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Peona V, Martelossi J, Almojil D, Bocharkina J, Brännström I, Brown M, Cang A, Carrasco-Valenzuela T, DeVries J, Doellman M, Elsner D, Espíndola-Hernández P, Montoya GF, Gaspar B, Zagorski D, Hałakuc P, Ivanovska B, Laumer C, Lehmann R, Boštjančić LL, Mashoodh R, Mazzoleni S, Mouton A, Nilsson MA, Pei Y, Potente G, Provataris P, Pardos-Blas JR, Raut R, Sbaffi T, Schwarz F, Stapley J, Stevens L, Sultana N, Symonova R, Tahami MS, Urzì A, Yang H, Yusuf A, Pecoraro C, Suh A. Teaching transposon classification as a means to crowd source the curation of repeat annotation - a tardigrade perspective. Mob DNA 2024; 15:10. [PMID: 38711146 DOI: 10.1186/s13100-024-00319-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2024] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The advancement of sequencing technologies results in the rapid release of hundreds of new genome assemblies a year providing unprecedented resources for the study of genome evolution. Within this context, the significance of in-depth analyses of repetitive elements, transposable elements (TEs) in particular, is increasingly recognized in understanding genome evolution. Despite the plethora of available bioinformatic tools for identifying and annotating TEs, the phylogenetic distance of the target species from a curated and classified database of repetitive element sequences constrains any automated annotation effort. Moreover, manual curation of raw repeat libraries is deemed essential due to the frequent incompleteness of automatically generated consensus sequences. RESULTS Here, we present an example of a crowd-sourcing effort aimed at curating and annotating TE libraries of two non-model species built around a collaborative, peer-reviewed teaching process. Manual curation and classification are time-consuming processes that offer limited short-term academic rewards and are typically confined to a few research groups where methods are taught through hands-on experience. Crowd-sourcing efforts could therefore offer a significant opportunity to bridge the gap between learning the methods of curation effectively and empowering the scientific community with high-quality, reusable repeat libraries. CONCLUSIONS The collaborative manual curation of TEs from two tardigrade species, for which there were no TE libraries available, resulted in the successful characterization of hundreds of new and diverse TEs in a reasonable time frame. Our crowd-sourcing setting can be used as a teaching reference guide for similar projects: A hidden treasure awaits discovery within non-model organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Peona
- Department of Organismal Biology - Systematic Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, SE-752 36, Sweden.
- Swiss Ornithological Institute Vogelwarte, Sempach, CH-6204, Switzerland.
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Natural History Museum, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Jacopo Martelossi
- Department of Biological Geological and Environmental Science, University of Bologna, Via Selmi 3, Bologna, 40126, Italy.
| | - Dareen Almojil
- New York University Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, United Arab Emirates
| | | | - Ioana Brännström
- Natural History Museum, Oslo University, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Max Brown
- Anglia Ruskin University, East Rd, Cambridge, CB1 1PT, UK
| | | | - Tomàs Carrasco-Valenzuela
- Evolutionary Genetics Department, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, 10315, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research, 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jon DeVries
- Reed College, Portland, OR, United States of America
| | - Meredith Doellman
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA
| | - Daniel Elsner
- Evolutionary Biology & Ecology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Pamela Espíndola-Hernández
- Research Unit Comparative Microbiome Analysis (COMI), Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, D-85764, Neuherberg, Germany
| | | | - Bence Gaspar
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Danijela Zagorski
- Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Průhonice, Czech Republic
| | - Paweł Hałakuc
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biology, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Beti Ivanovska
- Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - Robert Lehmann
- Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ljudevit Luka Boštjančić
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Rahia Mashoodh
- Department of Genetics, Environment & Evolution, Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research, University College London, London, UK
| | - Sofia Mazzoleni
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Alice Mouton
- INBIOS-Conservation Genetic Lab, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium
| | - Maria Anna Nilsson
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Yifan Pei
- Department of Organismal Biology - Systematic Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, SE-752 36, Sweden
- Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Adenauerallee 127, 53113, Bonn, Germany
| | - Giacomo Potente
- Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Panagiotis Provataris
- German Cancer Research Center, NGS Core Facility, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - José Ramón Pardos-Blas
- Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC), José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid, 28006, Spain
| | - Ravindra Raut
- Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, Durgapur, India
| | - Tomasa Sbaffi
- Molecular Ecology Group (MEG), National Research Council of Italy - Water Research Institute (CNR-IRSA), Verbania, Italy
| | - Florian Schwarz
- Eurofins Genomics Europe Pharma and Diagnostics Products & Services Sales GmbH, Ebersberg, Germany
| | - Jessica Stapley
- Plant Pathology Group, Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Lewis Stevens
- Tree of Life, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Nusrat Sultana
- Department of Botany, Jagannath Univerity, Dhaka, 1100, Bangladesh
| | - Radka Symonova
- Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Mohadeseh S Tahami
- Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, Jyväskylä, 40014, Finland
| | - Alice Urzì
- Centogene GmbH, Am Strande 7, 18055, Rostock, Germany
| | - Heidi Yang
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America
| | - Abdullah Yusuf
- Zell- und Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | | | - Alexander Suh
- Department of Organismal Biology - Systematic Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, SE-752 36, Sweden.
