Project description:Background The evolution of female choice mechanisms favouring males of their own kind is considered as crucial step during the early stages of speciation. However, although the genomics of mate choice may influence both the likelihood and speed of speciation, the identity and location of genes underlying assortative mating remain largely unknown. Methods and Findings We used mate choice experiments and gene expression analysis of female D. melanogaster to examine three key components influencing speciation. We show that the 1,498 genes in Zimbabwean female Drosophila melanogaster whose expression levels differ when mating with more (Zimbabwean) versus less (Cosmopolitan strain) preferred males include many with high expression in the central nervous system and ovaries, are disproportionately X-linked and form a number of clusters with low recombination distance. Significant involvement of the brain and ovaries is consistent with the action of a combination of pre- and postcopulatory female choice mechanisms, while sex linkage and clustering of genes lead to high potential evolutionary rate and sheltering against the homogenizing effects of gene exchange between populations. Conclusion Taken together our results imply favourable genomic conditions for the evolution of reproductive isolation through mate choice in Zimbabwean D. melanogaster and suggest that mate choice may, in general, act as an even more important engine of speciation than previously realized.
Project description:Mate choice plays a fundamental role in speciation, yet we know little about the molecular mechanisms that underpin this crucial decision-making process. Stickleback fish differentially adapted to limnetic and benthic habitats are reproductively isolated and females of each species use different male traits to evaluate prospective partners and reject heterospecific males. Here, we integrate behavioral data from a mate choice experiment with gene expression profiles from the brains of females actively deciding whether to mate. We find substantial gene expression variation between limnetic and benthic females, regardless of behavioral context, suggesting general divergence in constitutive gene expression patterns, corresponding to their genetic differentiation. Intriguingly, female gene co-expression modules covary with male display traits but in opposing directions for sympatric populations of the two species, suggesting male displays elicit a dynamic neurogenomic response that reflects known differences in female preferences. Furthermore, we confirm the role of numerous candidate genes previously implicated in female mate choice in other species, suggesting that evolutionary tinkering with these conserved molecular processes underlies divergent mate preferences and sexual isolation. Taken together, our study adds important new insights to our understanding of the molecular processes underlying female decision-making critical for generating sexual isolation and speciation.
Project description:Social interactions can drive distinct gene expression profiles which may vary by social context. Here we use female sailfin molly fish (Poecilia latipinna) to identify genomic profiles associated with preference behavior in distinct social contexts: male-interactions (mate choice) versus female-interactions (shoaling partner preference). We measured behavior of 15 females interacting in a non-contact environment with either two males or two females for 30 minutes followed by whole brain transcriptomic profiling by RNA sequencing. We profiled females that exhibited high levels of social affiliation and great variation in preference behavior to identify an order of magnitude more differentially expressed genes associated with behavioral variation than by differences in social context. Using linear modeling (limma), we took advantage of the individual variation in preference behavior to identify unique gene sets that exhibited distinct correlational patterns of expression with preference behavior in each social context. By combining limma and weighted gene co-expression network analyses (WGCNA) approaches we identify a refined set of 401 genes robustly associated with mate preference that is independent of shoaling partner preference or general social affiliation. While our refined gene set confirmed neural plasticity pathways involved in moderating female preference behavior, we also identified a significant proportion of discovered that our preference-associated genes were enriched for ‘immune system’ gene ontology categories. We hypothesize that the association between mate preference and transcriptomic immune function is driven by the less well-known role of these genes in neural plasticity which is likely involved in higher-order learning and processing during mate choice decisions.
Project description:Mate pair sequencing for the detection of chromosomal aberrations in patients with intellectual disability and congenital malformations
Project description:Copy number variants (CNVs) are a major source of genetic variation in human health and disease. Previous studies have suggested replication stress, such as that caused by the polymerase inhibitor aphidicolin, as a causative factor in CNV formation, but existing data are technically limited in the quality of the comparisons which can be made to experimentally induced variants. Here we used 1M feature single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays and mate-pair sequencing as high resolution methods for characterizing CNVs in a common set of samples, to compare both the properties of constitutional and induced CNVs as well as the utility of the two methods in an experimental setting. Although the optimized methods provided complementary information, sequencing was more sensitive to small variants and provided superior structural descriptions that allowed some CNVs to be associated with inversions, ectopic duplications or LINE insertions. The majority of constitutional and all aphidicolin-induced CNVs appear to be formed via homology-independent mechanisms, while aphidicolin-induced CNVs were of a larger median size than constitutional events even when mate-pair data were considered. Aphidicolin thus appears to stimulate formation of CNVs that closely resemble human pathogenic CNVs and the subset of larger nonhomologous constitutional CNVs.
