Absence of a Faster-X Effect in Beetles (Tribolium, Coleoptera)

Dosage compensation in non-model insects - progress and perspectives

In many multicellular eukaryotes, heteromorphic sex chromosomes are responsible for determining the sexual characteristics and reproductive functions of individuals. Sex chromosomes can cause a dosage imbalance between sexes, which in some species is re-equilibrated by dosage compensation (DC). Recent genomic advances have extended our understanding of DC mechanisms in insects beyond model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster. We review current knowledge of insect DC, focusing on its conservation and divergence across orders, the evolutionary dynamics of neo-sex chromosomes, and the diversity of molecular mechanisms. We propose a framework to uncover DC regulators in non-model insects that relies on integrating evolutionary, genomic, and functional approaches. This comprehensive approach will facilitate a deeper understanding of the evolution and essentiality of gene regulatory mechanisms.

Genetic drift drives faster-Z evolution in the salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis

How sex chromosomes evolve compared to autosomes remains an unresolved question in population genetics. Most studies focus on only a handful of taxa, resulting in uncertainty over whether observed patterns reflect general processes or idiosyncrasies in particular clades. For example, in female heterogametic (ZW) systems, bird Z chromosomes tend to evolve quickly but not adaptively, while in Lepidopterans they evolve adaptively, but not always quickly. To understand how these observations fit into broader evolutionary patterns, we explore Z chromosome evolution outside of these two well-studied clades. We utilize a publicly available genome, gene expression, population, and outgroup data in the salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis, an important agricultural pest copepod. We find that the Z chromosome is faster evolving than autosomes, but that this effect is driven by increased drift rather than adaptive evolution. Due to high rates of female reproductive failure, the Z chromosome exhibits a slightly lower effective population size than the autosomes which is nonetheless to decrease efficiency of hemizygous selection acting on the Z. These results highlight the usefulness of organismal life history in calibrating population genetic expectations and demonstrate the value of the ever-expanding wealth of publicly available data to help resolve outstanding evolutionary questions.

scRNA-seq Reveals Novel Genetic Pathways and Sex Chromosome Regulation in Tribolium Spermatogenesis

Spermatogenesis is critical to sexual reproduction yet evolves rapidly in many organisms. High-throughput single-cell transcriptomics promises unparalleled insight into this important process but understanding can be impeded in nonmodel systems by a lack of known genes that can reliably demarcate biologically meaningful cell populations. Tribolium castaneum, the red flour beetle, lacks known markers for spermatogenesis found in insect species like Drosophila melanogaster. Using single-cell sequencing data collected from adult beetle testes, we implement a strategy for elucidating biologically meaningful cell populations by using transient expression stage identification markers, weighted principal component clustering, and SNP-based haploid/diploid phasing. We identify populations that correspond to observable points in sperm differentiation and find species specific markers for each stage. Our results indicate that molecular pathways underlying spermatogenesis in Coleoptera are substantially diverged from those in Diptera. We also show that most genes on the X chromosome experience meiotic sex chromosome inactivation. Temporal expression of Drosophila MSL complex homologs coupled with spatial analysis of potential chromatin entry sites further suggests that the dosage compensation machinery may mediate escape from meiotic sex chromosome inactivation and postmeiotic reactivation of the X chromosome.

The Scorpionfly (Panorpa cognata) Genome Highlights Conserved and Derived Features of the Peculiar Dipteran X Chromosome

Many insects carry an ancient X chromosome-the Drosophila Muller element F-that likely predates their origin. Interestingly, the X has undergone turnover in multiple fly species (Diptera) after being conserved for more than 450 My. The long evolutionary distance between Diptera and other sequenced insect clades makes it difficult to infer what could have contributed to this sudden increase in rate of turnover. Here, we produce the first genome and transcriptome of a long overlooked sister-order to Diptera: Mecoptera. We compare the scorpionfly Panorpa cognata X-chromosome gene content, expression, and structure to that of several dipteran species as well as more distantly related insect orders (Orthoptera and Blattodea). We find high conservation of gene content between the mecopteran X and the dipteran Muller F element, as well as several shared biological features, such as the presence of dosage compensation and a low amount of genetic diversity, consistent with a low recombination rate. However, the 2 homologous X chromosomes differ strikingly in their size and number of genes they carry. Our results therefore support a common ancestry of the mecopteran and ancestral dipteran X chromosomes, and suggest that Muller element F shrank in size and gene content after the split of Diptera and Mecoptera, which may have contributed to its turnover in dipteran insects.

