Evolution of stickleback spines through independent cis-regulatory changes at HOXDB

Inferring the evolution of reproductive isolation in a lineage of fossil threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus doryssus

Darwin attributed the absence of species transitions in the fossil record to his hypothesis that speciation occurs within isolated habitat patches too geographically restricted to be captured by fossil sequences. Mayr's peripatric speciation model added that such speciation would be rapid, further explaining missing evidence of diversification. Indeed, Eldredge and Gould's original punctuated equilibrium model combined Darwin's conjecture, Mayr's model and 124 years of unsuccessfully sampling the fossil record for transitions. Observing such divergence, however, could illustrate the tempo and mode of evolution during early speciation. Here, we investigate peripatric divergence in a Miocene stickleback fish, Gasterosteus doryssus. This lineage appeared and, over approximately 8000 generations, evolved significant reduction of 12 of 16 traits related to armour, swimming and diet, relative to its ancestral population. This was greater morphological divergence than we observed between reproductively isolated, benthic-limnetic ecotypes of extant Gasterosteus aculeatus. Therefore, we infer that reproductive isolation was evolving. However, local extinction of G. doryssus lineages shows how young, isolated, speciating populations often disappear, supporting Darwin's explanation for missing evidence and revealing a mechanism behind morphological stasis. Extinction may also account for limited sustained divergence within the stickleback species complex and help reconcile speciation rate variation observed across time scales.

Adaptive tail-length evolution in deer mice is associated with differential Hoxd13 expression in early development

Variation in the size and number of axial segments underlies much of the diversity in animal body plans. Here we investigate the evolutionary, genetic and developmental mechanisms driving tail-length differences between forest and prairie ecotypes of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). We first show that long-tailed forest mice perform better in an arboreal locomotion assay, consistent with tails being important for balance during climbing. We then identify six genomic regions that contribute to differences in tail length, three of which associate with caudal vertebra length and the other three with vertebra number. For all six loci, the forest allele increases tail length, indicative of the cumulative effect of natural selection. Two of the genomic regions associated with variation in vertebra number contain Hox gene clusters. Of those, we find an allele-specific decrease in Hoxd13 expression in the embryonic tail bud of long-tailed forest mice, consistent with its role in axial elongation. Additionally, we find that forest embryos have more presomitic mesoderm than prairie embryos and that this correlates with an increase in the number of neuromesodermal progenitors, which are modulated by Hox13 paralogues. Together, these results suggest a role for Hoxd13 in the development of natural variation in adaptive morphology on a microevolutionary timescale.

Evo-Devo Mechanobiology: The Missing Link

While the modern framework of evolutionary development (evo-devo) has been decidedly genetic, historic analyses have also considered the importance of mechanics in the evolution of form. With the aid of recent technological advancements in both quantifying and perturbing changes in the molecular and mechanical effectors of organismal shape, how molecular and genetic cues regulate the biophysical aspects of morphogenesis is becoming increasingly well studied. As a result, this is an opportune time to consider how the tissue-scale mechanics that underlie morphogenesis are acted upon through evolution to establish morphological diversity. Such a focus will enable a field of evo-devo mechanobiology that will serve to better elucidate the opaque relations between genes and forms by articulating intermediary physical mechanisms. Here, we review how the evolution of shape is measured and related to genetics, how recent strides have been made in the dissection of developmental tissue mechanics, and how we expect these areas to coalesce in evo-devo studies in the future.

Exploring plant cis-regulatory elements at single-cell resolution: overcoming biological and computational challenges to advance plant research

Cis-regulatory elements (CREs) are important sequences for gene expression and for plant biological processes such as development, evolution, domestication, and stress response. However, studying CREs in plant genomes has been challenging. The totipotent nature of plant cells, coupled with the inability to maintain plant cell types in culture and the inherent technical challenges posed by the cell wall has limited our understanding of how plant cell types acquire and maintain their identities and respond to the environment via CRE usage. Advances in single-cell epigenomics have revolutionized the field of identifying cell-type-specific CREs. These new technologies have the potential to significantly advance our understanding of plant CRE biology, and shed light on how the regulatory genome gives rise to diverse plant phenomena. However, there are significant biological and computational challenges associated with analyzing single-cell epigenomic datasets. In this review, we discuss the historical and foundational underpinnings of plant single-cell research, challenges, and common pitfalls in the analysis of plant single-cell epigenomic data, and highlight biological challenges unique to plants. Additionally, we discuss how the application of single-cell epigenomic data in various contexts stands to transform our understanding of the importance of CREs in plant genomes.

