Dataset Information

Contradicting habitat type-extinction risk relationships between living and fossil amphibians.

ABSTRACT: Trait analysis has become a crucial tool for assessing the extinction risk of species. While some extinction risk-trait relationships have been often identical between different living taxa, a temporal comparison of fossil taxa with related current taxa was rarely considered. However, we argue that it is important to know if extinction risk-trait relations are constant or changing over time. Herein we investigated the influence of habitat type on the persistence length of amphibian species. Living amphibians are regarded as the most threatened group of terrestrial vertebrates and thus of high interest to conservationists. Species from different habitat types show differences in extinction risk, i.e. species depending on flowing waters being more threatened than those breeding in stagnant sites. After assessing the quality of the available amphibian fossil data, we show that today's habitat type-extinction risk relationship is reversed compared to fossil amphibians, former taxa persisting longer when living in rivers and streams, thus suggesting a change of effect direction of this trait. Neither differences between amphibian orders nor environmentally caused preservation effects could explain this pattern. We argue this change to be most likely a result of anthropogenic influence, which turned a once favourable strategy into a disadvantage.

SUBMITTER: Tietje M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5451811 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Contradicting habitat type-extinction risk relationships between living and fossil amphibians.

Tietje Melanie M Rödel Mark-Oliver MO

Royal Society open science 20170510 5

Trait analysis has become a crucial tool for assessing the extinction risk of species. While some extinction risk-trait relationships have been often identical between different living taxa, a temporal comparison of fossil taxa with related current taxa was rarely considered. However, we argue that it is important to know if extinction risk-trait relations are constant or changing over time. Herein we investigated the influence of habitat type on the persistence length of amphibian species. Livi ...[more]

PMID: 28573010

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Project description:Emerging data from the coelacanth genome are beginning to shed light on the origin and evolution of tetrapod genes and noncoding elements. Of particular relevance is the realization that coelacanth retains active copies of transposable elements that once served as raw material for the evolution of new functional sequences in the vertebrate lineage. Recognizing the evolutionary significance of coelacanth genome in this regard, we employed an ab initio search strategy to further classify its repetitive complement. This analysis uncovered a class of interspersed elements (Latimeria Harbinger 1-LatiHarb1) that is a major contributor to coelacanth genome structure and gene content (?1% to 4% or the genome). Sequence analyses indicate that 1) each ?8.7 kb LatiHarb1 element contains two coding regions, a transposase gene and a gene whose function is as yet unknown (MYB-like) and 2) copies of LatiHarb1 retain biological activity in the coelacanth genome. Functional analyses verify transcriptional and enhancer activities of LatiHarb1 in vivo and reveal transcriptional decoupling that could permit MYB-like genes to play functional roles not directly linked to transposition. Thus, LatiHarb1 represents the first known instance of a harbinger-superfamily transposon with contemporary activity in a vertebrate genome. Analyses of LatiHarb1 further corroborate the notion that exaptation of anciently active harbinger elements gave rise to at least two vertebrate genes (harbi1 and naif1) and indicate that the vertebrate gene tsnare1 also traces its ancestry to this transposon superfamily. Based on our analyses of LatiHarb1, we speculate that several functional features of harbinger elements may predispose the transposon superfamily toward recurrent exaptive evolution of cellular coding genes. In addition, these analyses further reinforce the broad utility of the coelacanth genome and other "outgroup" genomes in understanding the ancestry and evolution of vertebrate genes and genomes.

Dataset Information

Contradicting habitat type-extinction risk relationships between living and fossil amphibians.

Publications

Contradicting habitat type-extinction risk relationships between living and fossil amphibians.

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