Chromosome-Aware Phylogenomics of Assassin Bugs (Hemiptera: Reduvioidea) Elucidates Ancient Gene Conflict

Though the phylogenetic signal of loci on sex chromosomes can differ from those on autosomes, chromosomal-level genome assemblies for nonvertebrates are still relatively scarce and conservation of chromosomal gene content across deep phylogenetic scales has therefore remained largely unexplored. We here assemble a uniquely large and diverse set of samples (17 anchored hybrid enrichment, 24 RNA-seq, and 70 whole-genome sequencing samples of variable depth) for the medically important assassin bugs (Reduvioidea). We assess the performance of genes based on multiple features (e.g., nucleotide vs. amino acid, nuclear vs. mitochondrial, and autosomal vs. X chromosomal) and employ different methods (concatenation and coalescence analyses) to reconstruct the unresolved phylogeny of this diverse (∼7,000 spp.) and old (>180 Ma) group. Our results show that genes on the X chromosome are more likely to have discordant phylogenies than those on autosomes. We find that the X chromosome conflict is driven by high gene substitution rates that impact the accuracy of phylogenetic inference. However, gene tree clustering showed strong conflict even after discounting variable third codon positions. Alternative topologies were not particularly enriched for sex chromosome loci, but spread across the genome. We conclude that binning genes to autosomal or sex chromosomes may result in a more accurate picture of the complex evolutionary history of a clade.

X chromosomes show relaxed selection and complete somatic dosage compensation across Timema stick insect species

Sex chromosomes have evolved repeatedly across the tree of life. As they are present in different copy numbers in males and females, they are expected to experience different selection pressures than the autosomes, with consequences including a faster rate of evolution, increased accumulation of sexually antagonistic alleles and the evolution of dosage compensation. Whether these consequences are general or linked to idiosyncrasies of specific taxa is not clear as relatively few taxa have been studied thus far. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing to identify and characterize the evolution of the X chromosome in five species of Timema stick insects with XX:X0 sex determination. The X chromosome had a similar size (approximately 12% of the genome) and gene content across all five species, suggesting that the X chromosome originated prior to the diversification of the genus. Genes on the X showed evidence of relaxed selection (elevated dN/dS) and a slower evolutionary rate (dN + dS) than genes on the autosomes, likely due to sex-biased mutation rates. Genes on the X also showed almost complete dosage compensation in somatic tissues (heads and legs), but dosage compensation was absent in the reproductive tracts. Contrary to prediction, sex-biased genes showed little enrichment on the X, suggesting that the advantage X-linkage provides to the accumulation of sexually antagonistic alleles is weak. Overall, we found the consequences of X-linkage on gene sequences and expression to be similar across Timema species, showing the characteristics of the X chromosome are surprisingly consistent over 30 million years of evolution.

Molecular Evolution across Mouse Spermatogenesis

Genes involved in spermatogenesis tend to evolve rapidly, but we lack a clear understanding of how protein sequences and patterns of gene expression evolve across this complex developmental process. We used fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to generate expression data for early (meiotic) and late (postmeiotic) cell types across 13 inbred strains of mice (Mus) spanning ∼7 My of evolution. We used these comparative developmental data to investigate the evolution of lineage-specific expression, protein-coding sequences, and expression levels. We found increased lineage specificity and more rapid protein-coding and expression divergence during late spermatogenesis, suggesting that signatures of rapid testis molecular evolution are punctuated across sperm development. Despite strong overall developmental parallels in these components of molecular evolution, protein and expression divergences were only weakly correlated across genes. We detected more rapid protein evolution on the X chromosome relative to the autosomes, whereas X-linked gene expression tended to be relatively more conserved likely reflecting chromosome-specific regulatory constraints. Using allele-specific FACS expression data from crosses between four strains, we found that the relative contributions of different regulatory mechanisms also differed between cell types. Genes showing cis-regulatory changes were more common late in spermatogenesis, and tended to be associated with larger differences in expression levels and greater expression divergence between species. In contrast, genes with trans-acting changes were more common early and tended to be more conserved across species. Our findings advance understanding of gene evolution across spermatogenesis and underscore the fundamental importance of developmental context in molecular evolutionary studies.