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TU, UK.
- Present address: Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Adenauerallee 160, 53113, Bonn, Germany.
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Hassan NT, Galbraith JD, Adelson DL. Multiple horizontal transfer events of a DNA transposon into turtles, fishes, and a frog. Mob DNA 2024; 15:7. [PMID: 38605364 PMCID: PMC11008031 DOI: 10.1186/s13100-024-00318-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Horizontal transfer of transposable elements (HTT) has been reported across many species and the impact of such events on genome structure and function has been well described. However, few studies have focused on reptilian genomes, especially HTT events in Testudines (turtles). Here, as a consequence of investigating the repetitive content of Malaclemys terrapin terrapin (Diamondback turtle) we found a high similarity DNA transposon, annotated in RepBase as hAT-6_XT, shared between other turtle species, ray-finned fishes, and a frog. hAT-6_XT was notably absent in reptilian taxa closely related to turtles, such as crocodiles and birds. Successful invasion of DNA transposons into new genomes requires the conservation of specific residues in the encoded transposase, and through structural analysis, these residues were identified indicating some retention of functional transposition activity. We document six recent independent HTT events of a DNA transposon in turtles, which are known to have a low genomic evolutionary rate and ancient repeats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nozhat T Hassan
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - James D Galbraith
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - David L Adelson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
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Li Y, Yang T, Qiao J, Liang J, Li Z, Sa W, Shang Q. Whole-genome sequencing and evolutionary analysis of the wild edible mushroom, Morchella eohespera. Front Microbiol 2024; 14:1309703. [PMID: 38361578 PMCID: PMC10868677 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1309703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Morels (Morchella, Ascomycota) are an extremely desired group of edible mushrooms with worldwide distribution. Morchella eohespera is a typical black morel species, belonging to the Elata clade of Morchella species. The biological and genetic studies of this mushroom are rare, largely hindering the studies of molecular breeding and evolutionary aspects. In this study, we performed de novo sequencing and assembly of the M. eohespera strain m200 genome using the third-generation nanopore sequencing platform. The whole-genome size of M. eohespera was 53.81 Mb with a contig N50 of 1.93 Mb, and the GC content was 47.70%. A total of 9,189 protein-coding genes were annotated. Molecular dating showed that M. eohespera differentiated from its relative M. conica at ~19.03 Mya (million years ago) in Burdigalian. Evolutionary analysis showed that 657 gene families were contracted and 244 gene families expanded in M. eohespera versus the related morel species. The non-coding RNA prediction results showed that there were 336 tRNAs, 76 rRNAs, and 45 snRNAs in the M. eohespera genome. Interestingly, there was a high degree of repetition (20.93%) in the M. eohespera genome, and the sizes of long interspersed nuclear elements, short interspersed nuclear elements, and long terminal repeats were 0.83 Mb, 0.009 Mb, and 4.56 Mb, respectively. Additionally, selection pressure analysis identified that a total of 492 genes in the M. eohespera genome have undergone signatures of positive selection. The results of this study provide new insights into the genome evolution of M. eohespera and lay the foundation for in-depth research into the molecular biology of the genus Morchella in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yixin Li
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Qinghai University, Xining, China
| | - Ting Yang
- Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, China
| | - Jinxia Qiao
- Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, China
| | - Jian Liang
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Qinghai University, Xining, China
| | - Zhonghu Li
- Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, China
| | - Wei Sa
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Qinghai University, Xining, China
| | - Qianhan Shang
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Qinghai University, Xining, China
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Yang Y, Cheng Y, Bai T, Liu S, Du Q, Xia W, Liu Y, Wang X, Chen X. Optimizing Trilobatin Production via Screening and Modification of Glycosyltransferases. Molecules 2024; 29:643. [PMID: 38338387 PMCID: PMC10856287 DOI: 10.3390/molecules29030643] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2023] [Revised: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Trilobatin (TBL) is a key sweet compound from the traditional Chinese sweet tea plant (Rubus suavissimus S. Lee). Because of its intense sweetness, superior taste profile, and minimal caloric value, it serves as an exemplary natural dihydrochalcone sweetener. It also has various health benefits, including anti-inflammatory and glucose-lowering effects. It is primarily produced through botanical extraction, which impedes its scalability and cost-effectiveness. In a novel biotechnological approach, phloretin is used as a precursor that is transformed into TBL by the glycosyltransferase enzyme ph-4'-OGT. However, this enzyme's low catalytic efficiency and by-product formation limit the large-scale synthesis of TBL. In our study, the enzyme Mdph-4'-OGT was used to screen 17 sequences across species for TBL synthesis, of which seven exhibited catalytic activity. Notably, PT577 exhibited an unparalleled 97.3% conversion yield within 3 h. We then optimized the reaction conditions of PT577, attaining a peak TBL bioproduction of 163.3 mg/L. By employing virtual screening, we identified 25 mutation sites for PT577, thereby creating mutant strains that reduced by-products by up to 50%. This research enhances the enzymatic precision for TBL biosynthesis and offers a robust foundation for its industrial-scale production, with broader implications for the engineering and in silico analysis of glycosyltransferases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Yang
- Jiaxing Synbiolab Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Jiaxing 314006, China; (Y.Y.); (T.B.); (S.L.); (Q.D.)
