The pseudoentropy of allele frequency trajectories, the persistence of variation, and the effective population size

To concisely describe how genetic variation, at individual loci or across whole genomes, changes over time, and to follow transitory allelic changes, we introduce a quantity related to entropy, that we term pseudoentropy. This quantity emerges in a diffusion analysis of the mean time a mutation segregates in a population. For a neutral locus with an arbitrary number of alleles, the mean time of segregation is generally proportional to the pseudoentropy of initial allele frequencies. After the initial time point, pseudoentropy generally decreases, but other behaviours are possible, depending on the genetic diversity and selective forces present. For a biallelic locus, pseudoentropy and entropy coincide, but they are distinct quantities with more than two alleles. Thus for populations with multiple biallelic loci, the language of entropy suffices. Then entropy, combined across loci, serves as a concise description of genetic variation. We used individual based simulations to explore how this entropy behaves under different evolutionary scenarios. In agreement with predictions, the entropy associated with unlinked neutral loci decreases over time. However, deviations from free recombination and neutrality have clear and informative effects on the entropy's behaviour over time. Analysis of publicly available data of a natural D. melanogaster population, that had been sampled over seven years, using a sliding-window approach, yielded considerable variation in entropy trajectories of different genomic regions. These mostly follow a pattern that suggests a substantial effective population size and a limited effect of positive selection on genome-wide diversity over short time scales.

High nucleotide diversity accompanies differential DNA methylation in naturally diverging populations

Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation (DNAme) are thought to comprise an invaluable adaptive toolkit in the early stages of local adaptation, especially when genetic diversity is constrained. However, the link between genetic diversity and DNAme has been scarcely examined in natural populations, despite its potential to shed light on the evolutionary forces acting on methylation state. Here, we analysed reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing and whole genome pool-seq data from marine and freshwater stickleback populations to examine the relationship between DNAme variation (between- and within-population), and nucleotide diversity in the context of freshwater adaptation. We find that sites that are differentially methylated between populations have higher underlying standing genetic variation, with diversity higher among sites that gained methylation in freshwater than those that lost it. Strikingly, while nucleotide diversity is generally lower in the freshwater population as expected from a population bottleneck, this is not the case for sites which lost methylation which instead have elevated nucleotide diversity in freshwater compared to marine. Subsequently, we show that nucleotide diversity is higher among sites with ancestrally variable methylation and also positively correlates with the sensitivity to environmentally induced methylation change. The results suggest that as selection on the control of methylation state becomes relaxed, so too does selection against mutations at the sites themselves. Increased epigenetic variance in a population is therefore likely to precede genetic diversification.

Loss and fixation of strongly favoured new variants: Understanding and extending Haldane's result via the Wright-Fisher model

The implications of Haldane's analysis for the fixation of beneficial alleles lies at the heart of much of 'population genetic thinking' and underlies many approaches that have been tailored to the detection of positive selection. Within the framework of a branching process, Haldane gave an approximation for the probability that fixation ultimately occurs when the selective advantage of a beneficial allele is small (≪1). Here, we make no use of branching processes. Rather, we work solely within a finite-population Wright-Fisher framework. We use this framework to analyse where Haldane's result applies, and extend Haldane's analysis. In particular, we present results for: (i) the domain of applicability of Haldane's analysis; (ii) the probability that loss occurs up to a given time; (iii) the probabilities that loss and fixation ultimately occur; (iv) an analytic approximation associated with the probability of loss and fixation ultimately occurring; (v) quantification of the crossover from weak to strong selection; (vi) determination of the number of invasive alleles that have a significant probability (>0.95) of invading a novel population. We note that the results obtained for (ii), (iii) and (iv) hold for an arbitrary initial number of mutations, and for selection that can be arbitrarily strong. Our results have fundamental implications for population and conservation genetics, and open up new avenues to identify traces of historically beneficial alleles through comparative genomics.

