Dataset Information

Patterns of linkage disequilibrium and long range hitchhiking in evolving experimental Drosophila melanogaster populations.

ABSTRACT: Whole-genome resequencing of experimental populations evolving under a specific selection regime has become a popular approach to determine genotype-phenotype maps and understand adaptation to new environments. Despite its conceptual appeal and success in identifying some causative genes, it has become apparent that many studies suffer from an excess of candidate loci. Several explanations have been proposed for this phenomenon, but it is clear that information about the linkage structure during such experiments is needed. Until now only Pool-Seq (whole-genome sequencing of pools of individuals) data were available, which do not provide sufficient information about the correlation between linked sites. We address this problem in two complementary analyses of three replicate Drosophila melanogaster populations evolving to a new hot temperature environment for almost 70 generations. In the first analysis, we sequenced 58 haploid genomes from the founder population and evolved flies at generation 67. We show that during the experiment linkage disequilibrium (LD) increased almost uniformly over much greater distances than typically seen in Drosophila. In the second analysis, Pool-Seq time series data of the three replicates were combined with haplotype information from the founder population to follow blocks of initial haplotypes over time. We identified 17 selected haplotype-blocks that started at low frequencies in the base population and increased in frequency during the experiment. The size of these haplotype-blocks ranged from 0.082 to 4.01 Mb. Moreover, between 42% and 46% of the top candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms from the comparison of founder and evolved populations fell into the genomic region covered by the haplotype-blocks. We conclude that LD in such rising haplotype-blocks results in long range hitchhiking over multiple kilobase-sized regions. LD in such haplotype-blocks is therefore a major factor contributing to an excess of candidate loci. Although modifications of the experimental design may help to reduce the hitchhiking effect and allow for more precise mapping of causative variants, we also note that such haplotype-blocks might be well suited to study the dynamics of selected genomic regions during experimental evolution studies.

SUBMITTER: Franssen SU

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4298179 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Patterns of linkage disequilibrium and long range hitchhiking in evolving experimental Drosophila melanogaster populations.

Franssen Susanne U SU Nolte Viola V Tobler Ray R Schlötterer Christian C

Molecular biology and evolution 20141117 2

Whole-genome resequencing of experimental populations evolving under a specific selection regime has become a popular approach to determine genotype-phenotype maps and understand adaptation to new environments. Despite its conceptual appeal and success in identifying some causative genes, it has become apparent that many studies suffer from an excess of candidate loci. Several explanations have been proposed for this phenomenon, but it is clear that information about the linkage structure during ...[more]

PMID: 25415966

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Project description:Linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis provides information on the evolutionary aspects of populations. Recently, haplotype blocks have been used to increase the power of quantitative trait loci detection in genome-wide association studies and the prediction accuracy of genomic selection. Our objectives were as follows: to compare the degree of LD, LD decay, and LD decay extent in popcorn populations; to characterize the number and length of haplotype blocks in the populations; and to determine whether maize chromosomes also have a pattern of interspaced regions of high and low rates of recombination. We used a biparental population, a synthetic, and a breeding population, genotyped for approximately 75,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The sample size ranged from 190 to 192 plants. For the whole-genome LD and haplotype block analyses, we assumed a window of 500 kb. To characterize the block and step patterns of LD in the populations, we constructed LD maps by chromosome, defining a cold spot as a chromosome segment including SNPs with the same LDU position. The LD and haplotype block analyses were also performed at the intragenic level, selecting 12 genes related to zein, starch, cellulose, and fatty acid biosynthesis. The populations with the higher and lower frequencies of |D'| values greater than 0.75 were the biparental (65-74%) and the breeding population (26-58%), respectively. There were slight differences between the populations regarding the average distance for SNPs with |D'| values greater than 0.75 (in the range of approximately 207 to 229 kb). The level of LD expressed by the r2 values was low in the populations (0.02, 0.04, and 0.04, on average) but comparable to some non-isolated human populations. The frequency of r2 values greater than 0.75 was lower in the biparental population (0.2-0.5%) and higher in the other populations (0.2-1.6%). The average distance for SNPs with r2 values greater than 0.75 was much higher in the biparental population (approximately 80 to 126 kb). In the other populations, the ranges were approximately 6 to 19 and 6 to 35 kb. The heatmaps for the regions covered by the first 100 SNPs in each chromosome, in each population (1 to 3.3 Mb, approximately), provided evidence that the comparatively few high r2 values (close to 1.0) occurred only for SNPs in close proximity, especially in the synthetic and breeding populations. Due to the reduced number of SNPs in the haplotype blocks (2 to 3) in the populations, it is not expected advantage of a haplotype-based association study as well as genomic selection along generations. The results concerning LD decay (rapid decay after 5-10 kb) and LD decay extent (along up to 300 kb) are in the range observed with maize inbred line panels. The LD maps indicate that maize chromosomes had a pattern of regions of extensive LD interspaced with regions of low LD. However, our simulated LD map provides evidence that this pattern can reflect regions with differences in allele frequencies and LD levels (expressed by |D'|) and not regions with high and low rates of recombination.

Dataset Information

Patterns of linkage disequilibrium and long range hitchhiking in evolving experimental Drosophila melanogaster populations.

Publications

Patterns of linkage disequilibrium and long range hitchhiking in evolving experimental Drosophila melanogaster populations.

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