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Laine VN, Sackton T, Meselson M. Genomic Signature of Sexual Reproduction in the Bdelloid Rotifer Macrotrachella quadricornifera. Genetics 2021; 220:6458333. [PMID: 34888647 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyab221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Bdelloid rotifers, common freshwater invertebrates of ancient origin and worldwide distribution have long been thought to be entirely asexual, being the principal exception to the view that in eukaryotes the loss of sex leads to early extinction. That bdelloids are facultatively sexual is shown by a study of allele sharing within a group of closely related bdelloids of the species Macrotrachella quadricornifera, supporting the view that sexual reproduction is essential for long-term success in all eukaryotes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronika N Laine
- Department of Animal Ecology, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00100, Finland
| | - Timothy Sackton
- Informatics Group, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; USA
| | - Matthew Meselson
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Simion P, Narayan J, Houtain A, Derzelle A, Baudry L, Nicolas E, Arora R, Cariou M, Cruaud C, Gaudray FR, Gilbert C, Guiglielmoni N, Hespeels B, Kozlowski DKL, Labadie K, Limasset A, Llirós M, Marbouty M, Terwagne M, Virgo J, Cordaux R, Danchin EGJ, Hallet B, Koszul R, Lenormand T, Flot JF, Van Doninck K. Chromosome-level genome assembly reveals homologous chromosomes and recombination in asexual rotifer Adineta vaga. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabg4216. [PMID: 34613768 PMCID: PMC8494291 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg4216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
Bdelloid rotifers are notorious as a speciose ancient clade comprising only asexual lineages. Thanks to their ability to repair highly fragmented DNA, most bdelloid species also withstand complete desiccation and ionizing radiation. Producing a well-assembled reference genome is a critical step to developing an understanding of the effects of long-term asexuality and DNA breakage on genome evolution. To this end, we present the first high-quality chromosome-level genome assemblies for the bdelloid Adineta vaga, composed of six pairs of homologous (diploid) chromosomes with a footprint of paleotetraploidy. The observed large-scale losses of heterozygosity are signatures of recombination between homologous chromosomes, either during mitotic DNA double-strand break repair or when resolving programmed DNA breaks during a modified meiosis. Dynamic subtelomeric regions harbor more structural diversity (e.g., chromosome rearrangements, transposable elements, and haplotypic divergence). Our results trigger the reappraisal of potential meiotic processes in bdelloid rotifers and help unravel the factors underlying their long-term asexual evolutionary success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Simion
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Corresponding author. (K.V.D.); (J.-F.F.); (P.S.)
| | - Jitendra Narayan
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Antoine Houtain
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Alessandro Derzelle
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Lyam Baudry
- Institut Pasteur, Unité Régulation Spatiale des Génomes, UMR 3525, CNRS, Paris F-75015, France
- Collège Doctoral, Sorbonne Université, F-75005 Paris, France
| | - Emilien Nicolas
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Molecular Biology and Evolution, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Rohan Arora
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Molecular Biology and Evolution, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Marie Cariou
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- CIRI, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie, Univ Lyon, Inserm, U1111, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5308, ENS de Lyon, F-69007 Lyon, France
| | - Corinne Cruaud
- Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, Univ Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, 91057 Evry, France
| | | | - Clément Gilbert
- Évolution, Génomes, Comportement et Écologie, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, IRD, UMR, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Nadège Guiglielmoni
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Boris Hespeels
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Djampa K. L. Kozlowski
- INRAE, Université Côte-d’Azur, CNRS, Institut Sophia Agrobiotech, Sophia Antipolis 06903, France
| | - Karine Labadie
- Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, Univ Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, 91057 Evry, France
| | - Antoine Limasset
- Université de Lille, CNRS, UMR 9189 - CRIStAL, 59655 Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France
| | - Marc Llirós
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Institut d’Investigació Biomédica de Girona, Malalties Digestives i Microbiota, 17190 Salt, Spain
| | - Martial Marbouty
- Institut Pasteur, Unité Régulation Spatiale des Génomes, UMR 3525, CNRS, Paris F-75015, France
| | - Matthieu Terwagne
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Julie Virgo
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
| | - Richard Cordaux
- Ecologie et Biologie des interactions, Université de Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7267, 5 rue Albert Turpain, 86073 Poitiers, France
| | - Etienne G. J. Danchin
- INRAE, Université Côte-d’Azur, CNRS, Institut Sophia Agrobiotech, Sophia Antipolis 06903, France
| | - Bernard Hallet
- LIBST, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Croix du Sud 4/5, Louvain-la-Neuve 1348, Belgium
| | - Romain Koszul
- Institut Pasteur, Unité Régulation Spatiale des Génomes, UMR 3525, CNRS, Paris F-75015, France
| | - Thomas Lenormand
- CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Jean-Francois Flot
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels - (IB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Corresponding author. (K.V.D.); (J.-F.F.); (P.S.)
| | - Karine Van Doninck
- Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Université de Namur, Namur 5000, Belgium
- Molecular Biology and Evolution, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Corresponding author. (K.V.D.); (J.-F.F.); (P.S.)