Signatures of selection on mitonuclear integrated genes uncover hidden mitogenomic variation in fur seals

Nuclear copies of mitochondrial genes (numts) are commonplace in vertebrate genomes and have been characterized in many species. However, relatively little attention has been paid to understanding their evolutionary origins and to disentangling alternative sources of insertions. Numts containing genes with intact mitochondrial reading frames represent good candidates for this purpose. The sequences of the genes they contain can be compared to their mitochondrial homologs to characterize synonymous to non-synonymous substitution rates, which can shed light on the selection pressures these genes have been subjected to. Here, we characterise 25 numts in the Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) genome. Among those containing genes with intact mitochondrial reading frames, three carry multiple substitutions in comparison to their mitochondrial homologs. Our analyses reveal that one represents a historic insertion subjected to strong purifying selection since it colonized the Otarioidea in a genomic region enriched in retrotransposons. By contrast, the other two numts appear to be more recent and their large number of substitutions can be attributed to non-canonical insertions, either the integration of heteroplasmic mtDNA or hybridization. Our study sheds new light on the evolutionary history of pinniped numts and uncovers the presence of hidden sources of mitonuclear variation.

OUP accepted manuscript

There are many problems in biology and related disciplines involving stochasticity, where a signal can only be detected when it lies above a threshold level, while signals lying below threshold are simply not detected. A consequence is that the detected signal is conditioned to lie above threshold, and is not representative of the actual signal. In this work, we present some general results for the conditioning that occurs due to the existence of such an observational threshold. We show that this conditioning is relevant, for example, to gene-frequency trajectories, where many loci in the genome are simultaneously measured in a given generation. Such a threshold can lead to severe biases of allele frequency estimates under purifying selection. In the analysis presented, within the context of Markov chains such as the Wright–Fisher model, we address two key questions: (1) “What is a natural measure of the strength of the conditioning associated with an observation threshold?” (2) “What is a principled way to correct for the effects of the conditioning?”. We answer the first question in terms of a proportion. Starting with a large number of trajectories, the relevant quantity is the proportion of these trajectories that are above threshold at a later time and hence are detected. The smaller the value of this proportion, the stronger the effects of conditioning. We provide an approximate analytical answer to the second question, that corrects the bias produced by an observation threshold, and performs to reasonable accuracy in the Wright–Fisher model for biologically plausible parameter values.

Adaptation-Driven Evolution of Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a Key Regulator of Metabolism and Aging, in Marmot Species

The sirtuin protein family plays a role in the lifespan of various species and is involved in numerous key metabolic processes. To understand the evolutionary role of sirtuins in marmots, a long-living rodent species group with remarkable metabolic shutdown during hibernation, we conducted a phylogeny-based substitution rate analysis of coding genes based on genetic information of seven marmot species. We show that sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) has evolved under positive selection in the marmot lineage. We pinpoint three amino acid changes in four different marmot species that underlie the signal of positive selection and that may favor increased longevity in marmots. Based on a computational structural analysis we can show that all three substitutions affect the secondary structure of the same region in human SIRT1. We propose that the identified region is close to the catalytic domain and that the potential structural changes may impact the catalytic activity of the enzyme and therefore might be playing a functional role in marmot's extended lifespan and metabolic shutdown.

Dispersal strategies shape persistence and evolution of human gut bacteria

Human gut bacterial strains can co-exist with their hosts for decades, but little is known about how these microbes persist and disperse, and evolve thereby. Here, we examined these processes in 5,278 adult and infant fecal metagenomes, longitudinally sampled in individuals and families. Our analyses revealed that a subset of gut species is extremely persistent in individuals, families, and geographic regions, represented often by locally successful strains of the phylum Bacteroidota. These “tenacious” bacteria show high levels of genetic adaptation to the human host but a high probability of loss upon antibiotic interventions. By contrast, heredipersistent bacteria, notably Firmicutes, often rely on dispersal strategies with weak phylogeographic patterns but strong family transmissions, likely related to sporulation. These analyses describe how different dispersal strategies can lead to the long-term persistence of human gut microbes with implications for gut flora modulations.