Whole-genome Comparisons Identify Repeated Regulatory Changes Underlying Convergent Appendage Evolution in Diverse Fish Lineages

Fins are major functional appendages of fish that have been repeatedly modified in different lineages. To search for genomic changes underlying natural fin diversity, we compared the genomes of 36 percomorph fish species that span over 100 million years of evolution and either have complete or reduced pelvic and caudal fins. We identify 1,614 genomic regions that are well-conserved in fin-complete species but missing from multiple fin-reduced lineages. Recurrent deletions of conserved sequences in wild fin-reduced species are enriched for functions related to appendage development, suggesting that convergent fin reduction at the organismal level is associated with repeated genomic deletions near fin-appendage development genes. We used sequencing and functional enhancer assays to confirm that PelA, a Pitx1 enhancer previously linked to recurrent pelvic loss in sticklebacks, has also been independently deleted and may have contributed to the fin morphology in distantly related pelvic-reduced species. We also identify a novel enhancer that is conserved in the majority of percomorphs, drives caudal fin expression in transgenic stickleback, is missing in tetraodontiform, syngnathid, and synbranchid species with caudal fin reduction, and alters caudal fin development when targeted by genome editing. Our study illustrates a broadly applicable strategy for mapping phenotypes to genotypes across a tree of vertebrate species and highlights notable new examples of regulatory genomic hotspots that have been used to evolve recurrent phenotypes across 100 million years of fish evolution.

Whole-genome comparisons identify repeated regulatory changes underlying convergent appendage evolution in diverse fish lineages

Fins are major functional appendages of fish that have been repeatedly modified in different lineages. To search for genomic changes underlying natural fin diversity, we compared the genomes of 36 wild fish species that either have complete or reduced pelvic and caudal fins. We identify 1,614 genomic regions that are well-conserved in fin-complete species but missing from multiple fin-reduced lineages. Recurrent deletions of conserved sequences (CONDELs) in wild fin-reduced species are enriched for functions related to appendage development, suggesting that convergent fin reduction at the organismal level is associated with repeated genomic deletions near fin-appendage development genes. We used sequencing and functional enhancer assays to confirm that PelA , a Pitx1 enhancer previously linked to recurrent pelvic loss in sticklebacks, has also been independently deleted and may have contributed to the fin morphology in distantly related pelvic-reduced species. We also identify a novel enhancer that is conserved in the majority of percomorphs, drives caudal fin expression in transgenic stickleback, is missing in tetraodontiform, s yngnathid, and synbranchid species with caudal fin reduction, and which alters caudal fin development when targeted by genome editing. Our study illustrates a general strategy for mapping phenotypes to genotypes across a tree of vertebrate species, and highlights notable new examples of regulatory genomic hotspots that have been used to evolve recurrent phenotypes during 100 million years of fish evolution.

The role of plastic and evolved DNA methylation in parallel adaptation of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Repeated phenotypic patterns among populations undergoing parallel evolution in similar environments provide support for the deterministic role of natural selection. Epigenetic modifications can mediate plastic and evolved phenotypic responses to environmental change and might make important contributions to parallel adaptation. While many studies have explored the genetic basis of repeated phenotypic divergence, the role of epigenetic processes during parallel adaptation remains unclear. The parallel evolution of freshwater ecotypes of threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) following colonization of thousands of lakes and streams from the ocean is a classic example of parallel phenotypic and genotypic adaptation. To investigate epigenetic modifications during parallel adaptation of threespine stickleback, we reanalysed three independent data sets that investigated DNA methylation variation between marine and freshwater ecotypes. Although we found widespread methylation differentiation between ecotypes, there was no significant tendency for CpG sites associated with repeated methylation differentiation across studies to be parallel versus nonparallel. To next investigate the role of plastic versus evolved changes in methylation during freshwater adaptation, we explored if CpG sites exhibiting methylation plasticity during salinity change were more likely to also show evolutionary divergence in methylation between ecotypes. The directions of divergence between ecotypes were generally in the opposite direction to those observed for plasticity when ecotypes were challenged with non-native salinity conditions, suggesting that most plastic responses are likely to be maladaptive during colonization of new environments. Finally, we found a greater number of CpG sites showing evolved changes when ancestral marine ecotypes are acclimated to freshwater environments, whereas plastic changes predominate when derived freshwater ecotypes transition back to their ancestral marine environments. These findings provide evidence for an epigenetic contribution to parallel adaptation and demonstrate the contrasting roles of plastic and evolved methylation differences during adaptation to new environments.