Project description:Inheritance and plasticity of epigenetic divergence characterise early stages of speciation in an incipient cichlid species of an African crater lake.
Project description:Genomes of closely-related species or populations often display localized regions of enhanced relative sequence divergence, termed genomic islands. It has been proposed that these islands arise through selective sweeps and/or barriers to gene flow. Here, we genetically dissect a genomic island that controls flower color pattern differences between two subspecies of Antirrhinum, A.m.striatum and A.m.pseudomajus, and relate it to clinal variation across a natural hybrid zone. We show that selective sweeps likely raised relative divergence at two tightly-linked MYB-like transcription factors, leading to distinct flower patterns in the two subspecies. The two patterns provide alternate floral guides and create a strong barrier to gene flow where populations come into contact. This barrier affects the selected flower color genes and tightly linked loci, but does not extend outside of this domain, allowing gene flow to lower relative divergence for the rest of the chromosome. Thus, both selective sweeps and barriers to gene flow play a role in shaping genomic islands: sweeps cause elevation in relative divergence while heterogeneous gene flow flattens the surrounding “sea”, making the island of divergence stand out. By showing how selective sweeps establish alternative adaptive phenotypes that lead to barriers to gene flow, our study sheds light on possible mechanisms leading to reproductive isolation and speciation.
Project description:Analysis of genomic divergence landscape in recurrently hybridising Chironomus sister taxa suggests stable steady-state between mutual gene-flow and isolation
Project description:Cichlids fishes exhibit extensive phenotypic diversification and speciation. In this study we integrate transcriptomic and proteomic signatures from two cichlids species, identify novel open reading frames (nORFs) and perform evolutionary analysis on these nORF regions. We embark comparative transrcriptomics and proteogenomic analysis of two metabolically active tissues, the testes and liver, of two cichlid species Oreochromis niloticus (Nile tilapia, ON) and Pundamilia nyererei (Makobe Island, PN). Our results suggest that the time scale of speciation of the two species can be better explained by the evolutionary divergence of these nORF genomic regions.
Project description:Gene-expression divergence between species shapes morphological evolution, but the molecular basis is largely unknown. Here we show cis- and trans-regulatory elements and chromatin modifications on gene-expression diversity in genetically tractable Arabidopsis allotetraploids. In Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabidopsis arenosa, both cis and trans with predominant cis-regulatory effects mediate gene-expression divergence. The majority of genes with both cis- and trans-effects are subjected to compensating interactions and stabilizing selection. Interestingly, chromatin modifications correlate with cis - and trans -regulation. In F1 allotetraploids, Arabidopsis arenosa trans factors predominately affect allelic expression divergence. Arabidopsis arenosa trans factors tend to upregulate Arabidopsis thaliana alleles, whereas Arabidopsis thaliana trans factors up- or down-regulate Arabidopsis arenosa alleles. In resynthesized and natural allotetraploids, trans effects drive expression of both homoeologous loci into the same direction. We provide evidence for natural selection and chromatin regulation in shaping gene-expression diversity during plant evolution and speciation. Examination of gene expression in 5 tetraploid Arabidopsis using mRNA-seq
Project description:Ecological speciation is a common mechanism by which new species arise. Despite great efforts, the role of gene expression in ecological divergence and speciation is poorly understood. Here, we conducted a genome-wide gene expression investigation of two Oryza species that are evolutionarily young and distinct in ecology and morphology. Using digital gene expression (DGE) technology and the paired-end RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) method, we obtained 21,415 expressed genes across three reproduction-related tissues at two critical developmental stages. Of them, ~8% (1717) differed significantly in expression levels between the two species and these differentially expressed genes are randomly distributed across the genome. Moreover, 62% (1064) of the differentially expressed genes exhibited a signature of directional selection in at least one species. Importantly, the genes with differential expression between species evolved more rapidly at the 5’flanking sequences than the genes without differential expression relative to coding sequences, suggesting that cis-regulatory changes are likely adaptive and play an important role in the ecological divergence of the two species. Finally, we showed evidence of significant differentiation between species in phenotype traits and observed that genes with differential expression were overrepresented with functional terms involving phenotypic and ecological differentiation between the two species, including reproduction- and stress-related characteristics. Our findings demonstrate that ecological speciation is associated with widespread and adaptive alterations in genome-wide gene expression and highlight the dominant role of regulatory evolution in ecological divergence and adaptation.
Project description:Ecological speciation is a common mechanism by which new species arise. Despite great efforts, the role of gene expression in ecological divergence and speciation is poorly understood. Here, we conducted a genome-wide gene expression investigation of two Oryza species that are evolutionarily young and distinct in ecology and morphology. Using digital gene expression (DGE) technology and the paired-end RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) method, we obtained 21,415 expressed genes across three reproduction-related tissues at two critical developmental stages. Of them, ~8% (1717) differed significantly in expression levels between the two species and these differentially expressed genes are randomly distributed across the genome. Moreover, 62% (1064) of the differentially expressed genes exhibited a signature of directional selection in at least one species. Importantly, the genes with differential expression between species evolved more rapidly at the 5â??flanking sequences than the genes without differential expression relative to coding sequences, suggesting that cis-regulatory changes are likely adaptive and play an important role in the ecological divergence of the two species. Finally, we showed evidence of significant differentiation between species in phenotype traits and observed that genes with differential expression were overrepresented with functional terms involving phenotypic and ecological differentiation between the two species, including reproduction- and stress-related characteristics. Our findings demonstrate that ecological speciation is associated with widespread and adaptive alterations in genome-wide gene expression and highlight the dominant role of regulatory evolution in ecological divergence and adaptation. We selected accessions representing typical Oryza rufipogon and O. nivara, which were sampled exclusively from South and Southeast Asia where the two species overlap. We chose to collect three types of tissues, i.e., flag leaves at the heading stage (2â??7 cm above the primary branch) (L), panicles at the heading stage (H) and panicles at the flowering stage (10â??15 cm above the primary branch) (F). Sample collection was repeated twice in two consecutive years (2009 and 2010) under the same controlled conditions. A total of 36 samples were sequenced by Illuminaâ??s digital gene expression (DGE) system, with each type of tissues collected from six individuals of each species as biological replicates. To access the quality of DGE technology, we also selected six samples representing three tissues from each of two individuals (one individual per species) for paired-end RNA-Seq sequencing.
Project description:Gene-expression divergence between species shapes morphological evolution, but the molecular basis is largely unknown. Here we show cis- and trans-regulatory elements and chromatin modifications on gene-expression diversity in genetically tractable Arabidopsis allotetraploids. In Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabidopsis arenosa, both cis and trans with predominant cis-regulatory effects mediate gene-expression divergence. The majority of genes with both cis- and trans-effects are subjected to compensating interactions and stabilizing selection. Interestingly, chromatin modifications correlate with cis - and trans -regulation. In F1 allotetraploids, Arabidopsis arenosa trans factors predominately affect allelic expression divergence. Arabidopsis arenosa trans factors tend to upregulate Arabidopsis thaliana alleles, whereas Arabidopsis thaliana trans factors up- or down-regulate Arabidopsis arenosa alleles. In resynthesized and natural allotetraploids, trans effects drive expression of both homoeologous loci into the same direction. We provide evidence for natural selection and chromatin regulation in shaping gene-expression diversity during plant evolution and speciation.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE16581: Genomic landscape of meningiomas: gene expression GSE16583: Genomic landscape of meningiomas: genotyping Refer to individual Series