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Bacterial strains may persist within family members through transfer

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Bacteria adapt dispersal strategies: heredipersistent, spatiopersistent, and tenacious

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Dispersal strategies correlate with genetic bottlenecks and effective population size

Noncoding regions underpin avian bill shape diversification at macroevolutionary scales

Recent progress has been made in identifying genomic regions implicated in trait evolution on a microevolutionary scale in many species, but whether these are relevant over macroevolutionary time remains unclear. Here, we directly address this fundamental question using bird beak shape, a key evolutionary innovation linked to patterns of resource use, divergence, and speciation, as a model trait. We integrate class-wide geometric-morphometric analyses with evolutionary sequence analyses of 10,322 protein-coding genes as well as 229,001 genomic regions spanning 72 species. We identify 1434 protein-coding genes and 39,806 noncoding regions for which molecular rates were significantly related to rates of bill shape evolution. We show that homologs of the identified protein-coding genes as well as genes in close proximity to the identified noncoding regions are involved in craniofacial embryo development in mammals. They are associated with embryonic stem cell pathways, including BMP and Wnt signaling, both of which have repeatedly been implicated in the morphological development of avian beaks. This suggests that identifying genotype-phenotype association on a genome-wide scale over macroevolutionary time is feasible. Although the coding and noncoding gene sets are associated with similar pathways, the actual genes are highly distinct, with significantly reduced overlap between them and bill-related phenotype associations specific to noncoding loci. Evidence for signatures of recent diversifying selection on our identified noncoding loci in Darwin finch populations further suggests that regulatory rather than coding changes are major drivers of morphological diversification over macroevolutionary times.

Programmed DNA elimination of germline development genes in songbirds

In some eukaryotes, germline and somatic genomes differ dramatically in their composition. Here we characterise a major germline–soma dissimilarity caused by a germline-restricted chromosome (GRC) in songbirds. We show that the zebra finch GRC contains >115 genes paralogous to single-copy genes on 18 autosomes and the Z chromosome, and is enriched in genes involved in female gonad development. Many genes are likely functional, evidenced by expression in testes and ovaries at the RNA and protein level. Using comparative genomics, we show that genes have been added to the GRC over millions of years of evolution, with embryonic development genes bicc1 and trim71 dating to the ancestor of songbirds and dozens of other genes added very recently. The somatic elimination of this evolutionarily dynamic chromosome in songbirds implies a unique mechanism to minimise genetic conflict between germline and soma, relevant to antagonistic pleiotropy, an evolutionary process underlying ageing and sexual traits.

Songbirds have extensive germline–soma genome differences due to developmental elimination of a germline-specific chromosome (GRC). Here, the authors show that the GRC contains dozens of expressed developmental genes, some of which have been on the GRC since the ancestor of all songbirds.

Ice-Age Climate Adaptations Trap the Alpine Marmot in a State of Low Genetic Diversity

Some species responded successfully to prehistoric changes in climate [1, 2], while others failed to adapt and became extinct [3]. The factors that determine successful climate adaptation remain poorly understood. We constructed a reference genome and studied physiological adaptations in the Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota), a large ground-dwelling squirrel exquisitely adapted to the "ice-age" climate of the Pleistocene steppe [4, 5]. Since the disappearance of this habitat, the rodent persists in large numbers in the high-altitude Alpine meadow [6, 7]. Genome and metabolome showed evidence of adaptation consistent with cold climate, affecting white adipose tissue. Conversely, however, we found that the Alpine marmot has levels of genetic variation that are among the lowest for mammals, such that deleterious mutations are less effectively purged. Our data rule out typical explanations for low diversity, such as high levels of consanguineous mating, or a very recent bottleneck. Instead, ancient demographic reconstruction revealed that genetic diversity was lost during the climate shifts of the Pleistocene and has not recovered, despite the current high population size. We attribute this slow recovery to the marmot's adaptive life history. The case of the Alpine marmot reveals a complicated relationship between climatic changes, genetic diversity, and conservation status. It shows that species of extremely low genetic diversity can be very successful and persist over thousands of years, but also that climate-adapted life history can trap a species in a persistent state of low genetic diversity.

