Plants respond to changes in ultraviolet (UV) radiation via morphological and physiological changes. Among the variety of plant UV-responses, the synthesis of UV-absorbing flavonoids constitutes an effective non-enzymatic mechanism to mitigate photoinhibitory and photooxidative damage caused by UV stress, either reducing the penetration of incident UV radiation or acting as quenchers of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, we designed a UV-exclusion experiment to investigate the effects...
Mon Mar 30, 2020 03:00
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...
Mon Mar 30, 2020 03:00
The pathogenesis of infectious diarrheal diseases is largely attributed to enterotoxin proteins that disrupt intestinal water absorption, causing severe dehydration. Despite profound health consequences, the impacts of diarrhea-causing microbes on the evolutionary history of host species are largely unknown. We investigated patterns of genetic variation in mammalian Guanylate Cyclase-C (GC-C), an intestinal receptor frequently targeted by bacterial enterotoxins, to determine how hosts might adapt...
Mon Mar 30, 2020 03:00
Regional species diversity is ultimately explained by speciation, extinction, and dispersal. Here we estimate dispersal and speciation rates in Neotropical rainforest biomes to propose an explanation for the distribution and diversity of extant butterfly species. We focus on the tribe Brassolini (owl butterflies and allies): a Neotropical group that comprises 17 genera and 108 species, most of them endemic to rainforest biomes. We infer a total-evidence species tree using the multispecies coalescent...
Mon Mar 30, 2020 03:00
Lifespan evolves as a compromise between antagonistic selection forces. Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a pleiotropic hormone that regulates several life-history traits. High levels of IGF-1 have been linked to increased mortality, partly by causing oxidative stress. However, these effects have no experimental evidence in wild animals. We implanted microspheres loaded with exogenous IGF-1 into bearded reedlings, a common short-lived Eurasian songbird. The treatment elevated plasma IGF-1 levels...
Sun Mar 29, 2020 02:00
Chromosome fusion and fission are primary mechanisms of karyotype evolution. In particular, the fusion of a sex chromosome and an autosome has been proposed as a mechanism to resolve intralocus sexual antagonism. If sexual antagonism is common throughout the genome, we should expect to see an excess of fusions that join sex chromosomes and autosomes. Here, we present a null model that provides the probability of a sex chromosome autosome fusion, assuming all chromosomes have an equal probability...
Sun Mar 29, 2020 02:00
Isolation by distance is a widespread pattern in nature that describes the reduction of genetic correlation between subpopulations with increased geographic distance. In the population ancestral to modern sister species, this pattern may hypothetically inflate population divergence time estimation due to the potential for allele frequency differences in subpopulations at the ends of the ancestral population. In this study, we analyze the relationship between the time to the most recent common ancestor...
Sun Mar 29, 2020 02:00
Drought has long been established as a major environmental stress for plants which have in turn developed several coping strategies, ranging from physiological to molecular mechanisms. LP3; a homolog of the Abscisic Acid, Stress and Ripening (ASR) gene was first detected in tomato; and has been shown to be present in four different isoforms in loblolly pine called LP3-0, LP3-1, LP3-2 and LP3-3. While ASR has already been extensively studied notably in tomato, the same cannot be said of LP3. Like...
Sun Mar 29, 2020 02:00
The application of current genome-wide sequencing techniques on human populations helps elucidate the considerable gene flow among genus Homo, which includes modern and archaic humans. Gene flow among current human populations has been studied using frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Unlike single nucleotide polymorphism frequency data, haplotype data are suitable for identifying and tracing rare evolutionary events. Haplotype data can also conveniently detect genomic location and estimate...
Sun Mar 29, 2020 02:00
Background: The olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea, Oleaceae) has been the most economic perennial crop for Mediterranean countries since its domestication around 6,000 years ago. Two taxonomic varieties are currently recognized: cultivated (var. europaea) and wild (var. sylvestris) trees. To shed light into the recent evolution and domestication of the olive tree, we sequenced the genomes of twelve individuals: ten var. europaea, one var. sylvestris, and one outgroup taxon (subsp. cuspidata)....
Sun Mar 29, 2020 02:00
The stipple-throated antwrens of the genus Epinecrophylla (Aves: Thamnophilidae) are represented by eight species primarily found in the lowlands of the Amazon Basin and the Guiana Shield. The genus has a long and convoluted taxonomic history, with many attempts made to address the taxonomy and systematics of the group. Here we employ massively parallel sequencing of thousands of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) to provide both the most comprehensive subspecies-level phylogeny of Epinecrophylla antwrens...
Sun Mar 29, 2020 02:00
Sex and sexual differentiation are ubiquitous across the tree of life. Because females and males often have substantially different functional requirements, we would expect selection to differ between the sexes. Recent studies in diverse species, including humans, suggest sexually antagonistic viability selection creates allele frequency differences between the sexes at many different loci. However, theory and population-level simulations suggest that sex-specific differences in viability would need...