Sex-biased gene expression and recent sex chromosome turnover

Cichlids are well known for their propensity to radiate generating arrays of morphologically and ecologically diverse species in short evolutionary time. Following this rapid evolutionary pace, cichlids show high rates of sex chromosome turnover. We here studied the evolution of sex-biased gene (SBG) expression in 14 recently diverged taxa of the Lake Tanganyika Tropheini cichlids, which show different XY sex chromosomes. Across species, sex chromosome sequence divergence predates divergence in expression between the sexes. Only one sex chromosome, the oldest, showed signs of demasculinization in gene expression and potentially contribution to the resolution of sexual conflict. SBGs in general showed high rates of turnovers and evolved mostly under drift. Sexual selection did not shape the rapid evolutionary changes of SBGs. Male-biased genes evolved faster than female-biased genes, which seem to be under more phylogenetic constraint. We found a relationship between the degree of sex bias and sequence evolution driven by sequence differences among the sexes. Consistent with other species, strong sex bias towards sex-limited expression contributes to resolving sexual conflict in cichlids. This article is part of the theme issue 'Challenging the paradigm in sex chromosome evolution: empirical and theoretical insights with a focus on vertebrates (Part II)'.

Support for faster and more adaptive Z chromosome evolution in two divergent lepidopteran lineages

The rateof divergence for Z or X chromosomes is usually observed to be greater than autosomes, but the proposed evolutionary causes for this pattern vary, as do empirical results from diverse taxa. Even among moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), which generally share a single-origin Z chromosome, the handful of available studies give mixed support for faster or more adaptive evolution of the Z chromosome, depending on the species assayed. Here, we examine the molecular evolution of Z chromosomes in two additional lepidopteran species: the Carolina sphinx moth and the monarch butterfly, the latter of which possesses a recent chromosomal fusion yielding a segment of newly Z-linked DNA. We find evidence for both faster and more adaptive Z chromosome evolution in both species, although this effect is strongest in the neo-Z portion of the monarch sex chromosome. The neo-Z is less male-biased than expected of a Z chromosome, and unbiased and female-biased genes drive the signal for adaptive evolution here. Together these results suggest that male-biased gene accumulation and haploid selection have opposing effects on long-term rates of adaptation and may help explain the discrepancies in previous findings as well as the repeated evolution of neo-sex chromosomes in Lepidoptera.

Evolutionary dynamics of sex-biased genes expressed in cricket brains and gonads

Sex-biased gene expression, particularly sex-biased expression in the gonad, has been linked to rates of protein sequence evolution (nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions, dN/dS) in animals. However, in insects, sex-biased expression studies remain centred on a few holometabolous species. Moreover, other major tissue types such as the brain remain underexplored. Here, we studied sex-biased gene expression and protein evolution in a hemimetabolous insect, the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus. We generated novel male and female RNA-seq data for two sexual tissue types, the gonad and somatic reproductive system, and for two core components of the nervous system, the brain and ventral nerve cord. From a genome-wide analysis, we report several core findings. Firstly, testis-biased genes had accelerated evolution, as compared to ovary-biased and unbiased genes, which was associated with positive selection events. Secondly, although sex-biased brain genes were much less common than for the gonad, they exhibited a striking tendency for rapid protein sequence evolution, an effect that was stronger for the female than male brain. Further, some sex-biased brain genes were linked to sexual functions and mating behaviours, which we suggest may have accelerated their evolution via sexual selection. Thirdly, a tendency for narrow cross-tissue expression breadth, suggesting low pleiotropy, was observed for sex-biased brain genes, suggesting relaxed purifying selection, which we speculate may allow enhanced freedom to evolve adaptive protein functional changes. The findings of rapid evolution of testis-biased genes and male and female-biased brain genes are discussed with respect to pleiotropy, positive selection and the mating biology of this cricket.

Adaptation of codon and amino acid use for translational functions in highly expressed cricket genes

BACKGROUND

For multicellular organisms, much remains unknown about the dynamics of synonymous codon and amino acid use in highly expressed genes, including whether their use varies with expression in different tissue types and sexes. Moreover, specific codons and amino acids may have translational functions in highly transcribed genes, that largely depend on their relationships to tRNA gene copies in the genome. However, these relationships and putative functions are poorly understood, particularly in multicellular systems.

