1
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Lacy KD, Hart T, Kronauer DJC. Co-inheritance of recombined chromatids maintains heterozygosity in a parthenogenetic ant. Nat Ecol Evol 2024; 8:1522-1533. [PMID: 39014144 PMCID: PMC11310076 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02455-z] [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: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 07/18/2024]
Abstract
According to Mendel's second law, chromosomes segregate randomly in meiosis. Non-random segregation is primarily known for cases of selfish meiotic drive in females, in which particular alleles bias their own transmission into the oocyte. Here we report a rare example of unselfish meiotic drive for crossover inheritance in the clonal raider ant, Ooceraea biroi, in which both alleles are co-inherited at all loci across the entire genome. This species produces diploid offspring parthenogenetically via fusion of two haploid nuclei from the same meiosis. This process should cause rapid genotypic degeneration due to loss of heterozygosity, which results if crossover recombination is followed by random (Mendelian) segregation of chromosomes. However, by comparing whole genomes of mothers and daughters, we show that loss of heterozygosity is exceedingly rare, raising the possibility that crossovers are infrequent or absent in O. biroi meiosis. Using a combination of cytology and whole-genome sequencing, we show that crossover recombination is, in fact, common but that loss of heterozygosity is avoided because crossover products are faithfully co-inherited. This results from a programmed violation of Mendel's law of segregation, such that crossover products segregate together rather than randomly. This discovery highlights an extreme example of cellular 'memory' of crossovers, which could be a common yet cryptic feature of chromosomal segregation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kip D Lacy
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Taylor Hart
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Daniel J C Kronauer
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY, USA.
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2
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Hörandl E. Apomixis and the paradox of sex in plants. ANNALS OF BOTANY 2024; 134:1-18. [PMID: 38497809 PMCID: PMC11161571 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcae044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The predominance of sex in eukaryotes, despite the high costs of meiosis and mating, remains an evolutionary enigma. Many theories have been proposed, none of them being conclusive on its own, and they are, in part, not well applicable to land plants. Sexual reproduction is obligate in embryophytes for the great majority of species. SCOPE This review compares the main forms of sexual and asexual reproduction in ferns and angiosperms, based on the generation cycling of sporophyte and gametophyte (leaving vegetative propagation aside). The benefits of sexual reproduction for maintenance of genomic integrity in comparison to asexuality are discussed in the light of developmental, evolutionary, genetic and phylogenetic studies. CONCLUSIONS Asexual reproduction represents modifications of the sexual pathway, with various forms of facultative sexuality. For sexual land plants, meiosis provides direct DNA repair mechanisms for oxidative damage in reproductive tissues. The ploidy alternations of meiosis-syngamy cycles and prolonged multicellular stages in the haploid phase in the gametophytes provide a high efficiency of purifying selection against recessive deleterious mutations. Asexual lineages might buffer effects of such mutations via polyploidy and can purge the mutational load via facultative sexuality. The role of organelle-nuclear genome compatibility for maintenance of genome integrity is not well understood. In plants in general, the costs of mating are low because of predominant hermaphroditism. Phylogenetic patterns in the archaeplastid clade suggest that high frequencies of sexuality in land plants are concomitant with a stepwise increase of intrinsic and extrinsic stress factors. Furthermore, expansion of genome size in land plants would increase the potential mutational load. Sexual reproduction appears to be essential for keeping long-term genomic integrity, and only rare combinations of extrinsic and intrinsic factors allow for shifts to asexuality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elvira Hörandl
- Department of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants (with herbarium), University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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3
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Wilson CG, Pieszko T, Nowell RW, Barraclough TG. Recombination in bdelloid rotifer genomes: asexuality, transfer and stress. Trends Genet 2024; 40:422-436. [PMID: 38458877 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.02.001] [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: 11/03/2023] [Revised: 01/31/2024] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024]
Abstract
Bdelloid rotifers constitute a class of microscopic animals living in freshwater habitats worldwide. Several strange features of bdelloids have drawn attention: their ability to tolerate desiccation and other stresses, a lack of reported males across the clade despite centuries of study, and unusually high numbers of horizontally acquired, non-metazoan genes. Genome sequencing is transforming our understanding of their lifestyle and its consequences, while in turn providing wider insights about recombination and genome organisation in animals. Many questions remain, not least how to reconcile apparent genomic signatures of sex with the continued absence of reported males, why bdelloids have so many horizontally acquired genes, and how their remarkable ability to survive stress interacts with recombination and other genomic processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher G Wilson
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, 11a Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK.
| | - Tymoteusz Pieszko
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, 11a Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK
| | - Reuben W Nowell
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Ashworth Laboratories, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK; Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
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4
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Lacy KD, Hart T, Kronauer DJ. Unselfish meiotic drive maintains heterozygosity in a parthenogenetic ant. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.02.09.579553. [PMID: 38405725 PMCID: PMC10888755 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.09.579553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
According to Mendel's second law, chromosomes segregate randomly in meiosis. Nonrandom segregation is primarily known for cases of selfish meiotic drive in females, in which particular alleles bias their own transmission into the oocyte1,2. Here, we report a rare example of unselfish meiotic drive for crossover inheritance in the clonal raider ant, Ooceraea biroi. This species produces diploid offspring parthenogenetically via fusion of two haploid nuclei from the same meiosis3. This process should cause rapid genotypic degeneration due to loss of heterozygosity, which results if crossover recombination is followed by random (Mendelian) segregation of chromosomes4,5. However, by comparing whole genomes of mothers and daughters, we show that loss of heterozygosity is exceedingly rare, raising the possibility that crossovers are infrequent or absent in O. biroi meiosis. Using a combination of cytology and whole genome sequencing, we show that crossover recombination is, in fact, common, but that loss of heterozygosity is avoided because crossover products are faithfully co-inherited. This results from a programmed violation of Mendel's law of segregation, such that crossover products segregate together rather than randomly. This discovery highlights an extreme example of cellular "memory" of crossovers, which could be a common yet cryptic feature of chromosomal segregation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kip D. Lacy
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Taylor Hart
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Daniel J.C. Kronauer
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY, USA
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5
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Miller SM, Stuart KC, Burke NW, Rollins LA, Bonduriansky R. Genetic and Phenotypic Consequences of Local Transitions between Sexual and Parthenogenetic Reproduction in the Wild. Am Nat 2024; 203:73-91. [PMID: 38207137 DOI: 10.1086/727511] [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] [Indexed: 01/13/2024]
Abstract
AbstractTransitions from sexual to asexual reproduction have occurred in numerous lineages, but it remains unclear why asexual populations rarely persist. In facultatively parthenogenetic animals, all-female populations can arise when males are absent or become extinct, and such populations could help to understand the genetic and phenotypic changes that occur in the initial stages of transitions to asexuality. We investigated a naturally occurring spatial mosaic of mixed-sex and all-female populations of the facultatively parthenogenetic Australian phasmid Megacrania batesii. Analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms indicated multiple independent transitions between reproductive modes. All-female populations had much lower heterozygosity and allelic diversity than mixed-sex populations, but we found few consistent differences in fitness-related traits between population types. All-female populations exhibited more frequent and severe deformities in their (flight-incapable) wings but did not show higher rates of appendage loss. All-female populations also harbored more ectoparasites in swamp (but not beach) habitats. Reproductive mode explained little variation in female body size, fecundity, or egg hatch rate. Our results suggest that transitions to parthenogenetic reproduction can lead to dramatic genetic changes with little immediate effect on performance. All-female M. batesii populations appear to consist of high-fitness genotypes that might be able to thrive for many generations in relatively constant and benign environments but could be vulnerable to environmental challenges, such as increased parasite abundance.
