Dataset Information

Family quarrels in seeds and rapid adaptive evolution in Arabidopsis.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary conflict can drive rapid adaptive evolution, sometimes called an arms race, because each party needs to respond continually to the adaptations of the other. Evidence for such arms races can sometimes be seen in morphology, in behavior, or in the genes underlying sexual interactions of host-pathogen interactions, but is rarely predicted a priori. Kin selection theory predicts that conflicts of interest should usually be reduced but not eliminated among genetic relatives, but there is little evidence as to whether conflict within families can drive rapid adaptation. Here we test multiple predictions about how conflict over the amount of resources an offspring receives from its parent would drive rapid molecular evolution in seed tissues of the flowering plant Arabidopsis As predicted, there is more adaptive evolution in genes expressed in Arabidopsis seeds than in other specialized organs, more in endosperms and maternal tissues than in embryos, and more in the specific subtissues involved in nutrient transfer. In the absence of credible alternative hypotheses, these results suggest that kin selection and conflict are important in plants, that the conflict includes not just the mother and offspring but also the triploid endosperm, and that, despite the conflict-reducing role of kinship, family members can engage in slow but steady tortoise-like arms races.

SUBMITTER: Geist KS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6510989 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Family quarrels in seeds and rapid adaptive evolution in <i>Arabidopsis</i>.

Geist Katherine S KS Strassmann Joan E JE Queller David C DC

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20190425 19

Evolutionary conflict can drive rapid adaptive evolution, sometimes called an arms race, because each party needs to respond continually to the adaptations of the other. Evidence for such arms races can sometimes be seen in morphology, in behavior, or in the genes underlying sexual interactions of host-pathogen interactions, but is rarely predicted a priori. Kin selection theory predicts that conflicts of interest should usually be reduced but not eliminated among genetic relatives, but there is ...[more]

PMID: 31023888

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Project description:BACKGROUND: The arylamine N-acetyltransferases (NATs) are a unique family of enzymes widely distributed in nature that play a crucial role in the detoxification of aromatic amine xenobiotics. Considering the temporal changes in the levels and toxicity of environmentally available chemicals, the metabolic function of NATs is likely to be under adaptive evolution to broaden or change substrate specificity over time, making NATs a promising subject for evolutionary analyses. In this study, we trace the molecular evolutionary history of the NAT gene family during the last ~450 million years of vertebrate evolution and define the likely role of gene duplication, gene conversion and positive selection in the evolutionary dynamics of this family. RESULTS: A phylogenetic analysis of 77 NAT sequences from 38 vertebrate species retrieved from public genomic databases shows that NATs are phylogenetically unstable genes, characterized by frequent gene duplications and losses even among closely related species, and that concerted evolution only played a minor role in the patterns of sequence divergence. Local signals of positive selection are detected in several lineages, probably reflecting response to changes in xenobiotic exposure. We then put a special emphasis on the study of the last ~85 million years of primate NAT evolution by determining the NAT homologous sequences in 13 additional primate species. Our phylogenetic analysis supports the view that the three human NAT genes emerged from a first duplication event in the common ancestor of Simiiformes, yielding NAT1 and an ancestral NAT gene which in turn, duplicated in the common ancestor of Catarrhini, giving rise to NAT2 and the NATP pseudogene. Our analysis suggests a main role of purifying selection in NAT1 protein evolution, whereas NAT2 was predicted to mostly evolve under positive selection to change its amino acid sequence over time. These findings are consistent with a differential role of the two human isoenzymes and support the involvement of NAT1 in endogenous metabolic pathways. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides unequivocal evidence that the NAT gene family has evolved under a dynamic process of birth-and-death evolution in vertebrates, consistent with previous observations made in fungi.

Dataset Information

Family quarrels in seeds and rapid adaptive evolution in Arabidopsis.

Publications

Family quarrels in seeds and rapid adaptive evolution in <i>Arabidopsis</i>.

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