The Old and the New: Discovery Proteomics Identifies Putative Novel Seminal Fluid Proteins in Drosophila

Seminal fluid proteins (SFPs), the nonsperm component of male ejaculates produced by male accessory glands, are viewed as central mediators of reproductive fitness. SFPs effect both male and female post-mating functions and show molecular signatures of rapid adaptive evolution. Although Drosophila melanogaster, is the dominant insect model for understanding SFP evolution, understanding of SFP evolutionary causes and consequences require additional comparative analyses of close and distantly related taxa. Although SFP identification was historically challenging, advances in label-free quantitative proteomics expands the scope of studying other systems to further advance the field. Focused studies of SFPs has so far overlooked the proteomes of male reproductive glands and their inherent complex protein networks for which there is little information on the overall signals of molecular evolution. Here we applied label-free quantitative proteomics to identify the accessory gland proteome and secretome in Drosophila pseudoobscura,, a close relative of D. melanogaster,, and use the dataset to identify both known and putative novel SFPs. Using this approach, we identified 163 putative SFPs, 32% of which overlapped with previously identified D. melanogaster, SFPs and show that SFPs with known extracellular annotation evolve more rapidly than other proteins produced by or contained within the accessory gland. Our results will further the understanding of the evolution of SFPs and the underlying male accessory gland proteins that mediate reproductive fitness of the sexes.

Exploring the unmapped DNA and RNA reads in a songbird genome

BACKGROUND

A widely used approach in next-generation sequencing projects is the alignment of reads to a reference genome. Despite methodological and hardware improvements which have enhanced the efficiency and accuracy of alignments, a significant percentage of reads frequently remain unmapped. Usually, unmapped reads are discarded from the analysis process, but significant biological information and insights can be uncovered from these data. We explored the unmapped DNA (normal and bisulfite treated) and RNA sequence reads of the great tit (Parus major) reference genome individual. From the unmapped reads we generated de novo assemblies, after which the generated sequence contigs were aligned to the NCBI non-redundant nucleotide database using BLAST, identifying the closest known matching sequence.

RESULTS

Many of the aligned contigs showed sequence similarity to different bird species and genes that were absent in the great tit reference assembly. Furthermore, there were also contigs that represented known P. major pathogenic species. Most interesting were several species of blood parasites such as Plasmodium and Trypanosoma.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analyses revealed that meaningful biological information can be found when further exploring unmapped reads. For instance, it is possible to discover sequences that are either absent or misassembled in the reference genome, and sequences that indicate infection or sample contamination. In this study we also propose strategies to aid the capture and interpretation of this information from unmapped reads.

Determinants of the Efficacy of Natural Selection on Coding and Noncoding Variability in Two Passerine Species

Population genetic theory predicts that selection should be more effective when the effective population size (N_e) is larger, and that the efficacy of selection should correlate positively with recombination rate. Here, we analyzed the genomes of ten great tits and ten zebra finches. Nucleotide diversity at 4-fold degenerate sites indicates that zebra finches have a 2.83-fold larger N_e. We obtained clear evidence that purifying selection is more effective in zebra finches. The proportion of substitutions at 0-fold degenerate sites fixed by positive selection (α) is high in both species (great tit 48%; zebra finch 64%) and is significantly higher in zebra finches. When α was estimated on GC-conservative changes (i.e., between A and T and between G and C), the estimates reduced in both species (great tit 22%; zebra finch 53%). A theoretical model presented herein suggests that failing to control for the effects of GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC) is potentially a contributor to the overestimation of α, and that this effect cannot be alleviated by first fitting a demographic model to neutral variants. We present the first estimates in birds for α in the untranslated regions, and found evidence for substantial adaptive changes. Finally, although purifying selection is stronger in high-recombination regions, we obtained mixed evidence for α increasing with recombination rate, especially after accounting for gBGC. These results highlight that it is important to consider the potential confounding effects of gBGC when quantifying selection and that our understanding of what determines the efficacy of selection is incomplete.