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6
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Böhne A, Oğuzhan Z, Chrysostomakis I, Vitt S, Meuthen D, Martin S, Kukowka S, Thünken T. Evidence for selfing in a vertebrate from whole-genome sequencing. Genome Res 2023; 33:2133-2142. [PMID: 38190641 PMCID: PMC10760518 DOI: 10.1101/gr.277368.122] [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: 09/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024]
Abstract
A growing number of recent genomic studies report asexual parthenogenetic reproduction in a wide range of taxa, including vertebrate species from the reptile, bird, and fish lineages. Yet, self-fertilization (selfing) has been recorded only in a single vertebrate, the mangrove killifish Kryptolebias marmoratus In cichlid fishes, sex determination is notably diverse and can be influenced by the environment, and sequential hermaphroditism has been reported for some species. Here, we present evidence for a case of facultative selfing in the cichlid fish Benitochromis nigrodorsalis, which is otherwise known as biparentally reproducing ovophilic mouthbrooder from Western Africa. Our laboratory observations revealed that a wild-caught individual produced repeatedly viable offspring in absence of a mating partner. By analyzing genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, we compare that individual and two of its offspring to shed light on its reproductive mode. First, our results confirm uniparental reproduction. Second, overall heterozygosity is reduced in the offspring compared with outbred individuals. Retained maternal heterozygosity in the offspring is ∼51%, which is close to the theoretically expected value of a heterozygosity reduction of 50% by selfing. Heterozygosity patterns along individual chromosomes do not point to alternative parthenogenetic reproductive mechanisms like automixis by terminal or central fusion. Facultative selfing may represent an adaptive strategy ensuring reproduction when mating partners are absent and, hence, contribute to the cichlids' enormous evolutionary success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Astrid Böhne
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change LIB, Museum Koenig Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany;
| | - Zeynep Oğuzhan
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change LIB, Museum Koenig Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany
| | - Ioannis Chrysostomakis
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change LIB, Museum Koenig Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany
| | - Simon Vitt
- Bonn Institute of Organismic Biology (BIOB), Department of Animal Biodiversity, University of Bonn, 53121 Bonn, Germany
| | - Denis Meuthen
- Bonn Institute of Organismic Biology (BIOB), Department of Animal Biodiversity, University of Bonn, 53121 Bonn, Germany
- Evolutionary Biology, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Sebastian Martin
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change LIB, Museum Koenig Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany
| | - Sandra Kukowka
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change LIB, Museum Koenig Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany
| | - Timo Thünken
- Bonn Institute of Organismic Biology (BIOB), Department of Animal Biodiversity, University of Bonn, 53121 Bonn, Germany;
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7
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Freitas S, Parker DJ, Labédan M, Dumas Z, Schwander T. Evidence for cryptic sex in parthenogenetic stick insects of the genus Timema. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20230404. [PMID: 37727092 PMCID: PMC10509586 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Obligately parthenogenetic species are expected to be short lived since the lack of sex and recombination should translate into a slower adaptation rate and increased accumulation of deleterious alleles. Some, however, are thought to have been reproducing without males for millions of years. It is not clear how these old parthenogens can escape the predicted long-term costs of parthenogenesis, but an obvious explanation is cryptic sex. In this study, we screen for signatures of cryptic sex in eight populations of four parthenogenetic species of Timema stick insects, some estimated to be older than 1 Myr. Low genotype diversity, homozygosity of individuals and high linkage disequilibrium (LD) unaffected by marker distances support exclusively parthenogenetic reproduction in six populations. However, in two populations (namely, of the species Timema douglasi and T. monikensis) we find strong evidence for cryptic sex, most likely mediated by rare males. These populations had comparatively high genotype diversities, lower LD, and a clear LD decay with genetic distance. Rare sex in species that are otherwise largely parthenogenetic could help explain the unusual success of parthenogenesis in the Timema genus and raises the question whether episodes of rare sex are in fact the simplest explanation for the persistence of many old parthenogens in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susana Freitas
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Darren J. Parker
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, UK
| | - Marjorie Labédan
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Zoé Dumas
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Tanja Schwander
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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8
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Molinier C, Lenormand T, Haag CR. No recombination suppression in asexually produced males of Daphnia pulex. Evolution 2023; 77:1987-1999. [PMID: 37345677 DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpad114] [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: 12/09/2021] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/23/2023]
Abstract
Obligate parthenogenesis (OP) is often thought to evolve by disruption of reductional meiosis and suppression of crossover recombination. In the crustacean Daphnia pulex, OP lineages, which have evolved from cyclical parthenogenetic (CP) ancestors, occasionally produce males that are capable of reductional meiosis. Here, by constructing high-density linkage maps, we find that these males show only slightly and nonsignificantly reduced recombination rates compared to CP males and females. Both meiosis disruption and recombination suppression are therefore sex-limited (or partly so), which speaks against the evolution of OP by disruption of a gene that is essential for meiosis or recombination in both sexes. The findings may be explained by female-limited action of genes that suppress recombination, but previously identified candidate genes are known to be expressed in both sexes. Alternatively, and equally consistent with the data, OP might have evolved through a reuse of the parthenogenesis pathways already present in CP and through their extension to all events of oogenesis. The causal mutations for the CP to OP transition may therefore include mutations in genes involved in oogenesis regulation and may not necessarily be restricted to genes of the "meiosis toolkit." More generally, our study emphasizes that there are many ways to achieve asexuality, and elucidating the possible mechanisms is key to ultimately identify the genes and traits involved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cécile Molinier
- CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
- Department of Algal Development and Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tuebingen, Germany
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9
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Blanc C, Saclier N, Le Faou E, Marie-Orleach L, Wenger E, Diblasi C, Glemin S, Galtier N, Delattre M. Cosegregation of recombinant chromatids maintains genome-wide heterozygosity in an asexual nematode. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadi2804. [PMID: 37624896 PMCID: PMC10456839 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi2804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2023]
Abstract
In asexual animals, female meiosis is modified to produce diploid oocytes. If meiosis still involves recombination, this is expected to lead to a rapid loss of heterozygosity, with adverse effects on fitness. Many asexuals, however, have a heterozygous genome, the underlying mechanisms being most often unknown. Cytological and population genomic analyses in the nematode Mesorhabditis belari revealed another case of recombining asexual being highly heterozygous genome-wide. We demonstrated that heterozygosity is maintained despite recombination because the recombinant chromatids of each chromosome pair cosegregate during the unique meiotic division. A theoretical model confirmed that this segregation bias is necessary to account for the observed pattern and likely to evolve under a wide range of conditions. Our study uncovers an unexpected type of non-Mendelian genetic inheritance involving cosegregation of recombinant chromatids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Blanc
- Laboratory of Biology and Modeling of the Cell, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5239, Inserm U1293, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Nathanaelle Saclier
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, Université Montpellier, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 34090 Montpellier, France
| | - Ehouarn Le Faou
- University of Rennes, CNRS, ECOBIO (Ecologie, Biodiversité, Evolution)–UMR 6553, F-35000 Rennes, France
| | - Lucas Marie-Orleach
- University of Rennes, CNRS, ECOBIO (Ecologie, Biodiversité, Evolution)–UMR 6553, F-35000 Rennes, France
| | - Eva Wenger
- Laboratory of Biology and Modeling of the Cell, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5239, Inserm U1293, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Celian Diblasi
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, Université Montpellier, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 34090 Montpellier, France
| | - Sylvain Glemin
- University of Rennes, CNRS, ECOBIO (Ecologie, Biodiversité, Evolution)–UMR 6553, F-35000 Rennes, France
- Department of Ecology and Genetics, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Nicolas Galtier
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, Université Montpellier, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 34090 Montpellier, France
| | - Marie Delattre
