Dataset Information

Nuclear gene variation in wild brown rats.

ABSTRACT: Although the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) is widely used as a model mammal throughout biological sciences, little is known about genetic variation in wild rat populations or the relationship of commonly used inbred strains to their wild relatives. We sampled wild brown rats from the species' presumed ancestral range in NW China and from a derived population in the UK and estimated nucleotide diversity and population subdivision, based on the sequences of 30 autosomal protein-coding loci. Neutral genetic diversity was close to 0.2% in both populations, which is about five times lower than diversity at the orthologous sites in a population of wild house mice from the species' putative ancestral range in India. We found significant population differentiation between UK and Chinese populations, as assessed by F(st) and the program STRUCTURE. Based on synonymous diversity and divergence between the brown rat and house mouse, we estimate that the recent effective population size in brown rats is approximately 130,000 (approximate 95% confidence interval 85,000-184,000), about fivefold lower than wild house mice.

SUBMITTER: Ness RW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3516487 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Nuclear gene variation in wild brown rats.

Ness Rob W RW Zhang Yao-Hua YH Cong Lin L Wang Yu Y Zhang Jian-Xu JX Keightley Peter D PD

G3 (Bethesda, Md.) 20121201 12

Although the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) is widely used as a model mammal throughout biological sciences, little is known about genetic variation in wild rat populations or the relationship of commonly used inbred strains to their wild relatives. We sampled wild brown rats from the species' presumed ancestral range in NW China and from a derived population in the UK and estimated nucleotide diversity and population subdivision, based on the sequences of 30 autosomal protein-coding loci. Neutra ...[more]

PMID: 23275888

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Recent genomic studies have drastically altered our knowledge of polyploid evolution. Wild potatoes (Solanum section Petota) are a highly diverse and economically important group of about 100 species widely distributed throughout the Americas. Thirty-six percent of the species in section Petota are polyploid or with diploid and polyploid cytotypes. However, the group is poorly understood at the genomic level and the series is ideal to study polyploid evolution. Two separate studies using the nuclear orthologs GBSSI and nitrate reductase confirmed prior hypotheses of polyploid origins in potato and have shown new origins not proposed before. These studies have been limited, however, by the use of few accessions per polyploid species and by low taxonomic resolution, providing clade-specific, but not species-specific origins within clades. The purpose of the present study is to use six nuclear orthologs, within 54 accessions of 11 polyploid species, 34 accessions of 29 diploid species of section Petota representing their putative progenitors, and two outgroups, to see if phenomena typical of other polyploid groups occur within wild potatoes, to include multiple origins, loss of alleles, or gain of new alleles. RESULTS: Our results increase resolution within clades, giving better ideas of diploid progenitors, and show unexpected complexity of allele sharing within clades. While some species have little diversity among accessions and concur with the GBSSI and nitrate reductase results, such as S. agrimonifolium, S. colombianum, S. hjertingii, and S. moscopanum, the results give much better resolution of species-specific progenitors. Seven other species, however, show variant patterns of allele distributions suggesting multiple origins and allele loss. Complex three-genome origins are supported for S. hougasii, and S. schenckii, and one of the ten accessions of S. stoloniferum. A very unexpected shared presence of alleles occurs within one clade of S. verrucosum from Central America, and S. berthaultii from South America in six polyploid species S. demissum, S. hjertingii, S. hougasii, S. iopetalum, S. schenckii, and S. stoloniferum. CONCLUSIONS: Our results document considerable genomic complexity of some wild potato polyploids. These can be explained by multiple hybrid origins and allele losses that provide a clear biological explanation for the taxonomic complexity in wild potato polyploids. These results are of theoretical and practical benefit to potato breeders, and add to a growing body of evidence showing considerable complexity in polyploid plants in general.

Dataset Information

Nuclear gene variation in wild brown rats.

Publications

Nuclear gene variation in wild brown rats.

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