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Cross-Contamination Explains "Inter and Intraspecific Horizontal Genetic Transfers" between Asexual Bdelloid Rotifers. Curr Biol 2018; 28:2436-2444.e14. [PMID: 30017483 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2017] [Revised: 12/07/2017] [Accepted: 05/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
A few metazoan lineages are thought to have persisted for millions of years without sexual reproduction. If so, they would offer important clues to the evolutionary paradox of sex itself [1, 2]. Most "ancient asexuals" are subject to ongoing doubt because extant populations continue to invest in males [3-9]. However, males are famously unknown in bdelloid rotifers, a class of microscopic invertebrates comprising hundreds of species [10-12]. Bdelloid genomes have acquired an unusually high proportion of genes from non-metazoans via horizontal transfer [13-17]. This well-substantiated finding has invited speculation [13] that homologous horizontal transfer between bdelloid individuals also may occur, perhaps even "replacing" sex [14]. In 2016, Current Biology published an article claiming to supply evidence for this idea. Debortoli et al. [18] sampled rotifers from natural populations and sequenced one mitochondrial and four nuclear loci. Species assignments were incongruent among loci for several samples, which was interpreted as evidence of "interspecific horizontal genetic transfers." Here, we use sequencing chromatograms supplied by the authors to demonstrate that samples treated as individuals actually contained two or more highly divergent mitochondrial and ribosomal sequences, revealing cross-contamination with DNA from multiple animals of different species. Other chromatograms indicate contamination with DNA from conspecific animals, explaining genetic and genomic evidence for "intraspecific horizontal exchanges" reported in the same study. Given the clear evidence of contamination, the data and findings of Debortoli et al. [18] provide no reliable support for their conclusions that DNA is transferred horizontally between or within bdelloid species.
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Nowell RW, Almeida P, Wilson CG, Smith TP, Fontaneto D, Crisp A, Micklem G, Tunnacliffe A, Boschetti C, Barraclough TG. Comparative genomics of bdelloid rotifers: Insights from desiccating and nondesiccating species. PLoS Biol 2018; 16:e2004830. [PMID: 29689044 PMCID: PMC5916493 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2004830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2017] [Accepted: 03/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Bdelloid rotifers are a class of microscopic invertebrates that have existed for millions of years apparently without sex or meiosis. They inhabit a variety of temporary and permanent freshwater habitats globally, and many species are remarkably tolerant of desiccation. Bdelloids offer an opportunity to better understand the evolution of sex and recombination, but previous work has emphasised desiccation as the cause of several unusual genomic features in this group. Here, we present high-quality whole-genome sequences of 3 bdelloid species: Rotaria macrura and R. magnacalcarata, which are both desiccation intolerant, and Adineta ricciae, which is desiccation tolerant. In combination with the published assembly of A. vaga, which is also desiccation tolerant, we apply a comparative genomics approach to evaluate the potential effects of desiccation tolerance and asexuality on genome evolution in bdelloids. We find that ancestral tetraploidy is conserved among all 4 bdelloid species, but homologous divergence in obligately aquatic Rotaria genomes is unexpectedly low. This finding is contrary to current models regarding the role of desiccation in shaping bdelloid genomes. In addition, we find that homologous regions in A. ricciae are largely collinear and do not form palindromic repeats as observed in the published A. vaga assembly. Consequently, several features interpreted as genomic evidence for long-term ameiotic evolution are not general to all bdelloid species, even within the same genus. Finally, we substantiate previous findings of high levels of horizontally transferred nonmetazoan genes in both desiccating and nondesiccating bdelloid species and show that this unusual feature is not shared by other animal phyla, even those with desiccation-tolerant representatives. These comparisons call into question the proposed role of desiccation in mediating horizontal genetic transfer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reuben W. Nowell
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom
| | - Pedro Almeida
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher G. Wilson
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas P. Smith
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom
| | - Diego Fontaneto
- National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Ecosystem Study, Verbania Pallanza, Italy
| | - Alastair Crisp
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, West Cambridge Site, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Gos Micklem
- Department of Genetics, Cambridge Systems Biology Centre, Downing Site, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Alan Tunnacliffe
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, West Cambridge Site, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Chiara Boschetti
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, West Cambridge Site, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- School of Biological and Marine Sciences, Plymouth University, Portland Square Building, Plymouth, United Kingdom
| | - Timothy G. Barraclough
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom
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