- Laboratory of Biology and Modeling of the Cell, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5239, Inserm U1293, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France
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10
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Awad Hegazy A, Ibraheem Al-Qtaitat A, Awad Hegazy R. A new hypothesis may explain human parthenogenesis and ovarian teratoma: A review study. Int J Reprod Biomed 2023; 21:277-284. [PMID: 37260553 PMCID: PMC10227352 DOI: 10.18502/ijrm.v21i4.13267] [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: 10/13/2022] [Revised: 12/24/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Parthenogenesis (PG) is a rare phenomenon occurring in humans, and understanding this may help us develop an explanation for such occurrences. Moreover, it may help reveal the cause of idiopathic ovarian teratoma (OT). We aim to explain the occurrence of PG and OT in humans based on a new hypothesis. Previous literature has been searched through relevant scientific websites and international journals on the causes and mechanisms of PG and OT in humans. The previous literature on human PG was sparse and mostly contained case reports. It appears that human PG is not as rare as previously reported but may occur spontaneously, resulting in OT formation. The difference between PG and sexual reproduction is that PG has no embryonic diversity. The biopsied embryonic samples in the PG correspond exclusively to those of the maternal side. Spontaneous PG in humans often degrades or leads to formation of OT. The cause and mechanism of spontaneous PG remain unclear in the available literature. Here, we hypothesized that in some cases the secondary oocyte and first polar body enclosed in the zona pellucida may fuse together to form a single cell that restores the diploid number of chromosomes and initiates cell division to form PG. It may go unnoticed or be represented by the OT. Future studies are recommended to investigate this hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abdelmonem Awad Hegazy
- Faculty of Dentistry, Zarqa University, Zarqa City, Jordan
- Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig City, Egypt
| | - Aiman Ibraheem Al-Qtaitat
- Faculty of Dentistry, Zarqa University, Zarqa City, Jordan
- Faculty of Medicine, Mutah University, Alkarak, Jordan
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11
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Should females cannibalize with or without mating in the facultatively parthenogenetic springbok mantis? Anim Behav 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/13/2023]
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12
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Trible W, Chandra V, Lacy KD, Limón G, McKenzie SK, Olivos-Cisneros L, Arsenault SV, Kronauer DJC. A caste differentiation mutant elucidates the evolution of socially parasitic ants. Curr Biol 2023; 33:1047-1058.e4. [PMID: 36858043 PMCID: PMC10050096 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.067] [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: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 01/31/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2023]
Abstract
Most ant species have two distinct female castes-queens and workers-yet the developmental and genetic mechanisms that produce these alternative phenotypes remain poorly understood. Working with a clonal ant, we discovered a variant strain that expresses queen-like traits in individuals that would normally become workers. The variants show changes in morphology, behavior, and fitness that cause them to rely on workers in wild-type (WT) colonies for survival. Overall, they resemble the queens of many obligately parasitic ants that have evolutionarily lost the worker caste and live inside colonies of closely related hosts. The prevailing theory for the evolution of these workerless social parasites is that they evolve from reproductively isolated populations of facultative intermediates that acquire parasitic phenotypes in a stepwise fashion. However, empirical evidence for such facultative ancestors remains weak, and it is unclear how reproductive isolation could gradually arise in sympatry. In contrast, we isolated these variants just a few generations after they arose within their WT parent colony, implying that the complex phenotype reported here was induced in a single genetic step. This suggests that a single genetic module can decouple the coordinated mechanisms of caste development, allowing an obligately parasitic variant to arise directly from a free-living ancestor. Consistent with this hypothesis, the variants have lost one of the two alleles of a putative supergene that is heterozygous in WTs. These findings provide a plausible explanation for the evolution of ant social parasites and implicate new candidate molecular mechanisms for ant caste differentiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Waring Trible
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellowship Program, Harvard University, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
| | - Vikram Chandra
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Kip D Lacy
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Gina Limón
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, 430 E. 29th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Sean K McKenzie
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Oxford OX4 4DQ, UK
| | - Leonora Olivos-Cisneros
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Samuel V Arsenault
- John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellowship Program, Harvard University, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Daniel J C Kronauer
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA.
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13
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Goymann W, Brumm H, Kappeler PM. Biological sex is binary, even though there is a rainbow of sex roles: Denying biological sex is anthropocentric and promotes species chauvinism: Denying biological sex is anthropocentric and promotes species chauvinism. Bioessays 2023; 45:e2200173. [PMID: 36543364 DOI: 10.1002/bies.202200173] [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: 09/01/2022] [Revised: 12/02/2022] [Accepted: 12/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Biomedical and social scientists are increasingly calling the biological sex into question, arguing that sex is a graded spectrum rather than a binary trait. Leading science journals have been adopting this relativist view, thereby opposing fundamental biological facts. While we fully endorse efforts to create a more inclusive environment for gender-diverse people, this does not require denying biological sex. On the contrary, the rejection of biological sex seems to be based on a lack of knowledge about evolution and it champions species chauvinism, inasmuch as it imposes human identity notions on millions of other species. We argue that the biological definition of the sexes remains central to recognising the diversity of life. Humans with their unique combination of biological sex and gender are different from non-human animals and plants in this respect. Denying the concept of biological sex, for whatever cause, ultimately erodes scientific progress and may open the flood gates to "alternative truths."
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Goymann
- Department of Behavioural Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany
| | - Henrik Brumm
- Research Group Animal Communication and Urban Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany
| | - Peter M Kappeler
- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany.,Department of Sociobiology/Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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14
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Forni G, Mikheyev AS, Luchetti A, Mantovani B. Gene transcriptional profiles in gonads of Bacillus taxa (Phasmida) with different cytological mechanisms of automictic parthenogenesis. ZOOLOGICAL LETTERS 2022; 8:14. [PMID: 36435814 PMCID: PMC9701443 DOI: 10.1186/s40851-022-00197-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of automixis - i.e., meiotic parthenogenesis - requires several features, including ploidy restoration after meiosis and maintenance of fertility. Characterizing the relative contribution of novel versus pre-existing genes and the similarities in their expression and sequence evolution is fundamental to understand the evolution of reproductive novelties. Here we identify gonads-biased genes in two Bacillus automictic stick-insects and compare their expression profile and sequence evolution with a bisexual congeneric species. The two parthenogens restore ploidy through different cytological mechanisms: in Bacillus atticus, nuclei derived from the first meiotic division fuse to restore a diploid egg nucleus, while in Bacillus rossius, diploidization occurs in some cells of the haploid blastula through anaphase restitution. Parthenogens' gonads transcriptional program is found to be largely assembled from genes that were already present before the establishment of automixis. The three species transcriptional profiles largely reflect their phyletic relationships, yet we identify a shared core of genes with gonad-biased patterns of expression in parthenogens which are either male gonads-biased in the sexual species or are not differentially expressed there. At the sequence level, just a handful of gonads-biased genes were inferred to have undergone instances of positive selection exclusively in the parthenogen species. This work is the first to explore the molecular underpinnings of automixis in a comparative framework: it delineates how reproductive novelties can be sustained by genes whose origin precedes the establishment of the novelty itself and shows that different meiotic mechanisms of reproduction can be associated with a shared molecular ground plan.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giobbe Forni
- Dip. Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali (BiGeA), University of Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy
- Dip. Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali, University of Milano, Milano, Italy
| | - Alexander S Mikheyev
- Australian National University, ACT, Canberra, 2600, Australia
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Okinawa, 904-0495, Japan
| | - Andrea Luchetti
- Dip. Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali (BiGeA), University of Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy.