- School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China; (Y.C.); (W.X.); (Y.L.)
| | - Yuhan Cheng
- School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China; (Y.C.); (W.X.); (Y.L.)
| | - Tao Bai
- Jiaxing Synbiolab Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Jiaxing 314006, China; (Y.Y.); (T.B.); (S.L.); (Q.D.)
| | - Shimeng Liu
- Jiaxing Synbiolab Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Jiaxing 314006, China; (Y.Y.); (T.B.); (S.L.); (Q.D.)
| | - Qiuhui Du
- Jiaxing Synbiolab Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Jiaxing 314006, China; (Y.Y.); (T.B.); (S.L.); (Q.D.)
| | - Wenhao Xia
- School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China; (Y.C.); (W.X.); (Y.L.)
| | - Yi Liu
- School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China; (Y.C.); (W.X.); (Y.L.)
| | - Xiao Wang
- Jiaxing Synbiolab Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Jiaxing 314006, China; (Y.Y.); (T.B.); (S.L.); (Q.D.)
| | - Xianqing Chen
- Jiaxing Synbiolab Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Jiaxing 314006, China; (Y.Y.); (T.B.); (S.L.); (Q.D.)
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Magdy Mohamed Abdelaziz Barakat S, Sallehuddin R, Yuhaniz SS, R. Khairuddin RF, Mahmood Y. Genome assembly composition of the String "ACGT" array: a review of data structure accuracy and performance challenges. PeerJ Comput Sci 2023; 9:e1180. [PMID: 37547391 PMCID: PMC10403225 DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.1180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023]
Abstract
Background The development of sequencing technology increases the number of genomes being sequenced. However, obtaining a quality genome sequence remains a challenge in genome assembly by assembling a massive number of short strings (reads) with the presence of repetitive sequences (repeats). Computer algorithms for genome assembly construct the entire genome from reads in two approaches. The de novo approach concatenates the reads based on the exact match between their suffix-prefix (overlapping). Reference-guided approach orders the reads based on their offsets in a well-known reference genome (reads alignment). The presence of repeats extends the technical ambiguity, making the algorithm unable to distinguish the reads resulting in misassembly and affecting the assembly approach accuracy. On the other hand, the massive number of reads causes a big assembly performance challenge. Method The repeat identification method was introduced for misassembly by prior identification of repetitive sequences, creating a repeat knowledge base to reduce ambiguity during the assembly process, thus enhancing the accuracy of the assembled genome. Also, hybridization between assembly approaches resulted in a lower misassembly degree with the aid of the reference genome. The assembly performance is optimized through data structure indexing and parallelization. This article's primary aim and contribution are to support the researchers through an extensive review to ease other researchers' search for genome assembly studies. The study also, highlighted the most recent developments and limitations in genome assembly accuracy and performance optimization. Results Our findings show the limitations of the repeat identification methods available, which only allow to detect of specific lengths of the repeat, and may not perform well when various types of repeats are present in a genome. We also found that most of the hybrid assembly approaches, either starting with de novo or reference-guided, have some limitations in handling repetitive sequences as it is more computationally costly and time intensive. Although the hybrid approach was found to outperform individual assembly approaches, optimizing its performance remains a challenge. Also, the usage of parallelization in overlapping and reads alignment for genome assembly is yet to be fully implemented in the hybrid assembly approach. Conclusion We suggest combining multiple repeat identification methods to enhance the accuracy of identifying the repeats as an initial step to the hybrid assembly approach and combining genome indexing with parallelization for better optimization of its performance.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Roselina Sallehuddin
- Computer Science, School of Computing, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
| | - Siti Sophiayati Yuhaniz
- Advanced Informatics Department, Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | | | - Yasir Mahmood
- Faculty of Information Technology, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan
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Galbraith JD, Ivancevic AM, Qu Z, Adelson DL. Detecting Horizontal Transfer of Transposons. Methods Mol Biol 2023; 2607:45-62. [PMID: 36449157 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2883-6_3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Transposable elements (TEs) are prevalent genomic components which can replicate as a function of mobilization in eukaryotes. Not only do they alter genome structure, they also play regulatory functions or organize chromatin structure. In addition to vertical parent-to-offspring inheritance, TEs can also horizontally "jump" between species, known as horizontal transposon transfer (HTT). This can rapidly alter the course of genome evolution. In this chapter, we provide a practical framework to detect HTT events. Our HTT detection framework is based on the use of sequence alignment to determine the divergence/conservation profiles of TE families to determine the history of expansion events. In summary, it includes (a) workflow of HTT detection from Ab initio identified TEs; (b) workflow for detecting HTT for specific, curated TEs; and (c) workflow for validating detected HTT candidates. Our framework covers two common scenarios of HTT detection in the modern omics era, and we believe it will serve as a valuable toolbox for the TE and genomics research community.