Human long intrinsically disordered protein regions are frequent targets of positive selection

Intrinsically disordered regions occur frequently in proteins and are characterized by a lack of a well-defined three-dimensional structure. Although these regions do not show a higher order of structural organization, they are known to be functionally important. Disordered regions are rapidly evolving, largely attributed to relaxed purifying selection and an increased role of genetic drift. It has also been suggested that positive selection might contribute to their rapid diversification. However, for our own species, it is currently unknown whether positive selection has played a role during the evolution of these protein regions. Here, we address this question by investigating the evolutionary pattern of more than 6600 human proteins with intrinsically disordered regions and their ordered counterparts. Our comparative approach with data from more than 90 mammalian genomes uses a priori knowledge of disordered protein regions, and we show that this increases the power to detect positive selection by an order of magnitude. We can confirm that human intrinsically disordered regions evolve more rapidly, not only within humans but also across the entire mammalian phylogeny. They have, however, experienced substantial evolutionary constraint, hinting at their fundamental functional importance. We find compelling evidence that disordered protein regions are frequent targets of positive selection and estimate that the relative rate of adaptive substitutions differs fourfold between disordered and ordered protein regions in humans. Our results suggest that disordered protein regions are important targets of genetic innovation and that the contribution of positive selection in these regions is more pronounced than in other protein parts.

Evolutionary control: Targeted change of allele frequencies in natural populations using externally directed evolution

Random processes in biology, in particular random genetic drift, often make it difficult to predict the fate of a particular mutation in a population. Using principles of theoretical population genetics, we present a form of biological control that ensures a focal allele's frequency, at a given locus, achieves a prescribed probability distribution at a given time. This control is in the form of an additional evolutionary force that acts on a population. We provide the mathematical framework that determines the additional force. Our analysis indicates that generally the additional force depends on the frequency of the focal allele, and it may also depend on the time. We argue that translating this additional force into an externally controlled process, which has the possibility of being implemented in a number of different ways corresponding to selection, migration, mutation, or a combination of these, may provide a flexible instrument for targeted change of traits of interest in natural populations. This framework may be applied, or used as an informed form of guidance, in a variety of different biological scenarios including: yield and pesticide optimisation in crop production, biofermentation, the local regulation of human-associated natural populations, such as parasitic animals, or bacterial communities in hospitals.

Transcriptomes of Plant Gametophytes Have a Higher Proportion of Rapidly Evolving and Young Genes than Sporophytes

Reproductive traits in plants tend to evolve rapidly due to various causes that include plant-pollinator coevolution and pollen competition, but the genomic basis of reproductive trait evolution is still largely unknown. To characterize evolutionary patterns of genome wide gene expression in reproductive tissues in the gametophyte and to compare them to developmental stages of the sporophyte, we analyzed evolutionary conservation and genetic diversity of protein-coding genes using microarray-based transcriptome data from three plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, rice (Oryza sativa), and soybean (Glycine max). In all three species a significant shift in gene expression occurs during gametogenesis in which genes of younger evolutionary age and higher genetic diversity contribute significantly more to the transcriptome than in other stages. We refer to this phenomenon as "evolutionary bulge" during plant reproductive development because it differentiates the gametophyte from the sporophyte. We show that multiple, not mutually exclusive, causes may explain the bulge pattern, most prominently reduced tissue complexity of the gametophyte, a varying extent of selection on reproductive traits during gametogenesis as well as differences between male and female tissues. This highlights the importance of plant reproduction for understanding evolutionary forces determining the relationship of genomic and phenotypic variation in plants.