| | - Barbara Mantovani
- Dip. Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali (BiGeA), University of Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy
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15
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Vasquez Kuntz KL, Kitchen SA, Conn TL, Vohsen SA, Chan AN, Vermeij MJA, Page C, Marhaver KL, Baums IB. Inheritance of somatic mutations by animal offspring. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabn0707. [PMID: 36044584 PMCID: PMC9432832 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn0707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2022] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Since 1892, it has been widely assumed that somatic mutations are evolutionarily irrelevant in animals because they cannot be inherited by offspring. However, some nonbilaterians segregate the soma and germline late in development or never, leaving the evolutionary fate of their somatic mutations unknown. By investigating uni- and biparental reproduction in the coral Acropora palmata (Cnidaria, Anthozoa), we found that uniparental, meiotic offspring harbored 50% of the 268 somatic mutations present in their parent. Thus, somatic mutations accumulated in adult coral animals, entered the germline, and were passed on to swimming larvae that grew into healthy juvenile corals. In this way, somatic mutations can increase allelic diversity and facilitate adaptation across habitats and generations in animals.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sheila A. Kitchen
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Trinity L. Conn
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Samuel A. Vohsen
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Andrea N. Chan
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Mark J. A. Vermeij
- CARMABI Foundation, Willemstad, Curaçao
- Department of Freshwater and Marine Ecology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Christopher Page
- Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, Mote Marine Laboratory, Summerland Key, FL, USA
- School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA
| | | | - Iliana B. Baums
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
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16
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Yasui Y, Hasegawa E. The origination events of gametic sexual reproduction and anisogamy. J ETHOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10164-022-00760-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThe evolution of gametic sex (meiosis and fertilization) and subsequent transition from isogamy (fusion between two equal-sized gametes) to anisogamy (dimorphism into eggs and sperm, namely, females and males) is one of the largest enigmas of evolutionary biology. Meiosis entails genome-dilution cost and anisogamy entails male-production cost. Despite much progress has been made for the maintenance mechanisms of sex, its origination events under such “twofold cost of sex” are still unsolved. Here, we posit two hypothetical scenarios as follows: the “Seesaw Effect” hypothesizes that automictic selfing between isogametes effectively purged deleterious mutations from an organism’s lineage and simultaneously fixed the sex-controlling allele and all other loci (no genome-dilution cost raised). The high relatedness among homoeologous cell colonies led to multicellularization. The “inflated isogamy” hypothesizes that multicellularity increased the reproductive investment of both mates, resulting in excessively large isogametes. This redundancy induced cheating of one sex (evolving to male) to reduce gamete size. However, the other sex (evolving to female) allowed this cheat because her cost did not change. Therefore, anisogamy originated as a kind of commensalism but turned into beneficial for females because it solved the gamete limitation problem inherent to isogamy. Thus, smooth transition to anisogamy had been attained.
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17
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Lourenço WR. Back to Tityus serrulatus Lutz & Mello, 1922 (Scorpiones: Buthidae): new comments about an old species. J Venom Anim Toxins Incl Trop Dis 2022; 28:e20220016. [PMID: 35910487 PMCID: PMC9281443 DOI: 10.1590/1678-9199-jvatitd-2022-0016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
A synopsis on the historical, geographical and ecological aspects related to the most conspicuous scorpion species of the genus Tityus known from Brazil is proposed. Tityus serrulatus Lutz & Mello, 1922 was described precisely one century ago, nevertheless many questions related to its ecological adaptations and geographical expansion remain without a precise response. This species, well known for its infamous reputation of noxious species, is also known for its capacity to reproduce asexually, by parthenogenesis. Although the individuals of a given population are considered clones, a new hypothesis could suggest the occurrence of mutations within isolated individuals, leading to distinct subpopulations that could present better phenotypic performances in ecological habitats distinct from those of the original area of distribution of the species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wilson R Lourenço
- Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), UMR7205-CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, CP 53, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France
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18
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Rode NO, Jabbour-Zahab R, Boyer L, Flaven É, Hontoria F, Stappen GV, Dufresne F, Haag C, Lenormand T. The origin of asexual brine shrimps. Am Nat 2022; 200:E52-E76. [DOI: 10.1086/720268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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19
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Jaron KS, Parker DJ, Anselmetti Y, Tran Van P, Bast J, Dumas Z, Figuet E, François CM, Hayward K, Rossier V, Simion P, Robinson-Rechavi M, Galtier N, Schwander T. Convergent consequences of parthenogenesis on stick insect genomes. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabg3842. [PMID: 35196080 PMCID: PMC8865771 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg3842] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
The shift from sexual reproduction to parthenogenesis has occurred repeatedly in animals, but how the loss of sex affects genome evolution remains poorly understood. We generated reference genomes for five independently evolved parthenogenetic species in the stick insect genus Timema and their closest sexual relatives. Using these references and population genomic data, we show that parthenogenesis results in an extreme reduction of heterozygosity and often leads to genetically uniform populations. We also find evidence for less effective positive selection in parthenogenetic species, suggesting that sex is ubiquitous in natural populations because it facilitates fast rates of adaptation. Parthenogenetic species did not show increased transposable element (TE) accumulation, likely because there is little TE activity in the genus. By using replicated sexual-parthenogenetic comparisons, our study reveals how the absence of sex affects genome evolution in natural populations, providing empirical support for the negative consequences of parthenogenesis as predicted by theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kamil S. Jaron
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK
- Corresponding author. (D.J.P.); (K.S.J.); (T.S.)
| | - Darren J. Parker
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Corresponding author. (D.J.P.); (K.S.J.); (T.S.)
| | | | - Patrick Tran Van
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jens Bast
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Zoé Dumas
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Emeric Figuet
- ISEM—Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, Montpellier, France
| | | | - Keith Hayward
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Victor Rossier
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Paul Simion
- ISEM—Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, Montpellier, France
| | - Marc Robinson-Rechavi
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nicolas Galtier
- ISEM—Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, Montpellier, France
| | - Tanja Schwander
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Corresponding author. (D.J.P.); (K.S.J.); (T.S.)
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20
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Kuhn A, Aron S, Hardy OJ. Detection of Cryptic Sex in Automictic Populations: Theoretical Expectations and a Case Study in Cataglyphis Desert Ants. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.741959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Reproductive strategies are diverse and a whole continuum of mixed systems lies between strict sexuality and strict clonality (apomixis), including automixis, a parthenogenetic mode of reproduction involving a meiosis and increasing homozygosity over generations. These various systems impact the genetic structure of populations, which can therefore be used to infer reproductive strategies in natural populations. Here, we first develop a mathematical model, validated by simulations, to predict heterozygosity and inbreeding in mixed sexual-automictic populations. It highlights the predominant role of the rate of heterozygosity loss experienced during automixis (γ), which is locus dependent. When γ is low, mixed populations behave like purely sexual ones until sex becomes rare. In contrast, when γ is high, the erosion of genetic diversity is tightly correlated to the rate of sex, so that the individual inbreeding coefficient can inform on the ratio of sexual/asexual reproduction. In the second part of this study, we used our model to test the presence of cryptic sex in a hybridogenetic Cataglyphis ant where new queens are produced parthenogenetically, leaving males with an apparent null fitness while they are essential to colony development as sperm is required to produce workers. Occasional sexual production of queens could resolve this paradox by providing males some fertile progeny. To determine whether this occurs in natural populations, we simulated genotypic datasets in a population under various regimes of sexual vs. asexual reproduction for queen production and compared the distribution of inbreeding, expected heterozygosity and inter-individual relatedness coefficients with those observed in a natural population of Cataglyphis mauritanica using microsatellites. Our simulations show that the distribution of inter-individual relatedness coefficients was particularly informative to assess the relative rate of sexual/asexual reproduction, and our dataset was compatible with pure parthenogenesis but also with up to 2% sexual reproduction. Our approach, implemented in an R script, should be useful to assess reproductive strategies in other biological models.
