermutator populations of Lenski's long-term evolution experiment with Escherichia coli (LTEE). Specifically, the density of all observed mutations per gene, as measured in metagenomic time series covering 60,000 generations of the LTEE, significantly anticorrelates with mRNA abundance, protein abundance, and degree of protein-protein interaction. The same pattern holds for nonsynonymous mutation density. However, synonymous mutation density, measured across the LTEE hypermutator populations, positively correlates with protein abundance. These results show that universal constraints on protein evolution are visible in data spanning three decades of experimental evolution. Therefore, it should be possible to design experiments to answer why abundant proteins evolve slowly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rohan Maddamsetti
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
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43
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Consequences of mutation accumulation for growth performance are more likely to be resource-dependent at higher temperatures. BMC Ecol Evol 2021; 21:109. [PMID: 34092227 PMCID: PMC8180013 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-021-01846-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2021] [Accepted: 05/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Mutation accumulation (MA) has profound ecological and evolutionary consequences. One example is that accumulation of conditionally neutral mutations leads to fitness trade-offs among heterogenous habitats which cause population divergence. Here we suggest that temperature, which controls the rates of all biochemical and biophysical processes, should play a crucial role for determining mutational effects. Particularly, warmer temperatures may mitigate the effects of some, not all, deleterious mutations and cause stronger environmental dependence in MA effects. Results We experimentally tested the above hypothesis by measuring the growth performance of ten Escherichia coli genotypes on six carbon resources across ten temperatures, where the ten genotypes were derived from a single ancestral strain and accumulated spontaneous mutations. We analyzed resource dependence of MA consequences for growth yields. The MA genotypes typically showed reduced growth yields relative to the ancestral type; and the magnitude of reduction was smaller at intermediate temperatures. Stronger resource dependence in MA consequences for growth performance was observed at higher temperatures. Specifically, the MA genotypes were more likely to show impaired growth performance on all the six carbon resources when grown at lower temperatures; but suffered growth performance loss only on some, not all the six, carbon substrates at higher temperatures. Conclusions Higher temperatures increase the chance that MA causes conditionally neutral fitness effects while MA is more likely to cause fitness loss regardless of available resources at lower temperatures. This finding has implications for understanding how geographic patterns in population divergence may emerge, and how conservation practices, particularly protection of diverse microhabitats, may mitigate the impacts of global warming. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-021-01846-1.
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Xie VC, Pu J, Metzger BP, Thornton JW, Dickinson BC. Contingency and chance erase necessity in the experimental evolution of ancestral proteins. eLife 2021; 10:67336. [PMID: 34061027 PMCID: PMC8282340 DOI: 10.7554/elife.67336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The roles of chance, contingency, and necessity in evolution are unresolved because they have never been assessed in a single system or on timescales relevant to historical evolution. We combined ancestral protein reconstruction and a new continuous evolution technology to mutate and select proteins in the B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) family to acquire protein–protein interaction specificities that occurred during animal evolution. By replicating evolutionary trajectories from multiple ancestral proteins, we found that contingency generated over long historical timescales steadily erased necessity and overwhelmed chance as the primary cause of acquired sequence variation; trajectories launched from phylogenetically distant proteins yielded virtually no common mutations, even under strong and identical selection pressures. Chance arose because many sets of mutations could alter specificity at any timepoint; contingency arose because historical substitutions changed these sets. Our results suggest that patterns of variation in BCL-2 sequences – and likely other proteins, too – are idiosyncratic products of a particular and unpredictable course of historical events. One of the most fundamental and unresolved questions in evolutionary biology is whether the outcomes of evolution are predictable. Is the diversity of life we see today the expected result of organisms adapting to their environment throughout history (also known as natural selection) or the product of random chance? Or did chance events early in history shape the paths that evolution could take next, determining the biological forms that emerged under natural selection much later? These questions are hard to study because evolution happened only once, long ago. To overcome this barrier, Xie, Pu, Metzger et al. developed an experimental approach that can evolve reconstructed ancestral proteins that existed deep in the past. Using this method, it is possible to replay evolution multiple times, from various historical starting points, under conditions similar to those that existed long ago. The end products of the evolutionary trajectories can then be compared to determine how predictable evolution actually is. Xie, Pu, Metzger et al. studied proteins belonging to the BCL-2 family, which originated some 800 million years ago. These proteins have diversified greatly over time in both their genetic sequences and their ability to bind to specific partner proteins called co-regulators. Xie, Pu, Metzger et al. synthesized BCL-2 proteins that existed at various times in the past. Each ancestral protein was then allowed to evolve repeatedly under natural selection to acquire the same co-regulator binding functions that evolved during history. At the end of each evolutionary trajectory, the genetic sequence of the resulting BCL-2 proteins was recorded. This revealed that the outcomes of evolution were almost completely unpredictable: trajectories initiated from the same ancestral protein produced proteins with very different sequences, and proteins launched from different ancestral starting points were even more dissimilar. Further experiments identified the mutations in each trajectory that caused changes in coregulator binding. When these mutations were introduced into other ancestral proteins, they did not yield the same change in function. This suggests that early chance events influenced each protein’s evolution in an unpredictable way by opening and closing the paths available to it in the future. This research expands our understanding of evolution on a molecular level whilst providing a new experimental approach for studying evolutionary drivers in more detail. The results suggest that BCL-2 proteins, in all their various forms, are unique products of a particular, unpredictable course of history set in motion by ancient chance events.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jinyue Pu
- Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
| | - Brian Ph Metzger
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
| | - Joseph W Thornton
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States.,Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
| | - Bryan C Dickinson
- Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
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45
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Jeffery NS, Sarver DC, Mendias CL. Ontogenetic and in silico models of spatial-packing in the hypermuscular mouse skull. J Anat 2021; 238:1284-1295. [PMID: 33438210 PMCID: PMC8128773 DOI: 10.1111/joa.13393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2020] [Revised: 12/15/2020] [Accepted: 12/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Networks linking single genes to multiple phenotypic outcomes can be founded on local anatomical interactions as well as on systemic factors like biochemical products. Here we explore the effects of such interactions by investigating the competing spatial demands of brain and masticatory muscle growth within the hypermuscular myostatin-deficient mouse model and in computational simulations. Mice that lacked both copies of the myostatin gene (-/-) and display gross hypermuscularity, and control mice that had both copies of the myostatin gene (+/+) were sampled at 1, 7, 14 and 28 postnatal days. A total of 48 mice were imaged with standard as well as contrast-enhanced microCT. Size metrics and landmark configurations were collected from the image data and were analysed alongside in silico models of tissue expansion. Findings revealed that: masseter muscle volume was smaller in -/- mice at day 1 but became, and remained thereafter, larger by 7 days; -/- endocranial volumes begin and remained smaller; -/- enlargement of the masticatory muscles was associated with caudolateral displacement of the calvarium, lateral displacement of the zygomatic arches, and slight dorsal deflection of the face and basicranium. Simulations revealed basicranial retroflexion (flattening) and dorsal deflection of the face associated with muscle expansion and abrogative covariations of basicranial flexion and ventral facial deflection associated with endocranial expansion. Our findings support the spatial-packing theory and highlight the importance of understanding the harmony of competing spatial demands that can shape and maintain mammalian skull architecture during ontogeny.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan S. Jeffery
- Institute of Life Course & Medical SciencesUniversity of LiverpoolLiverpoolUK
| | - Dylan C. Sarver
- Department of Orthopaedic SurgeryUniversity of MichiganAnn ArborMIUSA
- School of MedicineJohns Hopkins UniversityBaltimoreMDUSA
| | - Christopher L. Mendias
- Department of Orthopaedic SurgeryUniversity of MichiganAnn ArborMIUSA
- HSS Research InstituteHospital for Special SurgeryNew YorkNYUSA
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Routh S, Acharyya A, Dhar R. A two-step PCR assembly for construction of gene variants across large mutational distances. Biol Methods Protoc 2021; 6:bpab007. [PMID: 33928191 PMCID: PMC8062255 DOI: 10.1093/biomethods/bpab007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Revised: 03/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Construction of empirical fitness landscapes has transformed our understanding of genotype–phenotype relationships across genes. However, most empirical fitness landscapes have been constrained to the local genotype neighbourhood of a gene primarily due to our limited ability to systematically construct genotypes that differ by a large number of mutations. Although a few methods have been proposed in the literature, these techniques are complex owing to several steps of construction or contain a large number of amplification cycles that increase chances of non-specific mutations. A few other described methods require amplification of the whole vector, thereby increasing the chances of vector backbone mutations that can have unintended consequences for study of fitness landscapes. Thus, this has substantially constrained us from traversing large mutational distances in the genotype network, thereby limiting our understanding of the interactions between multiple mutations and the role these interactions play in evolution of novel phenotypes. In the current work, we present a simple but powerful approach that allows us to systematically and accurately construct gene variants at large mutational distances. Our approach relies on building-up small fragments containing targeted mutations in the first step followed by assembly of these fragments into the complete gene fragment by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We demonstrate the utility of our approach by constructing variants that differ by up to 11 mutations in a model gene. Our work thus provides an accurate method for construction of multi-mutant variants of genes and therefore will transform the studies of empirical fitness landscapes by enabling exploration of genotypes that are far away from a starting genotype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shreya Routh
- Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India
| | - Anamika Acharyya
- Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India
| | - Riddhiman Dhar
- Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India
- Correspondence address. Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India. Tel. +91-3222-304562; E-mail:
