Project description:If copy number variants (CNVs) are predominantly deleterious, we would expect them to be more efficiently purged from populations with a large effective population size (Ne) than from populations with a small Ne. Malaria parasites (Plasmodium falciparum) provide an excellent organism to examine this prediction, because this protozoan shows a broad spectrum of population structures within a single species, with large, stable, outbred populations in Africa, small unstable inbred populations in South America and with intermediate population characteristics in South East Asia. We characterized 122 single-clone parasites, without prior laboratory culture, from malaria-infected patients in 7 countries in Africa, SE Asia and S. America using a high density SNP/CNV microarray. We scored 134 high-confidence CNVs across the parasite exome, including 33 deletions and 102 amplifications, which ranged in size from <500bp to 59kb, as well as 10,107 flanking, biallelic SNPs. Overall, CNVs were rare, small and skewed towards low frequency variants, consistent with the deleterious model. Relative to African and SE Asian populations, CNVs were significantly more common in S. America, showed significantly less skew in allele frequencies, and were significantly larger. On this background of low frequency CNV, we also identified several high-frequency CNVs under putative positive selection using an FST outlier analysis. These included known adaptive CNVs containing rh2b and pfmdr1, and several other CNVs (e.g. DNA helicase, and 3 conserved proteins) that require further investigation. Our data are consistent with a significant impact of genetic structure on CNV burden in an important human pathogen. SNP/CGH hybridisation of 175 malaria parasite samples
Project description:If copy number variants (CNVs) are predominantly deleterious, we would expect them to be more efficiently purged from populations with a large effective population size (Ne) than from populations with a small Ne. Malaria parasites (Plasmodium falciparum) provide an excellent organism to examine this prediction, because this protozoan shows a broad spectrum of population structures within a single species, with large, stable, outbred populations in Africa, small unstable inbred populations in South America and with intermediate population characteristics in South East Asia. We characterized 122 single-clone parasites, without prior laboratory culture, from malaria-infected patients in 7 countries in Africa, SE Asia and S. America using a high density SNP/CNV microarray. We scored 134 high-confidence CNVs across the parasite exome, including 33 deletions and 102 amplifications, which ranged in size from <500bp to 59kb, as well as 10,107 flanking, biallelic SNPs. Overall, CNVs were rare, small and skewed towards low frequency variants, consistent with the deleterious model. Relative to African and SE Asian populations, CNVs were significantly more common in S. America, showed significantly less skew in allele frequencies, and were significantly larger. On this background of low frequency CNV, we also identified several high-frequency CNVs under putative positive selection using an FST outlier analysis. These included known adaptive CNVs containing rh2b and pfmdr1, and several other CNVs (e.g. DNA helicase, and 3 conserved proteins) that require further investigation. Our data are consistent with a significant impact of genetic structure on CNV burden in an important human pathogen.
Project description:How and when the Americas were populated remains contentious. Using ancient and modern genome-wide data, we find that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans, including Athabascans and Amerindians, entered the Americas as a single migration wave from Siberia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago (KYA), and after no more than 8,000-year isolation period in Beringia. Native Americans diversified into two basal genetic branches around 13 KYA, one in North and South America and the other restricted to North America. Subsequent gene flow resulted in some Native Americans sharing ancestry with present-day East Asians and Australo-Melanesians, the latter possibly through the ancestors of Aleutian Islanders. Putative relict populations in South America, including the historical Pericúes and Fuego-Patagonians, are not directly related to modern Australo-Melanesians.
2015-07-20 | GSE70987 | GEO
Project description:Ceratina Population Genetics Across Eastern North America
| PRJNA726813 | ENA
Project description:Conservation Genetics and Genomics of the Narrowly Endemic Island Marble Butterfly
Project description:White pine weevil is a major pest of conifers in North America, especially for Spruce trees. Constitutive defenses are important in understanding defense mechanisms because they constitute the initial barrier to attacks by weevils and other pests. Resistant and susceptible trees exhibit constitutive differences in spruce. To improve our knowledge of their genetic basis, we compared the constitutive expression levels of 17,825 genes between 20 resistant and 20 susceptible trees in interior spruce (Picea glauca).
2011-11-28 | GSE27476 | GEO
Project description:Population genetics and conservation of Surubim Steindachneridium melanodermatum
Project description:Cold acclimation in conifers is a complex process, the timing and extent of which reflects local adaptation and varies widely along latitudinal gradients for many temperate and boreal tree species. In spite of their ecological and economic importance, little is known about the global changes in gene expression that accompany autumn cold acclimation in conifers. Using three populations of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) spanning the species range, and a Picea cDNA microarray with 21,840 unique elements, we monitored within and among-population gene expression during the fall. Microarray data were validated for selected genes using real-time PCR. Similar numbers of genes were significantly two-fold upregulated (1,257) and downregulated (967) between late summer and early winter. Among those upregulated were dehydrins, pathogenesis-related/antifreeze genes, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism genes, and genes involved in signal transduction and transcriptional regulation. Among-population microarray hybridizations at early and late autumn time points revealed substantial variation in the autumn transcriptome, some of which may reflect local adaptation. Our results demonstrate the complexity of cold acclimation in conifers, highlight similarities and differences to cold tolerance in annual plants, and provide a solid foundation for functional and genetic studies of this important adaptive process in conifers. Keywords: Time course
Project description:White pine weevil is a major pest of conifers in North America, especially for Spruce trees. Constitutive defenses are important in understanding defense mechanisms because they constitute the initial barrier to attacks by weevils and other pests. Resistant and susceptible trees exhibit constitutive differences in spruce. To improve our knowledge of their genetic basis, we compared the constitutive expression levels of 17,825 genes between 20 resistant and 20 susceptible trees in interior spruce (Picea glauca). Twenty hybridizations were performed to compare untreated bark of resistant and susceptible trees.RNA isolated from each of the 20 individual untreated resistant trees was compared directly against the 20 individual untreated susceptble trees using two hybridizations with a dye flip for each tree pair.