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21
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Simion P, Narayan J, Houtain A, Derzelle A, Baudry L, Nicolas E, Arora R, Cariou M, Cruaud C, Gaudray FR, Gilbert C, Guiglielmoni N, Hespeels B, Kozlowski DKL, Labadie K, Limasset A, Llirós M, Marbouty M, Terwagne M, Virgo J, Cordaux R, Danchin EGJ, Hallet B, Koszul R, Lenormand T, Flot JF, Van Doninck K. Chromosome-level genome assembly reveals homologous chromosomes and recombination in asexual rotifer Adineta vaga. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabg4216. [PMID: 34613768 PMCID: PMC8494291 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg4216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
Bdelloid rotifers are notorious as a speciose ancient clade comprising only asexual lineages. Thanks to their ability to repair highly fragmented DNA, most bdelloid species also withstand complete desiccation and ionizing radiation. Producing a well-assembled reference genome is a critical step to developing an understanding of the effects of long-term asexuality and DNA breakage on genome evolution. To this end, we present the first high-quality chromosome-level genome assemblies for the bdelloid Adineta vaga, composed of six pairs of homologous (diploid) chromosomes with a footprint of paleotetraploidy. The observed large-scale losses of heterozygosity are signatures of recombination between homologous chromosomes, either during mitotic DNA double-strand break repair or when resolving programmed DNA breaks during a modified meiosis. Dynamic subtelomeric regions harbor more structural diversity (e.g., chromosome rearrangements, transposable elements, and haplotypic divergence). Our results trigger the reappraisal of potential meiotic processes in bdelloid rotifers and help unravel the factors underlying their long-term asexual evolutionary success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Simion
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Corresponding author. (K.V.D.); (J.-F.F.); (P.S.)
| | - Jitendra Narayan
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Antoine Houtain
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Alessandro Derzelle
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Lyam Baudry
- Institut Pasteur, Unité Régulation Spatiale des Génomes, UMR 3525, CNRS, Paris F-75015, France
- Collège Doctoral, Sorbonne Université, F-75005 Paris, France
| | - Emilien Nicolas
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Molecular Biology and Evolution, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Rohan Arora
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Molecular Biology and Evolution, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Marie Cariou
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- CIRI, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie, Univ Lyon, Inserm, U1111, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5308, ENS de Lyon, F-69007 Lyon, France
| | - Corinne Cruaud
- Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, Univ Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, 91057 Evry, France
| | | | - Clément Gilbert
- Évolution, Génomes, Comportement et Écologie, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, IRD, UMR, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Nadège Guiglielmoni
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Boris Hespeels
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Djampa K. L. Kozlowski
- INRAE, Université Côte-d’Azur, CNRS, Institut Sophia Agrobiotech, Sophia Antipolis 06903, France
| | - Karine Labadie
- Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, Univ Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, 91057 Evry, France
| | - Antoine Limasset
- Université de Lille, CNRS, UMR 9189 - CRIStAL, 59655 Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France
| | - Marc Llirós
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Institut d’Investigació Biomédica de Girona, Malalties Digestives i Microbiota, 17190 Salt, Spain
| | - Martial Marbouty
- Institut Pasteur, Unité Régulation Spatiale des Génomes, UMR 3525, CNRS, Paris F-75015, France
| | - Matthieu Terwagne
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Julie Virgo
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Richard Cordaux
- Ecologie et Biologie des interactions, Université de Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7267, 5 rue Albert Turpain, 86073 Poitiers, France
| | - Etienne G. J. Danchin
- INRAE, Université Côte-d’Azur, CNRS, Institut Sophia Agrobiotech, Sophia Antipolis 06903, France
| | - Bernard Hallet
- LIBST, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Croix du Sud 4/5, Louvain-la-Neuve 1348, Belgium
| | - Romain Koszul
- Institut Pasteur, Unité Régulation Spatiale des Génomes, UMR 3525, CNRS, Paris F-75015, France
| | - Thomas Lenormand
- CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Jean-Francois Flot
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels - (IB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Corresponding author. (K.V.D.); (J.-F.F.); (P.S.)
| | - Karine Van Doninck
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Molecular Biology and Evolution, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Corresponding author. (K.V.D.); (J.-F.F.); (P.S.)
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22
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Brandt A, Tran Van P, Bluhm C, Anselmetti Y, Dumas Z, Figuet E, François CM, Galtier N, Heimburger B, Jaron KS, Labédan M, Maraun M, Parker DJ, Robinson-Rechavi M, Schaefer I, Simion P, Scheu S, Schwander T, Bast J. Haplotype divergence supports long-term asexuality in the oribatid mite Oppiella nova. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:e2101485118. [PMID: 34535550 PMCID: PMC8463897 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101485118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Sex strongly impacts genome evolution via recombination and segregation. In the absence of these processes, haplotypes within lineages of diploid organisms are predicted to accumulate mutations independently of each other and diverge over time. This so-called "Meselson effect" is regarded as a strong indicator of the long-term evolution under obligate asexuality. Here, we present genomic and transcriptomic data of three populations of the asexual oribatid mite species Oppiella nova and its sexual relative Oppiella subpectinata We document strikingly different patterns of haplotype divergence between the two species, strongly supporting Meselson effect-like evolution and long-term asexuality in O. nova: I) variation within individuals exceeds variation between populations in O. nova but vice versa in O. subpectinata; II) two O. nova sublineages feature a high proportion of lineage-specific heterozygous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), indicating that haplotypes continued to diverge after lineage separation; III) the deepest split in gene trees generally separates the two haplotypes in O. nova, but populations in O. subpectinata; and IV) the topologies of the two haplotype trees match each other. Our findings provide positive evidence for the absence of canonical sex over evolutionary time in O. nova and suggest that asexual oribatid mites can escape the dead-end fate usually associated with asexual lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Brandt
- Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany;
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Patrick Tran Van
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Christian Bluhm
- Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
- Abteilung Boden und Umwelt, Forstliche Versuchs- und Forschungsanstalt Baden-Wuerttemberg, 79100 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Yoann Anselmetti
- Group Phylogeny and Molecular Evolution, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France
- CoBIUS Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K2R1, Canada
| | - Zoé Dumas
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Emeric Figuet
- Group Phylogeny and Molecular Evolution, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France
| | - Clémentine M François
- Group Phylogeny and Molecular Evolution, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France
- Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés, École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 69622 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Nicolas Galtier
- Group Phylogeny and Molecular Evolution, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France
| | - Bastian Heimburger
- Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Kamil S Jaron
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Group Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
| | - Marjorie Labédan
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Mark Maraun
- Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Darren J Parker
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Group Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Marc Robinson-Rechavi
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Group Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Ina Schaefer
- Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Paul Simion
- Group Phylogeny and Molecular Evolution, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics and Ecology, Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, 5000 Namur, Belgium
| | - Stefan Scheu
- Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
- Section Biodiversity and Ecology, Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Tanja Schwander
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jens Bast
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Institute for Zoology, University of Cologne, 50674 Cologne, Germany
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23
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Picard MAL, Vicoso B, Bertrand S, Escriva H. Diversity of Modes of Reproduction and Sex Determination Systems in Invertebrates, and the Putative Contribution of Genetic Conflict. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:1136. [PMID: 34440310 PMCID: PMC8391622 DOI: 10.3390/genes12081136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Revised: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 07/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
About eight million animal species are estimated to live on Earth, and all except those belonging to one subphylum are invertebrates. Invertebrates are incredibly diverse in their morphologies, life histories, and in the range of the ecological niches that they occupy. A great variety of modes of reproduction and sex determination systems is also observed among them, and their mosaic-distribution across the phylogeny shows that transitions between them occur frequently and rapidly. Genetic conflict in its various forms is a long-standing theory to explain what drives those evolutionary transitions. Here, we review (1) the different modes of reproduction among invertebrate species, highlighting sexual reproduction as the probable ancestral state; (2) the paradoxical diversity of sex determination systems; (3) the different types of genetic conflicts that could drive the evolution of such different systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marion Anne Lise Picard
- Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Biologie Intégrative des Organismes Marins (BIOM), Observatoire Océanologique, 66650 Banyuls-sur-Mer, France; (S.B.); (H.E.)