Project description:The evolution of female choice mechanisms favouring males of their own kind is considered as crucial step during the early stages of speciation. However, although the genomics of mate choice may influence both the likelihood and speed of speciation, the identity and location of genes underlying assortative mating remain largely unknown. We used mate choice experiments and gene expression analysis of female D. melanogaster to examine three key components influencing speciation. We show that the 1,498 genes in Zimbabwean female Drosophila melanogaster whose expression levels differ when mating with more (Zimbabwean) versus less (Cosmopolitan strain) preferred males include many with high expression in the central nervous system and ovaries, are disproportionately X-linked and form a number of clusters with low recombination distance. Significant involvement of the brain and ovaries is consistent with the action of a combination of pre- and post-copulatory female choice mechanisms, while sex linkage and clustering of genes lead to high potential evolutionary rate and sheltering against the homogenizing effects of gene exchange between populations. Taken together our results imply favourable genomic conditions for the evolution of reproductive isolation through mate choice in Zimbabwean D. melanogaster and suggest that mate choice may, in general, act as an even more important engine of speciation than previously realized. We measured gene expression of adult female Drosophila melanogaster from a composite Zimbabwe (Z) strain population named SZ, produced by mixing the genomes of six Z strain isofemale lines, shortly after mating them with either SZ strain or cosmopolitan (M strain) males. Data from four replicates of each of the two treatments (SZ mated with SZ; SZ mated with M) are presented, giving a total of eight arrays.
Project description:We used a Drosophila melanogaster line (a "double balancer") carrying balancer chromosomes for both the second (CyO) and third (TM3) chromosomes. We crossed the double balancer to an isogenic wild-type "virginizer" line to obtain trans-heterozygous adults from the F1 generation. Whole-genome sequencing and mate pair sequencing were used to identify Single Nucleotide Variants (SNVs) and Structural Variants (SVs) on both chromosomes.
Project description:Yerba mate (YM) has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties in several studies. However, this effect has been found mainly in obesity-related in inflammation. The aim of this work was to study the effect of YM in cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells to see whether it has anti-inflammatory properties. We stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro with phitohemaglutinin in the presence of yerba mate and determined their activation measuring the the expression of CD25 by flow cytometry. We observed that YM treatment produced a dose-dependent reduction in PBMC activation (CD25 positive cells) when they were stimulated with PHA. This effect was also observed in T cells (CD3 positive) subpopulation. Microarray analysis revealed the differential expression of 128 genes in YM-treated cells. According to a protein-protein interaction database, these genes were highly connected and they are involved in inflammatory response. In summary, it was demonstrated that YM produces a reduction in the amount of activated cells under the stimulation of PHA. Therefore, it might be used in diseases with an inflammatory component.
Project description:Yerba mate (YM) has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties in several studies. However, this effect has been found mainly in obesity-related in inflammation. The aim of this work was to study the effect of YM in cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells to see whether it has anti-inflammatory properties. We stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro with phitohemaglutinin in the presence of yerba mate and determined their activation measuring the the expression of CD25 by flow cytometry. We observed that YM treatment produced a dose-dependent reduction in PBMC activation (CD25 positive cells) when they were stimulated with PHA. This effect was also observed in T cells (CD3 positive) subpopulation. Microarray analysis revealed the differential expression of 128 genes in YM-treated cells. According to a protein-protein interaction database, these genes were highly connected and they are involved in inflammatory response. In summary, it was demonstrated that YM produces a reduction in the amount of activated cells under the stimulation of PHA. Therefore, it might be used in diseases with an inflammatory component. PBMC samples from a healthy individual were cultured and stimulated with phytohemagglutinin. Gene expression of yerba mate treated and non-treated cells was analyzed in duplicates, having in total four microarrays.