RESULTS

Here, we studied codon and amino acid use in highly expressed genes from reproductive and nervous system tissues (male and female gonad, somatic reproductive system, brain and ventral nerve cord, and male accessory glands) in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus. We report an optimal codon, defined as the codon preferentially used in highly expressed genes, for each of the 18 amino acids with synonymous codons in this organism. The optimal codons were mostly shared among tissue types and both sexes. However, the frequency of optimal codons was highest in gonadal genes. Concordant with translational selection, a majority of the optimal codons had abundant matching tRNA gene copies in the genome, but sometimes obligately required wobble tRNAs. We suggest the latter may comprise a mechanism for slowing translation of abundant transcripts, particularly for cell-cycle genes. Non-optimal codons, defined as those least commonly used in highly transcribed genes, intriguingly often had abundant tRNAs, and had elevated use in a subset of genes with specialized functions (gametic and apoptosis genes), suggesting their use promotes the translational upregulation of particular mRNAs. In terms of amino acids, we found evidence suggesting that amino acid frequency, tRNA gene copy number, and amino acid biosynthetic costs (size/complexity) had all interdependently evolved in this insect model, potentially for translational optimization.

CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, the results suggest a model whereby codon use in highly expressed genes, including optimal, wobble, and non-optimal codons, and their tRNA abundances, as well as amino acid use, have been influenced by adaptation for various functional roles in translation within this cricket. The effects of expression in different tissue types and the two sexes are discussed.

Variable dosage compensation is associated with female consequences of an X-linked, male-beneficial mutation

Recent theory has suggested that dosage compensation mediates sexual antagonism over X-linked genes. This process relies on the assumption that dosage compensation scales phenotypic effects between the sexes, which is largely untested. We evaluated this by quantifying transcriptome variation associated with a recently arisen, male-beneficial, X-linked mutation across tissues of the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus, and testing the relationship between the completeness of dosage compensation and female phenotypic effects at the level of gene expression. Dosage compensation in T. oceanicus was variable across tissues but usually incomplete, such that relative expression of X-linked genes was typically greater in females. Supporting the assumption that dosage compensation scales phenotypic effects between the sexes, we found tissues with incomplete dosage compensation tended to show female-skewed effects of the X-linked allele. In gonads, where expression of X-linked genes was most strongly female-biased, ovaries-limited genes were much more likely to be X-linked than were testes-limited genes, supporting the view that incomplete dosage compensation favours feminization of the X. Our results support the expectation that sex chromosome dosage compensation scales phenotypic effects of X-linked genes between sexes, substantiating a key assumption underlying the theoretical role of dosage compensation in determining the dynamics of sexual antagonism on the X.

A gene's-eye view of sexual antagonism

Females and males may face different selection pressures. Accordingly, alleles that confer a benefit for one sex often incur a cost for the other. Classic evolutionary theory holds that the X chromosome, whose sex-biased transmission sees it spending more time in females, should value females more than males, whereas autosomes, whose transmission is unbiased, should value both sexes equally. However, recent mathematical and empirical studies indicate that male-beneficial alleles may be more favoured by the X chromosome than by autosomes. Here we develop a gene's-eye-view approach that reconciles the classic view with these recent discordant results, by separating a gene's valuation of female versus male fitness from its ability to induce fitness effects in either sex. We use this framework to generate new comparative predictions for sexually antagonistic evolution in relation to dosage compensation, sex-specific mortality and assortative mating, revealing how molecular mechanisms, ecology and demography drive variation in masculinization versus feminization across the genome.

Evidence of multifaceted functions of codon usage in translation within the model beetle Tribolium castaneum

Synonymous codon use is non-random. Codons most used in highly transcribed genes, often called optimal codons, typically have high gene counts of matching tRNA genes (tRNA abundance) and promote accurate and/or efficient translation. Non-optimal codons, those least used in highly expressed genes, may also affect translation. In multicellular organisms, codon optimality may vary among tissues. At present, however, tissue specificity of codon use remains poorly understood. Here, we studied codon usage of genes highly transcribed in germ line (testis and ovary) and somatic tissues (gonadectomized males and females) of the beetle Tribolium castaneum. The results demonstrate that: (i) the majority of optimal codons were organism-wide, the same in all tissues, and had numerous matching tRNA gene copies (Opt-codon_↑tRNAs), consistent with translational selection; (ii) some optimal codons varied among tissues, suggesting tissue-specific tRNA populations; (iii) wobble tRNA were required for translation of certain optimal codons (Opt-codon_wobble), possibly allowing precise translation and/or protein folding; and (iv) remarkably, some non-optimal codons had abundant tRNA genes (Nonopt-codon_↑tRNAs), and genes using those codons were tightly linked to ribosomal and stress-response functions. Thus, Nonopt-codon_↑tRNAs codons may regulate translation of specific genes. Together, the evidence suggests that codon use and tRNA genes regulate multiple translational processes in T. castaneum.