| | - Beatriz Vicoso
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Am Campus 1, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria;
| | - Stéphanie Bertrand
- Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Biologie Intégrative des Organismes Marins (BIOM), Observatoire Océanologique, 66650 Banyuls-sur-Mer, France; (S.B.); (H.E.)
| | - Hector Escriva
- Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Biologie Intégrative des Organismes Marins (BIOM), Observatoire Océanologique, 66650 Banyuls-sur-Mer, France; (S.B.); (H.E.)
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24
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Jaron KS, Bast J, Nowell RW, Ranallo-Benavidez TR, Robinson-Rechavi M, Schwander T. Genomic Features of Parthenogenetic Animals. J Hered 2021; 112:19-33. [PMID: 32985658 PMCID: PMC7953838 DOI: 10.1093/jhered/esaa031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolution without sex is predicted to impact genomes in numerous ways. Case studies of individual parthenogenetic animals have reported peculiar genomic features that were suggested to be caused by their mode of reproduction, including high heterozygosity, a high abundance of horizontally acquired genes, a low transposable element load, or the presence of palindromes. We systematically characterized these genomic features in published genomes of 26 parthenogenetic animals representing at least 18 independent transitions to asexuality. Surprisingly, not a single feature was systematically replicated across a majority of these transitions, suggesting that previously reported patterns were lineage-specific rather than illustrating the general consequences of parthenogenesis. We found that only parthenogens of hybrid origin were characterized by high heterozygosity levels. Parthenogens that were not of hybrid origin appeared to be largely homozygous, independent of the cellular mechanism underlying parthenogenesis. Overall, despite the importance of recombination rate variation for the evolution of sexual animal genomes, the genome-wide absence of recombination does not appear to have had the dramatic effects which are expected from classical theoretical models. The reasons for this are probably a combination of lineage-specific patterns, the impact of the origin of parthenogenesis, and a survivorship bias of parthenogenetic lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kamil S Jaron
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jens Bast
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Reuben W Nowell
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire, UK
- Reuben W. Nowell is now at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Marc Robinson-Rechavi
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Tanja Schwander
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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25
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Boyer L, Jabbour-Zahab R, Mosna M, Haag CR, Lenormand T. Not so clonal asexuals: Unraveling the secret sex life of Artemia parthenogenetica. Evol Lett 2021; 5:164-174. [PMID: 33868712 PMCID: PMC8045904 DOI: 10.1002/evl3.216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2020] [Revised: 01/08/2021] [Accepted: 01/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The maintenance of sex is paradoxical as sexual species pay the “twofold cost of males” and should thus quickly be replaced by asexual mutants reproducing clonally. However, asexuals may not be strictly clonal and engage in “cryptic sex,” challenging this simple scenario. We study the cryptic sex life of the brine shrimp Artemia parthenogenetica, which has once been termed an “ancient asexual” and where no genetic differences have ever been observed between parents and offspring. This asexual species rarely produces males, which can hybridize with sexual females of closely related species and transmit asexuality to their offspring. Using such hybrids, we show that recombination occurs in asexual lineages, causing loss‐of‐heterozygosity and parent‐offspring differences. These differences cannot generally be observed in field‐sampled asexuals because once heterozygosity is lost, subsequent recombination leaves no footprint. Furthermore, using extensive paternity tests, we show that hybrid females can reproduce both sexually and asexually, and transmit asexuality to both sexually and asexually produced offspring in a dominant fashion. Finally, we show that, contrary to previous reports, field‐sampled asexual females also rarely reproduce sexually (rate ∼2‰). Overall, most previously known facts about Artemia asexuality turned out to be erroneous. More generally, our findings suggest that the evidence for strictly clonal reproduction of asexual species needs to be reconsidered, and that rare sex and consequences of nonclonal asexuality, such as gene flow within asexuals, need to be more widely taken into account in more realistic models for the maintenance of sex and the persistence of asexual lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loreleï Boyer
- CEFE Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD Montpellier France
| | - Roula Jabbour-Zahab
- CEFE Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD Montpellier France
| | - Marta Mosna
- CEFE Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD Montpellier France
| | - Christoph R Haag
- CEFE Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD Montpellier France
| | - Thomas Lenormand
- CEFE Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD Montpellier France
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26
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Konczal M, Przesmycka KJ, Mohammed RS, Hahn C, Cable J, Radwan J. Expansion of frozen hybrids in the guppy ectoparasite, Gyrodactylus turnbulli. Mol Ecol 2021; 30:1005-1016. [PMID: 33345416 PMCID: PMC7986700 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15781] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2020] [Revised: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 12/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Hybridization is one of the major factors contributing to the emergence of highly successful parasites. Hybrid vigour can play an important role in this process, but subsequent rounds of recombination in the hybrid population may dilute its effects. Increased fitness of hybrids can, however, be frozen by asexual reproduction. Here, we identify invasion of a 'frozen hybrid' genotype in natural populations of Gyrodactylus turnbulli, a facultatively sexual ectoparasitic flatworm that causes significant damage to its fish host. We resequenced genomes of these parasites infecting guppies from six Trinidad and Tobago populations, and found surprisingly high discrepancy in genome-wide nucleotide diversity between islands. The elevated heterozygosity on Tobago is maintained by predominantly clonal reproduction of hybrids formed from two diverged genomes. Hybridization has been followed by spread of the hybrids across the island, implying a selective advantage compared with native genotypes. Our results thus highlight that a single outcrossing event may be independently sufficient to cause pathogen expansion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mateusz Konczal
- Faculty of BiologyEvolutionary Biology GroupAdam Mickiewicz UniversityPoznańPoland
| | | | - Ryan S. Mohammed
- Department of Life SciencesFaculty of Science and TechnologyThe University of the West Indies Zoology Museum, UWISt. AugustineTrinidad and Tobago
- School of BiosciencesCardiff UniversityCardiffUK
| | | | - Jo Cable
- School of BiosciencesCardiff UniversityCardiffUK
| | - Jacek Radwan
- Faculty of BiologyEvolutionary Biology GroupAdam Mickiewicz UniversityPoznańPoland
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27
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Brown TA, Tsurusaki N, Burns M. Genomic Determination of Reproductive Mode in Facultatively Parthenogenetic Opiliones. J Hered 2021; 112:34-44. [PMID: 33448304 DOI: 10.1093/jhered/esaa045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 11/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Sexual reproduction may pose myriad short-term costs to females. Despite these costs, sexual reproduction is near ubiquitous. Facultative parthenogenesis is theorized to mitigate some of the costs of sex, as individuals can participate in occasional sex to limit costs while obtaining many benefits. However, most theoretical models assume sexual reproduction is fixed following mating, with no possibility of clutches of mixed reproductive ontogeny. Therefore, we asked: if coercive males are present at high frequency in a population of facultative parthenogens, will their clutches be solely sexually produced, or will there be evidence of sexually and asexually-produced offspring? How will their offspring production compare to conspecifics in low-frequency male populations? We addressed our questions by collecting females and egg clutches of the facultatively parthenogenetic Opiliones species Leiobunum manubriatum and L. globosum. In L. manubriatum, females from populations with few males were not significantly more fecund than females from populations with higher male relative frequency, despite the potential release of the former from sexual conflict. We used 3 genotyping methods along with a custom set of DNA capture probes to reveal that offspring of L. manubriatum from these high male populations were primarily produced via asexual reproduction. This is surprising because sex ratios in these southern populations approach equality, increasing the probability for females to encounter mates and produce offspring sexually. We additionally found evidence for reproductive polymorphisms within populations. Rapid and accurate SNP genotyping data will continue to allow us to address broader evolutionary questions regarding the role of facultative reproductive modes in the maintenance of sex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tyler A Brown