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Freund L, Vasse M, Velicer GJ. Hidden paths to endless forms most wonderful: parasite-blind diversification of host quality. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20210456. [PMID: 33906400 PMCID: PMC8080016 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary diversification can occur in allopatry or sympatry, can be driven by selection or unselected, and can be phenotypically manifested immediately or remain latent until manifested in a newly encountered environment. Diversification of host-parasite interactions is frequently studied in the context of intrinsically selective coevolution, but the potential for host-parasite interaction phenotypes to diversify latently during parasite-blind host evolution is rarely considered. Here, we use a social bacterium experimentally adapted to several environments in the absence of phage to analyse allopatric diversification of host quality-the degree to which a host population supports a viral epidemic. Phage-blind evolution reduced host quality overall, with some bacteria becoming completely resistant to growth suppression by phage. Selective-environment differences generated only mild divergence in host quality. However, selective environments nonetheless played a major role in shaping evolution by determining the degree of stochastic diversification among replicate populations within treatments. Ancestral motility genotype was also found to strongly shape patterns of latent host-quality evolution and diversification. These outcomes show that (i) adaptive landscapes can differ in how they constrain stochastic diversification of a latent phenotype and (ii) major effects of selection on biological diversification can be missed by focusing on trait means. Collectively, our findings suggest that latent-phenotype evolution should inform host-parasite evolution theory and that diversification should be conceived broadly to include latent phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa Freund
- Institute for Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Marie Vasse
- Institute for Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
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Abstract
Very low antibiotic concentrations have been shown to drive the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. While substantial progress has been made to understand the driving role of low concentrations during resistance development for different antimicrobial classes, the importance of β-lactams, the most commonly used antibiotics, is still poorly studied. Our current understanding of how low antibiotic concentrations shape the evolution of contemporary β-lactamases is limited. Using the widespread carbapenemase OXA-48, we tested the long-standing hypothesis that selective compartments with low antibiotic concentrations cause standing genetic diversity that could act as a gateway to developing clinical resistance. Here, we subjected Escherichia coli expressing blaOXA-48, on a clinical plasmid, to experimental evolution at sub-MICs of ceftazidime. We identified and characterized seven single variants of OXA-48. Susceptibility profiles and dose-response curves showed that they increased resistance only marginally. However, in competition experiments at sub-MICs of ceftazidime, they demonstrated strong selectable fitness benefits. Increased resistance was also reflected in elevated catalytic efficiencies toward ceftazidime. These changes are likely caused by enhanced flexibility of the Ω- and β5-β6 loops and fine-tuning of preexisting active site residues. In conclusion, low-level concentrations of β-lactams can drive the evolution of β-lactamases through cryptic phenotypes which may act as stepping-stones toward clinical resistance. IMPORTANCE Very low antibiotic concentrations have been shown to drive the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. While substantial progress has been made to understand the driving role of low concentrations during resistance development for different antimicrobial classes, the importance of β-lactams, the most commonly used antibiotics, is still poorly studied. Here, we shed light on the evolutionary impact of low β-lactam concentrations on the widespread β-lactamase OXA-48. Our data indicate that the exposure to β-lactams at very low concentrations enhances β-lactamase diversity and drives the evolution of β-lactamases by significantly influencing their substrate specificity. Thus, in contrast to high concentrations, low levels of these drugs may substantially contribute to the diversification and divergent evolution of these enzymes, providing a standing genetic diversity that can be selected and mobilized when antibiotic pressure increases.
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Lürig MD, Donoughe S, Svensson EI, Porto A, Tsuboi M. Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and the Promise of Phenomics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.642774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
For centuries, ecologists and evolutionary biologists have used images such as drawings, paintings and photographs to record and quantify the shapes and patterns of life. With the advent of digital imaging, biologists continue to collect image data at an ever-increasing rate. This immense body of data provides insight into a wide range of biological phenomena, including phenotypic diversity, population dynamics, mechanisms of divergence and adaptation, and evolutionary change. However, the rate of image acquisition frequently outpaces our capacity to manually extract meaningful information from images. Moreover, manual image analysis is low-throughput, difficult to reproduce, and typically measures only a few traits at a time. This has proven to be an impediment to the growing field of phenomics – the study of many phenotypic dimensions together. Computer vision (CV), the automated extraction and processing of information from digital images, provides the opportunity to alleviate this longstanding analytical bottleneck. In this review, we illustrate the capabilities of CV as an efficient and comprehensive method to collect phenomic data in ecological and evolutionary research. First, we briefly review phenomics, arguing that ecologists and evolutionary biologists can effectively capture phenomic-level data by taking pictures and analyzing them using CV. Next we describe the primary types of image-based data, review CV approaches for extracting them (including techniques that entail machine learning and others that do not), and identify the most common hurdles and pitfalls. Finally, we highlight recent successful implementations and promising future applications of CV in the study of phenotypes. In anticipation that CV will become a basic component of the biologist’s toolkit, our review is intended as an entry point for ecologists and evolutionary biologists that are interested in extracting phenotypic information from digital images.
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Spirov AV, Levchenko VF, Sabirov MA. Concepts of Canalization and Genetic
Assimilation in Developmental Biology: Current Approaches and Studies. J EVOL BIOCHEM PHYS+ 2021. [DOI: 10.1134/s0022093021010014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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