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Genetic hitchhiking in a subdivided population of Mytilus edulis.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Few models of genetic hitchhiking in subdivided populations have been developed and the rarity of empirical examples is even more striking. We here provide evidences of genetic hitchhiking in a subdivided population of the marine mussel Mytilus edulis. In the Bay of Biscay (France), a patch of M. edulis populations happens to be separated from its North Sea conspecifics by a wide region occupied only by the sister species M. galloprovincialis. Although genetic differentiation between the two M. edulis regions is largely non-significant at ten marker loci (average FST~0.007), a strong genetic differentiation is observed at a single locus (FST = 0.25). We validated the outlier status of this locus, and analysed DNA sequence polymorphism in order to identify the nature of the selection responsible for the unusual differentiation. RESULTS: We first showed that introgression of M. galloprovincialis alleles was very weak in both populations and did not significantly affect their differentiation. Secondly, we observed the genetic signature of a selective sweep within both M. edulis populations in the form of a star-shaped clade of alleles. This clade was nearly fixed in the North Sea and was segregating at a moderate frequency in the Bay of Biscay, explaining their genetic differentiation. Incomplete fixation reveals that selection was not direct on the locus but that the studied sequence recombined with a positively selected allele at a linked locus while it was on its way to fixation. Finally, using a deterministic model we showed that the wave of advance of a favourable allele at a linked locus, when crossing a strong enough barrier to gene flow, generates a step in neutral allele frequencies comparable to the step observed between the two M. edulis populations at the outlier locus. In our case, the position of the barrier is now materialised by a large patch of heterospecific M. galloprovincialis populations. CONCLUSION: High FST outlier loci are usually interpreted as being the consequence of ongoing divergent local adaptation. Combining models and data we show that among-population differentiation can also dramatically increase following a selective sweep in a structured population. Our study illustrates how a striking geographical pattern of neutral diversity can emerge from past indirect hitchhiking selection in a structured population. NOTE: Nucleotide sequences reported in this paper are available in the GenBanktrade mark database under the accession numbers EU684165 - EU684228.

SUBMITTER: Faure MF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2459173 | biostudies-literature | 2008

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Genetic hitchhiking in a subdivided population of Mytilus edulis.

Faure Matthieu F MF David Patrice P Bonhomme François F Bierne Nicolas N

BMC evolutionary biology 20080530

<h4>Background</h4>Few models of genetic hitchhiking in subdivided populations have been developed and the rarity of empirical examples is even more striking. We here provide evidences of genetic hitchhiking in a subdivided population of the marine mussel Mytilus edulis. In the Bay of Biscay (France), a patch of M. edulis populations happens to be separated from its North Sea conspecifics by a wide region occupied only by the sister species M. galloprovincialis. Although genetic differentiation ...[more]

PMID: 18513403

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Project description:Study of the genetic basis of gene expression variation is central to attempts to understand the causes of evolutionary change. Although there are many transcriptomics studies estimating genetic variance and heritability in model organisms such as humans there is a lack of equivalent proteomics studies. In the present study, the heritability underlying egg protein expression was estimated in the marine mussel Mytilus. We believe this to be the first such measurement of genetic variation for gene expression in eggs of any organism. The study of eggs is important in evolutionary theory and life history analysis because maternal effects might have profound effects on the rate of evolution of offspring traits. Evidence is presented that the egg proteome varies significantly between individual females and that heritability of protein expression in mussel eggs is moderate to high suggesting abundant genetic variation on which natural selection might act. The study of the mussel egg proteome is also important because of the unusual system of mitochondrial DNA inheritance in mussels whereby different mitochondrial genomes are transmitted independently through female and male lineages (doubly uniparental inheritance). It is likely that the mechanism underlying this system involves the interaction of specific egg factors with sperm mitochondria following fertilization, and its elucidation might be advanced by study of the proteome in females having different progeny sex ratios. Putative identifications are presented here for egg proteins using MS/MS in Mytilus lines differing in sex ratio. Ontology terms relating to stress response and protein folding occur more frequently for proteins showing large expression differences between the lines. The distribution of ontology terms in mussel eggs was compared with those for previous mussel proteomics studies (using other tissues) and with mammal eggs. Significant differences were observed between mussel eggs and mussel tissues but not between the two types of eggs.

Dataset Information

Genetic hitchhiking in a subdivided population of Mytilus edulis.

Publications

Genetic hitchhiking in a subdivided population of Mytilus edulis.

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