Sat Mar 28, 2020 02:00
A near-universal Standard Genetic Code (SGC) implies a single origin for Earthly life. To study this unique event, I compute paths to the SGC, comparing different plausible histories. SGC-like coding tables emerge from traditional evolutionary mechanisms, and a superior route can be identified. To objectively measure evolution, progress values from 0 (random coding) to 1 (SGC-like) are defined: these measure fractions of random-code-to-SGC distance. Progress types are spacing/distance/delta Polar...
Sat Mar 28, 2020 02:00
Mitochondrial calcium (mt-Ca2+) uptake is central for the regulation of numerous cellular processes in eukaryotes1. This occurs through a highly selective Ca2+ uniporter located at the inner mitochondrial membrane and driven by the membrane potential2-4. While the physiological role of the uniporter was extensively studied for decades, its genetic identity was only recently determined, with MCU5,6, MICU17 and EMRE8 constituting pore-forming and regulatory subunits. Preliminary evolutionary analyses...
Sat Mar 28, 2020 02:00
Mutations in cis-regulatory elements play important roles for phenotypic changes during evolution. Eye degeneration in the blind mole rat (BMR) and other subterranean mammals is significantly associated with widespread divergence of eye regulatory elements, but the effect of these regulatory mutations on eye development and function has not been explored. Here, we investigate the effect of mutations observed in the BMR sequence of a conserved non-coding element upstream of Tdrd7, a pleiotropic gene...
Sat Mar 28, 2020 02:00
Motivation: Species tree estimation is a basic part of biological research but can be challenging because of gene duplication and loss (GDL), which results in genes that can appear more than once in a given genome. All common approaches in phylogenomic studies either reduce available data or are error-prone, and thus, scalable methods that do not discard data and have high accuracy on large heterogeneous datasets are needed. Results: We present FastMulRFS, a polynomial-time method for estimating...
Sat Mar 28, 2020 02:00
Animals have developed numerous specialized biological characteristics due to selective pressure from the environment. The pygmy mole cricket Xya latreille has well-developed saltatorial hind legs for jumping and benefits for its survival, but these legs cannot be used for walking. Therefore, the typical tripedal gait used by most insects with six legs is not possible, and X. latreille walks exclusively using its fore and mid legs. In this study, we describe a "fore-mid" walking pattern in X. latreille....
Fri Mar 27, 2020 02:00
Hybrid zones provide a window into the evolutionary processes governing species divergence. While the role of postzygotic isolation has been extensively characterized, the contribution of prezygotic isolation is less well explored. In particular, the effect of mate choice mediated by preference learning such as self-recognition or imprinting remains largely elusive. Here, we present model-based simulations investigating the influence of the preference function, the genetic architecture of the mating...
Fri Mar 27, 2020 02:00
Experiments comparing native to introduced populations or distinct introduced populations to each other show that phenotypic evolution is common and often involves a suit of interacting phenotypic traits. We define such sets of traits that evolve in concert and contribute to the success of invasive populations as an "invasion syndrome". The invasive Harlequin ladybird Harmonia axyridis displays such an invasion syndrome with, for instance, females from invasive populations being larger and heavier...
Fri Mar 27, 2020 02:00
Understanding how and why rates of evolutionary diversification vary is a key issue in evolutionary biology, ecology, and biogeography, and the metaphorical concepts of adaptive radiation and evolutionary stasis describe two opposing aspects causing variation in diversification rates. Here we review the central concepts in the evolutionary diversification literature and synthesize these into a simple, general framework for studying rates of diversification and quantifying their underlying dynamics,...
Fri Mar 27, 2020 02:00
Hybrid zones, where distinct populations meet and interbreed, give insight into how differences between populations are maintained despite gene flow. Studying clines in genetic loci and adaptive traits across hybrid zones is a powerful method for understanding how selection drives differentiation within a single species, but can also be used to compare parallel divergence in different species responding to a common selective pressure. Here, we study parallel divergence of wing colouration in the...
Fri Mar 27, 2020 02:00
Evolution favors the emergence of locally-adapted optimum phenotypes that are likely to differ across a wide array of environmental conditions. The emergence of favorable adaptive characteristics is accelerated in agricultural pathogens due to the unique properties of agro-ecosystems. We performed a QST - FST comparison using 164 strains of Parastagonospora nodorum sampled from eight global field populations to disentangle the predominant evolutionary forces driving population divergence in a wheat...
Fri Mar 27, 2020 02:00
The breakdown of self-incompatibility (SI) in angiosperms is one of the most commonly observed evolutionary transitions. While multiple examples of SI breakdown have been documented in natural populations, there is strikingly little evidence of stable within-population polymorphism with both inbreeding (self-compatible) and outcrossing (self-incompatible) individuals. This absence of mating system polymorphism corroborates theoretical expectations that predict that in/outbreeding polymorphism is...
Fri Mar 27, 2020 02:00
Interspecific hybridization events have played a major role in plant speciation, yet, the evolutionary origin of hybrid species often remains enigmatic. Here, we inferred the evolutionary origin of the allotetraploid species Coffea arabica, which is widely cultivated for Arabica coffee production. We estimated genetic distances between C. arabica and all species that are known to be closely related to C. arabica using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) data. In addition, we reconstructed a time-calibrated...
Fri Mar 27, 2020 02:00
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