Evolutionary signals of selection on cognition from the great tit genome and methylome

For over 50 years, the great tit (Parus major) has been a model species for research in evolutionary, ecological and behavioural research; in particular, learning and cognition have been intensively studied. Here, to provide further insight into the molecular mechanisms behind these important traits, we de novo assemble a great tit reference genome and whole-genome re-sequence another 29 individuals from across Europe. We show an overrepresentation of genes related to neuronal functions, learning and cognition in regions under positive selection, as well as increased CpG methylation in these regions. In addition, great tit neuronal non-CpG methylation patterns are very similar to those observed in mammals, suggesting a universal role in neuronal epigenetic regulation which can affect learning-, memory- and experience-induced plasticity. The high-quality great tit genome assembly will play an instrumental role in furthering the integration of ecological, evolutionary, behavioural and genomic approaches in this model species.

The great tit (Parus major) is known for its complex social-cognitive behaviour. Here, the authors sequence genomes of the great tit and show genes related to learning and cognition in regions under positive selection, as well as neuronal non-CpG methylation patterns similar to those observed in mammals.

Highly variable recombinational landscape modulates efficacy of natural selection in birds

Determining the rate of protein evolution and identifying the causes of its variation across the genome are powerful ways to understand forces that are important for genome evolution. By using a multitissue transcriptome data set from great tit (Parus major), we analyzed patterns of molecular evolution between two passerine birds, great tit and zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), using the chicken genome (Gallus gallus) as an outgroup. We investigated whether a special feature of avian genomes, the highly variable recombinational landscape, modulates the efficacy of natural selection through the effects of Hill-Robertson interference, which predicts that selection should be more effective in removing deleterious mutations and incorporating beneficial mutations in high-recombination regions than in low-recombination regions. In agreement with these predictions, genes located in low-recombination regions tend to have a high proportion of neutrally evolving sites and relaxed selective constraint on sites subject to purifying selection, whereas genes that show strong support for past episodes of positive selection appear disproportionally in high-recombination regions. There is also evidence that genes located in high-recombination regions tend to have higher gene expression specificity than those located in low-recombination regions. Furthermore, more compact genes (i.e., those with fewer/shorter introns or shorter proteins) evolve faster than less compact ones. In sum, our results demonstrate that transcriptome sequencing is a powerful method to answer fundamental questions about genome evolution in nonmodel organisms.

Sequence divergence and diversity suggests ongoing functional diversification of vertebrate NAD metabolism

NAD is not only an important cofactor in redox reactions but has also received attention in recent years because of its physiological importance in metabolic regulation, DNA repair and signaling. In contrast to the redox reactions, these regulatory processes involve degradation of NAD and therefore necessitate a constant replenishment of its cellular pool. NAD biosynthetic enzymes are common to almost all species in all clades, but the number of NAD degrading enzymes varies substantially across taxa. In particular, vertebrates, including humans, have a manifold of NAD degrading enzymes which require a high turnover of NAD. As there is currently a lack of a systematic study of how natural selection has shaped enzymes involved in NAD metabolism we conducted a comprehensive evolutionary analysis based on intraspecific variation and interspecific divergence. We compare NAD biosynthetic and degrading enzymes in four eukaryotic model species and subsequently focus on human NAD metabolic enzymes and their orthologs in other vertebrates. We find that the majority of enzymes involved in NAD metabolism are subject to varying levels of purifying selection. While NAD biosynthetic enzymes appear to experience a rather high level of evolutionary constraint, there is evidence for positive selection among enzymes mediating NAD-dependent signaling. This is particularly evident for members of the PARP family, a diverse protein family involved in DNA damage repair and programmed cell death. Based on haplotype information and substitution rate analysis we pinpoint sites that are potential targets of positive selection. We also link our findings to a three dimensional structure, which suggests that positive selection occurs in domains responsible for DNA binding and polymerization rather than the NAD catalytic domain. Taken together, our results indicate that vertebrate NAD metabolism is still undergoing functional diversification.