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
| | - Nobuo Tsurusaki
- Laboratory of Biodiversity and Taxonomy, Department of Agricultural, Life, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan
| | - Mercedes Burns
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
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28
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Spangenberg V, Arakelyan M, Galoyan E, Martirosyan I, Bogomazova A, Martynova E, de Bello Cioffi M, Liehr T, Al-Rikabi A, Osipov F, Petrosyan V, Kolomiets O. Meiotic synapsis of homeologous chromosomes and mismatch repair protein detection in the parthenogenetic rock lizard Darevskia unisexualis. Mol Reprod Dev 2021; 88:119-127. [PMID: 33438277 DOI: 10.1002/mrd.23450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Revised: 12/29/2020] [Accepted: 12/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Parthenogenetic species of Caucasian rock lizards of the genus Darevksia are important evidence for reticulate evolution and speciation by hybridization in vertebrates. Female-only lineages formed through interspecific hybridization have been discovered in many groups. Nevertheless, critical mechanisms of oogenesis and specifics of meiosis that provide long-term stability of parthenogenetic species are still unknown. Here we report cytogenetic characteristics of somatic karyotypes and meiotic prophase I nuclei in the diploid parthenogenetic species Darevskia unisexualis from the new population "Keti" in Armenia which contains an odd number of chromosomes 2n = 37, instead of the usual 2n = 38. We revealed 36 acrocentric chromosomes and a single metacentric autosomal chromosome, resulting from Robertsonian translocation. Comparative genomic hybridization revealed that chromosome fusion occurred between two chromosomes inherited from the maternal species, similar to another parthenogenetic species D. rostombekowi. To trace the chromosome behaviour in meiosis, we performed an immunocytochemical study of primary oocytes' spread nuclei and studied chromosome synapsis during meiotic prophase I in D. unisexualis based on analysis of synaptonemal complexes (SCs). We found meiotic SC-trivalent composed of one metacentric and two acrocentric chromosomes. We confirmed that the SC was assembled between homeologous chromosomes inherited from two parental species. Immunostaining of the pachytene and diplotene nuclei revealed a mismatch repair protein MLH1 loaded to all autosomal SC bivalents. Possible mechanisms of meiotic recombination between homeologous chromosomes are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marine Arakelyan
- Department of Zoology, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia
| | - Eduard Galoyan
- Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, Moscow, Russia
| | | | - Alexandra Bogomazova
- Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine, Federal Medical Biological Agency, Moscow, Russia
| | - Elena Martynova
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia
| | - Marcelo de Bello Cioffi
- Laboratório de Citogenética de Peixes, UniversidadeFederal de São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brazil
| | - Thomas Liehr
- Institute of Human Genetics, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Ahmed Al-Rikabi
- Institute of Human Genetics, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Fedor Osipov
- Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, Moscow, Russia
| | - Varos Petrosyan
- Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, Moscow, Russia
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29
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Kratochvíl L, Vukić J, Červenka J, Kubička L, Johnson Pokorná M, Kukačková D, Rovatsos M, Piálek L. Mixed-sex offspring produced via cryptic parthenogenesis in a lizard. Mol Ecol 2020; 29:4118-4127. [PMID: 32881125 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2019] [Revised: 07/30/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Facultative parthenogenesis in vertebrates is believed to be exceptional, and wherever documented, it always led to single-sex progeny with genome-wide homozygosity. We report the first challenge to this paradigm: frequent facultative parthenogenesis in the previously assumed sexually reproducing tropical night lizard Lepidophyma smithii results in offspring of both sexes and preserves heterozygosity in many loci polymorphic in their mothers. Moreover, we documented a mixture of sexually and parthenogenetically produced progeny in a single clutch, which documents how cryptic a facultative parthenogenesis can be. Next, we show that in the studied species, 1) parthenogenetically produced females can further reproduce parthenogenetically, 2) a sexually produced female can reproduce parthenogenetically, 3) a parthenogenetically produced female can reproduce sexually, and 4) a parthenogenetically produced male is fully fertile. We suggest that facultative parthenogenesis should be considered even in vertebrates with frequent males and genetically variable, heterozygous offspring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lukáš Kratochvíl
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jasna Vukić
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Červenka
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Lukáš Kubička
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Martina Johnson Pokorná
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.,Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Liběchov, Czech Republic
| | - Dominika Kukačková
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Michail Rovatsos
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Lubomír Piálek
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.,Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
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30
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Abstract
Darevskia rock lizards is a unique complex taxa, including more than thirty species, seven of which are parthenogenetic. In mixed populations of Darevskia lizards, tri- and tetraploid forms can be found. The most important issues in the theory of reticulate evolution of Darevskia lizards are the origin of parthenogenetic species and their taxonomic position. However, there is little data on how meiosis proceeds in these species. The present work reports the complex results of cytogenetics in a diploid parthenogenetic species – D. unisexualis. Here we detail the meiotic prophase I progression and the specific features оf mitotic chromosomes organization. The stages of meiosis prophase I were investigated by immunocytochemical analysis of preparations obtained from isolated primary oocytes of D. unisexualis in comparison with maternal species D. raddei nairensis. It has been shown that in D. unisexualis at the leptotene-zygotene stages the axial elements and the synaptonemal complex (SC) form typical “bouquets”. At the pachytene-diplotene stage, 18 autosomal SC-bivalents and thickened asynapted sex Z and w univalents were observed. The presence of SYCP1 protein between the lateral elements of autosomal chromosomes proved the formation of assembled SCs. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) on the mitotic metaphase chromosomes of D. unisexualis was carried out using the genomic DNA isolated from the parental species D. raddei nairensis and D. valentini. In the pericentromeric regions of half of the mitotic chromosomes of D. unisexualis, specific regions inherited from maternal species have been found. Following our results, we suggest a model for diploid germ cells formation from diploid oocytes without premeiotic duplication of chromosomes in the oogenesis of diploid parthenogenetic lizards D. unisexualis. Taken as a whole, our findings confirm the hybrid nature of D. unisexualis and shed light on heterozygosity and automixis in diploid parthenogenetic forms.
