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Is speciation accompanied by rapid evolution? Insights from comparing reproductive and nonreproductive transcriptomes in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: The tempo and mode of evolutionary change during speciation have remained contentious until recently. While much of the evidence claiming speciation is an abrupt and rapid process comes from fossil data, recent molecular phylogenetics show that the background of gradual evolution is often broken by accelerated rates of molecular evolution during speciation. However, what kinds of genes affect or are affected by speciation remains unexplored. Our analysis of 4843 protein-coding genes in five species of the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup shows that while ~70% of genes follow clock-like evolution, between 17-19.67% of loci show signatures of accelerated rates of evolution in recently formed species. These genes show 2-3-fold higher rates of substitution in recently diverged species compared to older species. This fraction of loci affects a diverse range of functions. Only a small proportion of reproductive genes experience speciation-related accelerated changes but many sex-and -reproduction related genes show an interesting pattern of persistent rapid evolution suggesting that sex-and-reproduction related genes are under constant selective pressures. The identification of loci associated with accelerated evolution allows us to address the mechanisms of rapid evolution and speciation, which in our study appears to be a combination of both selection and rapid demographical changes.

SUBMITTER: Jagadeeshan S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3159995 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:A general trend observed in animal skeletomes-the proteins occluded in animal skeletons-is the copresence of taxonomically widespread and lineage-specific proteins that actively regulate the biomineralization process. Among cnidarians, the skeletomes of scleractinian corals have been shown to follow this trend. However, distributions and phylogenetic analyses of biomineralization-related genes are often based on only a few species, with other anthozoan calcifiers such as octocorals (soft corals), not being fully considered. We de novo assembled the transcriptomes of four soft-coral species characterized by different calcification strategies (aragonite skeleton vs. calcitic sclerites) and data-mined published nonbilaterian transcriptome resources to construct a taxonomically comprehensive sequence database to map the distribution of scleractinian and octocoral skeletome components. Cnidaria shared no skeletome proteins with Placozoa or Ctenophora, but did share some skeletome proteins with Porifera, such as galaxin-related proteins. Within Scleractinia and Octocorallia, we expanded the distribution for several taxonomically restricted genes such as secreted acidic proteins, scleritin, and carbonic anhydrases, and propose an early, single biomineralization-recruitment event for galaxin sensu stricto. Additionally, we show that the enrichment of acidic residues within skeletogenic proteins did not occur at the Corallimorpharia-Scleractinia transition, but appears to be associated with protein secretion into the organic matrix. Finally, the distribution of octocoral calcification-related proteins appears independent of skeleton mineralogy (i.e., aragonite/calcite) with no differences in the proportion of shared skeletogenic proteins between scleractinians and aragonitic or calcitic octocorals. This points to skeletome homogeneity within but not between groups of calcifying cnidarians, although some proteins such as galaxins and SCRiP-3a could represent instances of commonality.

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Is speciation accompanied by rapid evolution? Insights from comparing reproductive and nonreproductive transcriptomes in Drosophila.

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