Fluctuating selection models and McDonald-Kreitman type analyses

It is likely that the strength of selection acting upon a mutation varies through time due to changes in the environment. However, most population genetic theory assumes that the strength of selection remains constant. Here we investigate the consequences of fluctuating selection pressures on the quantification of adaptive evolution using McDonald-Kreitman (MK) style approaches. In agreement with previous work, we show that fluctuating selection can generate evidence of adaptive evolution even when the expected strength of selection on a mutation is zero. However, we also find that the mutations, which contribute to both polymorphism and divergence tend, on average, to be positively selected during their lifetime, under fluctuating selection models. This is because mutations that fluctuate, by chance, to positive selected values, tend to reach higher frequencies in the population than those that fluctuate towards negative values. Hence the evidence of positive adaptive evolution detected under a fluctuating selection model by MK type approaches is genuine since fixed mutations tend to be advantageous on average during their lifetime. Never-the-less we show that methods tend to underestimate the rate of adaptive evolution when selection fluctuates.

Selection-driven evolution of sex-biased genes is consistent with sexual selection in Arabidopsis thaliana

Sex-biased genes are genes with a preferential or specific expression in one sex and tend to show an accelerated rate of evolution in animals. Various hypotheses--which are not mutually exclusive--have been put forth to explain observed patterns of rapid evolution. One possible explanation is positive selection, but this has been shown only in few animal species and mostly for male-specific genes. Here, we present a large-scale study that investigates evolutionary patterns of sex-biased genes in the predominantly self-fertilizing plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Unlike most animal species, A. thaliana does not possess sex chromosomes, its flowers develop both male and female sexual organs, and it is characterized by low outcrossing rates. Using cell-specific gene expression data, we identified genes whose expression is enriched in comparison with all other tissues in the male and female gametes (sperm, egg, and central cell), as well as in synergids, pollen, and pollen tubes, which also play an important role in reproduction. Genes specifically expressed in gametes and synergids show higher rates of protein evolution compared with the genome-wide average and no evidence for positive selection. In contrast, pollen- and pollen tube-specific genes not only have lower rates of protein evolution but also exhibit a higher proportion of adaptive amino acid substitutions. We show that this is the result of increased levels of purifying and positive selection among genes with pollen- and pollen tube-specific expression. The increased proportion of adaptive substitutions cannot be explained by the fact that pollen- and pollen tube-expressed genes are enriched in segmental duplications, are on average older, or have a larger effective population size. Our observations are consistent with prezygotic sexual selection as a result of interactions during pollination and pollen tube growth such as pollen tube competition.

NAD(+) biosynthesis and salvage--a phylogenetic perspective

NAD is best known as an electron carrier and a cosubstrate of various redox reactions. However, over the past 20 years, NAD(+) has been shown to be a key signaling molecule that mediates post-translational protein modifications and serves as precursor of ADP-ribose-containing messenger molecules, which are involved in calcium mobilization. In contrast to its role as a redox carrier, NAD(+)-dependent signaling processes involve the release of nicotinamide (Nam) and require constant replenishment of cellular NAD(+) pools. So far, very little is known about the evolution of NAD(P) synthesis in eukaryotes. In the present study, genes involved in NAD(P) metabolism in 45 species were identified and analyzed with regard to similarities and differences in NAD(P) synthesis. The results show that the Preiss-Handler pathway and NAD(+) kinase are present in all organisms investigated, and thus seem to be ancestral routes. Additionally, two pathways exist that convert Nam to NAD(+); we identified several species that have apparently functional copies of both biosynthetic routes, which have been thought to be mutually exclusive. Furthermore, our findings suggest the parallel phylogenetic appearance of Nam N-methyltransferase, Nam phosphoribosyl transferase, and poly-ADP-ribosyltransferases.