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31
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Magro A, Lecompte E, Hemptinne J, Soares AO, Dutrillaux A, Murienne J, Fürsch H, Dutrillaux B. First case of parthenogenesis in ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) suggests new mechanisms for the evolution of asexual reproduction. J ZOOL SYST EVOL RES 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/jzs.12339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Magro
- Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité biologique UMR EDB 5174 CNRS / UT3 / IRDToulouse France
- Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l'Enseignement Agricole Auzeville-Tolosane France
| | - Emilie Lecompte
- Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité biologique UMR EDB 5174 CNRS / UT3 / IRDToulouse France
- Université Toulouse III‐Paul Sabatier Toulouse France
| | - Jean‐Louis Hemptinne
- Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité biologique UMR EDB 5174 CNRS / UT3 / IRDToulouse France
- Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l'Enseignement Agricole Auzeville-Tolosane France
| | - Antonio O. Soares
- Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes Azorean Biodiversity Group University of the Azores Ponta Delgada, Azores Portugal
| | - Anne‐Marie Dutrillaux
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité UMR ISYEB 7205 CNRS / MNHN / UPMC / EPHE Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle Paris France
| | - Jérôme Murienne
- Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité biologique UMR EDB 5174 CNRS / UT3 / IRDToulouse France
- Université Toulouse III‐Paul Sabatier Toulouse France
| | | | - Bernard Dutrillaux
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité UMR ISYEB 7205 CNRS / MNHN / UPMC / EPHE Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle Paris France
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32
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Carpentier F, Rodríguez de la Vega RC, Branco S, Snirc A, Coelho MA, Hood ME, Giraud T. Convergent recombination cessation between mating-type genes and centromeres in selfing anther-smut fungi. Genome Res 2019; 29:944-953. [PMID: 31043437 PMCID: PMC6581054 DOI: 10.1101/gr.242578.118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2018] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
The degree of selfing has major impacts on adaptability and is often controlled by molecular mechanisms determining mating compatibility. Changes in compatibility systems are therefore important evolutionary events, but their underlying genomic mechanisms are often poorly understood. Fungi display frequent shifts in compatibility systems, and their small genomes facilitate elucidation of the mechanisms involved. In particular, linkage between the pre- and postmating compatibility loci has evolved repeatedly, increasing the odds of gamete compatibility under selfing. Here, we studied the mating-type chromosomes of two anther-smut fungi with unlinked mating-type loci despite a self-fertilization mating system. Segregation analyses and comparisons of high-quality genome assemblies revealed that these two species displayed linkage between mating-type loci and their respective centromeres. This arrangement renders the same improved odds of gamete compatibility as direct linkage of the two mating-type loci under the automictic mating (intratetrad selfing) of anther-smut fungi. Recombination cessation was found associated with a large inversion in only one of the four linkage events. The lack of trans-specific polymorphism at genes located in nonrecombining regions and linkage date estimates indicated that the events of recombination cessation occurred independently in the two sister species. Our study shows that natural selection can repeatedly lead to similar genomic patterns and phenotypes, and that different evolutionary paths can lead to distinct yet equally beneficial responses to selection. Our study further highlights that automixis and gene linkage to centromeres have important genetic and evolutionary consequences, while being poorly recognized despite being present in a broad range of taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fantin Carpentier
- Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Bâtiment 360, Univ. Paris-Sud, AgroParisTech, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91400 Orsay, France
| | - Ricardo C Rodríguez de la Vega
- Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Bâtiment 360, Univ. Paris-Sud, AgroParisTech, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91400 Orsay, France
| | - Sara Branco
- Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Bâtiment 360, Univ. Paris-Sud, AgroParisTech, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91400 Orsay, France
| | - Alodie Snirc
- Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Bâtiment 360, Univ. Paris-Sud, AgroParisTech, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91400 Orsay, France
| | - Marco A Coelho
- UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Michael E Hood
- Department of Biology, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002, USA
| | - Tatiana Giraud
- Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Bâtiment 360, Univ. Paris-Sud, AgroParisTech, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91400 Orsay, France
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33
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Abstract
A major current molecular evolution challenge is to link comparative genomic patterns to species' biology and ecology. Breeding systems are pivotal because they affect many population genetic processes and thus genome evolution. We review theoretical predictions and empirical evidence about molecular evolutionary processes under three distinct breeding systems-outcrossing, selfing, and asexuality. Breeding systems may have a profound impact on genome evolution, including molecular evolutionary rates, base composition, genomic conflict, and possibly genome size. We present and discuss the similarities and differences between the effects of selfing and clonality. In reverse, comparative and population genomic data and approaches help revisiting old questions on the long-term evolution of breeding systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvain Glémin
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, UMR5554, Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France
| | - Clémentine M François
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, UMR5554, Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France
| | - Nicolas Galtier
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, UMR5554, Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France.
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34
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Smith NMA, Wade C, Allsopp MH, Harpur BA, Zayed A, Rose SA, Engelstädter J, Chapman NC, Yagound B, Oldroyd BP. Strikingly high levels of heterozygosity despite 20 years of inbreeding in a clonal honey bee. J Evol Biol 2018; 32:144-152. [DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2018] [Revised: 10/11/2018] [Accepted: 11/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas M. A. Smith
- Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory The University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia
| | - Claire Wade
- Faculty of Veterinary Science The University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia
| | - Michael H. Allsopp
- Honey Bee Research Section ARC‐Plant Protection Research Institute Stellenbosch South Africa
| | - Brock A. Harpur
- Department of Biology Faculty of Science York University Toronto Ontario Canada
| | - Amro Zayed
- Department of Biology Faculty of Science York University Toronto Ontario Canada
| | - Stephen A. Rose
- Department of Biology Faculty of Science York University Toronto Ontario Canada
| | - Jan Engelstädter
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Queensland Brisbane Queensland Australia
| | - Nadine C. Chapman
- Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory The University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia
| | - Boris Yagound
- Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory The University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia
| | - Benjamin P. Oldroyd
- Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory The University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia
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35
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Carella M, Agell G, Uriz MJ. Asexual reproduction and heterozygote selection in an Antarctic demosponge (Stylocordyla chupachus, Suberitida). Polar Biol 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s00300-018-2436-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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36
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Haag CR, Theodosiou L, Zahab R, Lenormand T. Low recombination rates in sexual species and sex-asex transitions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2017; 372:20160461. [PMID: 29109224 PMCID: PMC5698623 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/24/2017] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
In most sexual, diploid eukaryotes, at least one crossover occurs between each pair of homologous chromosomes during meiosis, presumably in order to ensure proper segregation. Well-known exceptions to this rule are species in which one sex does not recombine and specific chromosomes lacking crossover. We review other possible exceptions, including species with chromosome maps of less than 50 cM in one or both sexes. We discuss the idea that low recombination rates may favour sex-asex transitions, or, alternatively may be a consequence of it. We then show that a yet undescribed species of brine shrimp Artemia from Kazakhstan (A sp. Kazakhstan), the closest known relative of the asexual Artemia parthenogenetica, has one of the shortest genetic linkage maps known. Based on a family of 42 individuals and 589 RAD markers, we find that many linkage groups are considerably shorter than 50 cM, suggesting either no obligate crossover or crossovers concentrated at terminal positions with little effect on recombination. We contrast these findings with the published map of the more distantly related sexual congener, A. franciscana, and conclude that the study of recombination in non-model systems is important to understand the evolutionary causes and consequences of recombination.This article is part of the themed issue 'Evolutionary causes and consequences of recombination rate variation in sexual organisms'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph R Haag
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE)-Unité Mixte de Recherche 5175, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Montpellier-Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier-École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
| | - Loukas Theodosiou
- Research Group for Community Dynamics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann-Straße 2, 24306 Plön, Germany
| | - Roula Zahab
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE)-Unité Mixte de Recherche 5175, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Montpellier-Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier-École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
| | - Thomas Lenormand
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE)-Unité Mixte de Recherche 5175, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Montpellier-Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier-École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
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