Project description:The evolutionary transition of multicellular life initially involves growth in groups of undifferentiated cells followed by differentiation into soma and germ-like cells. This is facilitated by trade-offs between traits determining survival and reproduction, favoring the coexistence of cells with extreme trait values and a convex trade-off curve as the multicellular state dominates. However, these transitions remain poorly characterized at the ecological and genetic level. Here, we studied the evolution of cell groups in ten isogenic lines of the unicellular green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with prolonged exposure to a rotifer predator. We confirmed that this trait was heritable and characterized by a convex trade-off curve between reproduction and survival. Identical mutations evolved in all cell group isolates which were linked to survival and reducing associated cell costs. Overall, we show that just 500 generations of predator selection is sufficient to lead to a convex trade-off and incorporate evolved changes into the prey genome.
Project description:The hypothesis that increased fitness within a selective environment must be accompanied by a loss of fitness in other non-selective environments leads to the notion of evolutionary tradeoffs. Experimental evolution provides an approach to test the existence of evolutionary tradeoffs, characterize their general quality, and reveal their genetic origins. To examine the underlying mechanism for a fitness trade-off, we constructed the evolutionary trajectories of Escherichia coli K-12 at increasing temperatures up to 45.3°C, and found diverging mutational histories that led to adaptive phenotypes with and without fitness trade-offs at low temperatures. We identified genetic changes in cellular respiration, iron metabolism and methionine biosynthesis that regulated gene expression to achieve thermal adaptation and determined the presence and absence of a fitness trade-off. Our results suggested that evolutionary trade-off could be generated by a regulatory protein mutation that was beneficial in the selective conditions but forced suboptimal proteome allocation under non-selective environments.
Project description:It has long been recognized that species occupy a specific ecological niche within their ecosystem. The ecological niche is defined as the number of conditions and resources that limit species distribution. Within their ecological niche, species do not exist in a single physiological state but in a number of states we call the Natural Operating Range. In this paper we link ecological niche theory to physiological ecology by measuring gene expression levels of collembolans exposed to various natural conditions. The soil-dwelling collembolan Folsomia candida was exposed to 26 natural soils with different soil characteristics (soil type, land use, practice, etc). The animals were exposed for two days and gene expression levels were measured. The main factor found to regulate gene expression was the soil type (sand or clay), in which 18.5% of the measured genes were differentially expressed. Gene Ontology analysis showed animals exposed to sandy soils experience general stress, affecting cell homeostasis and replication. Multivariate analysis linking soil chemical data to gene expression data revealed that soil fertility influences gene expression. Land-use and practice had less influence on gene expression; only forest soils showed a different expression pattern. A variation in gene expression variation analysis showed overall low variance in gene expression. The large difference in response to soil type was caused by the soil physicochemical properties where F. candida experiences clay soils and sandy soils as very different from each other. This collembolan prefers fertile soils with high organic matter content, as soil fertility was found to correlate with gene expression and animals exposed to sandy soils (which, in general, have lower organic matter content) experience more general stress. Finally, we conclude that there is no such thing as a fixed physiological state for animals in their ecological niche and the boundary between the ecological niche and a stressed state depends on the genes/pathways investigated.
Project description:Exploring molecular details of carbon utilization trade-offs in galactose-evolved yeast Adaptively evolved yeast mutants on galactose for around 400 generations showed diminished growth and carbon uptake rates on glucose. Genome-scale approaches were applied to characterize the molecular genetic basis of these trade-offs in carbon source utilization. Engineered mutants showing trade-offs in a specific carbon uptake rate between both carbons were used as controls. The transcriptional responses of the evolved mutants were almost identical during growth on both carbon sources. These carbon-independent conserved patterns were clearly observed in specific pathways and genes. Up-regulation of PGM2, a confirmed beneficial genetic change for improving galactose utilization was preserved on both carbons. In addition, HXK1, GLK1 and genes involved in reserve carbohydrate metabolism were up-regulated, while HXK2 was down-regulated. Genes that have a transcription factor binding site for Gis1p, Rph1p, Msn2/4p and Nrg1p were up-regulated. These results indicated changes in the metabolic pathways involved in metabolism of both carbons and in nutrient signaling pathway. The concentration profile of trehalose and glycogen supported these findings. Mutations in RAS2 and ERG5 genes were selected because of their beneficial and neutral effect on galactose utilization, respectively in our previous study. Site-directed mutants containing galactose-beneficial mutations in RAS2 only resulted in a significant decrease in glucose utilization. Integration of all these analyses clearly suggest an antagonistic pleiotropic trade-off in carbon source utilization caused by changes in regulatory region, and we hereby demonstrate how systems biology can be used to gain insight into evolutionary processes at the molecular level. Yeast galactose evolved mutants having improved galactose availability were grown on aerobic batch with glucose as carbon source