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The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the evolutionary forces that influence sexual dimorphism is a fundamental goal in biology. Here, we focus on one particularly extreme example of sexual dimorphism. Many mammal species possess a bone in their penis called a baculum. The female equivalent of this bone is called the baubellum and occurs in the clitoris, which is developmentally homologous to the male penis. To understand the potential linkage between these two structures, we scored baculum/baubellum presence/absence across 163 species and analyzed their distribution in a phylogenetic framework. The majority of species (N = 134) shared the same state in males and females (both baculum and baubellum present or absent). However, the baubellum has experienced significantly more transitions, and more recent transitions, so that the remaining 29 species have a baculum but not a well-developed baubellum. Even in species where both bones are present, the baubellum shows more ontogenetic variability and harbors more morphological variation than the baculum. Our study demonstrates that the baculum and baubellum are generally correlated across mammals, but that the baubellum is more evolutionarily and developmentally labile than the baculum. The accumulation of more evolutionary transitions, especially losses in the baubellum, as well as noisier developmental patterns, suggests that the baubellum may be nonfunctional, and lost over time.

SUBMITTER: Lough-Stevens M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5773289 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum.

Lough-Stevens Michael M Schultz Nicholas G NG Dean Matthew D MD

Ecology and evolution 20171220 2

Understanding the evolutionary forces that influence sexual dimorphism is a fundamental goal in biology. Here, we focus on one particularly extreme example of sexual dimorphism. Many mammal species possess a bone in their penis called a baculum. The female equivalent of this bone is called the baubellum and occurs in the clitoris, which is developmentally homologous to the male penis. To understand the potential linkage between these two structures, we scored baculum/baubellum presence/absence a ...[more]

PMID: 29375780

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Project description:BackgroundSalt tolerance in plants is rare, yet it is found across a diverse set of taxonomic groups. This suggests that, although salt tolerance often involves a set of complex traits, it has evolved many times independently in different angiosperm lineages. However, the pattern of evolution of salt tolerance can vary dramatically between families. A recent phylogenetic study of the Chenopodiaceae (goosefoot family) concluded that salt tolerance has a conserved evolutionary pattern, being gained early in the evolution of the lineage then retained by most species in the family. Conversely, a phylogenetic study of the Poaceae (grass family) suggested over 70 independent gains of salt tolerance, most giving rise to only one or a few salt tolerant species. Here, we use a phylogenetic approach to explore the macroevolutionary patterns of salt tolerance in a sample of angiosperm families, in order to ask whether either of these two patterns - deep and conserved or shallow and labile - represents a common mode of salt tolerance evolution. We analyze the distribution of halophyte species across the angiosperms and identify families with more or less halophytes than expected under a random model. Then, we explore the phylogenetic distribution of halophytes in 22 families using phylogenetic comparative methods.ResultsWe find that salt tolerance species have been reported from over one-third of angiosperm families, but that salt tolerant species are not distributed evenly across angiosperm families. We find that salt tolerance has been gained hundreds of times over the history of the angiosperms. In a few families, we find deep and conserved gains of salt tolerance, but in the majority of families analyzed, we find that the pattern of salt tolerant species is best explained by multiple independent gains that occur near the tips of the phylogeny and often give rise to only one or a few halophytes.ConclusionsOur results suggest that the pattern of many independent gains of salt tolerance near the tips of the phylogeny is found in many angiosperm families. This suggests that the pattern reported in the grasses of high evolutionary lability may be a common feature of salt tolerance evolution in angiosperms.

Dataset Information

The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum.

Publications

The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum.

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