The effect of variation in the effective population size on the rate of adaptive molecular evolution in eukaryotes

The role of adaptation is a fundamental question in molecular evolution. Theory predicts that species with large effective population sizes should undergo a higher rate of adaptive evolution than species with low effective population sizes if adaptation is limited by the supply of mutations. Previous analyses have appeared to support this conjecture because estimates of the proportion of nonsynonymous substitutions fixed by adaptive evolution, α, tend to be higher in species with large N_e. However, α is a function of both the number of advantageous and effectively neutral substitutions, either of which might depend on N_e. Here, we investigate the relationship between N_e and ω_a, the rate of adaptive evolution relative to the rate of neutral evolution, using nucleotide polymorphism and divergence data from 13 independent pairs of eukaryotic species. We find a highly significant positive correlation between ω_a and N_e. We also find some evidence that the rate of adaptive evolution varies between groups of organisms for a given N_e. The correlation between ω_a and N_e does not appear to be an artifact of demographic change or selection on synonymous codon use. Our results suggest that adaptation is to some extent limited by the supply of mutations and that at least some adaptation depends on newly occurring mutations rather than on standing genetic variation. Finally, we show that the proportion of nearly neutral nonadaptive substitutions declines with increasing N_e. The low rate of adaptive evolution and the high proportion of effectively neutral substitution in species with small N_e are expected to combine to make it difficult to detect adaptive molecular evolution in species with small N_e.

Selection-driven divergence after gene duplication in Arabidopsis thaliana

Gene duplications are one of the most important mechanisms for the origin of evolutionary novelties. Even though various models of the fate of duplicated genes have been established, current knowledge about the role of divergent selection after gene duplication is rather limited. In this study, we analyzed sequence divergence in response to neo- and subfunctionalization of segmentally duplicated genes in the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana. We compared the genomes of A. thaliana and the poplar Populus trichocarpa to identify orthologous pairs of genes and their corresponding inparalogs. Maximum-likelihood analyses of the nonsynonymous and synonymous substitution rate ratio [Formula: see text] of pairs of A. thaliana inparalogs were used to detect differences in the evolutionary rates of protein coding sequences. We analyzed 1,924 A. thaliana paralogous pairs and our results indicate that around 6.9% show divergent ω values between the lineages for a fraction of sites. We observe an enrichment of regulatory sequences, a reduced level of co-expression and an increased number of substitutions that can be attributed to positive selection based on an McDonald-Kreitman type of analysis. Taken together, these results show that selection after duplication contributes substantially to gene novelties and hence functional divergence in plants.

Isoform-specific targeting and interaction domains in human nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferases

Several important signaling pathways require NAD as substrate, thereby leading to significant consumption of the molecule. Because NAD is also an essential redox carrier, its continuous resynthesis is vital. In higher eukaryotes, maintenance of compartmentalized NAD pools is critical, but so far rather little is known about the regulation and subcellular distribution of NAD biosynthetic enzymes. The key step in NAD biosynthesis is the formation of the dinucleotide by nicotinamide/nicotinic acid mononucleotide adenylyltransferases (NMNATs). The three human isoforms were localized to the nucleus, the Golgi complex, and mitochondria. Here, we show that their genes contain unique exons that encode isoform-specific domains to mediate subcellular targeting and post-translational modifications. These domains are dispensable for catalytic activity, consistent with their absence from NMNATs of lower organisms. We further demonstrate that the Golgi-associated NMNAT is palmitoylated at two adjacent cysteine residues of its isoform-specific domain and thereby anchored at the cytoplasmic surface, a potential mechanism to regulate the cytosolic NAD pool. Insertion of unique domains thus provides a yet unrecognized enzyme targeting mode, which has also been adapted to modulate subcellular NAD supply.

Genome wide analyses reveal little evidence for adaptive evolution in many plant species

The relative contribution of advantageous and neutral mutations to the evolutionary process is a central problem in evolutionary biology. Current estimates suggest that whereas Drosophila, mice, and bacteria have undergone extensive adaptive evolution, hominids show little or no evidence of adaptive evolution in protein-coding sequences. This may be a consequence of differences in effective population size. To study the matter further, we have investigated whether plants show evidence of adaptive evolution using an extension of the McDonald-Kreitman test that explicitly models slightly deleterious mutations by estimating the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations. We apply this method to data from nine pairs of species. Altogether more than 2,400 loci with an average length of approximately 280 nucleotides were analyzed. We observe very similar results in all species; we find little evidence of adaptive amino acid substitution in any comparison except sunflowers. This may be because many plant species have modest effective population sizes.