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Affiliation(s)
- James D Galbraith
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK
| | - Atma M Ivancevic
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Zhipeng Qu
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - David L Adelson
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
- South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
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Cao X, Zhang J, Deng S, Ding S. Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of the Speckled Blue Grouper ( Epinephelus cyanopodus) Provides Insight into Its Adaptive Evolution. BIOLOGY 2022; 11:1810. [PMID: 36552321 PMCID: PMC9775623 DOI: 10.3390/biology11121810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2022] [Revised: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 12/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Epinephelus cyanopodus is a coral reef-dwelling grouper with important economic and ecological value and is widely distributed in the western Pacific Ocean. The lack of genomic resources for E. cyanopodus hinders its adaptive evolution and phylogeny research. We constructed the first high-quality genome of E. cyanopodus based on DNBSEQ, PacBio, and Hic sequencing technologies, with a genome size of 998.82 Mb, contig N50 of 5.855 Mb, and scaffold N50 of 41.98 Mb. More than 99.7% of contigs were anchored to 24 pseudochromosomes, and 94.2% of BUSCO genes were found in the E. cyanopodus genome, indicating a high genome assembly completeness. A total of 26,337 protein-coding genes were predicted, of which 98.77% were functionally annotated. Phylogenetic analysis showed that E. cyanopodus separated from its closely related species Epinephelus akaara about 11.5-26.5 million years ago, and the uplift of the Indo-Australian archipelago may have provided an opportunity for its rapid radiation. Moreover, several gene families associated with innate and adaptive immunity were significantly expanded in speckled blue grouper compared to other teleost genomes. Additionally, we identified several genes associated with immunity, growth and reproduction that are under positive selection in E. cyanopodus compared to other groupers, suggesting that E. cyanopodus has evolved broad adaptability in response to complex survival environment, which may provide the genetic basis for its rapid radiation. In brief, the high-quality reference genome of the speckled blue grouper provides a foundation for research on its biological traits and adaptive evolution and will be an important genetic tool to guide aquaculture and resolve its taxonomic controversies in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoying Cao
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environment Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
| | - Jiajun Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environment Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
| | - Shunyun Deng
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environment Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
| | - Shaoxiong Ding
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environment Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
- Function Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266000, China
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Genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic analysis of a medicinal snake, Bungarus multicinctus, to provides insights into the origin of Elapidae neurotoxins. Acta Pharm Sin B 2022; 13:2234-2249. [DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2022.11.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2022] [Revised: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 11/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
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Storer JM, Hubley R, Rosen J, Smit AFA. Methodologies for the De novo Discovery of Transposable Element Families. Genes (Basel) 2022; 13:709. [PMID: 35456515 PMCID: PMC9025800 DOI: 10.3390/genes13040709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2022] [Revised: 04/14/2022] [Accepted: 04/15/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The discovery and characterization of transposable element (TE) families are crucial tasks in the process of genome annotation. Careful curation of TE libraries for each organism is necessary as each has been exposed to a unique and often complex set of TE families. De novo methods have been developed; however, a fully automated and accurate approach to the development of complete libraries remains elusive. In this review, we cover established methods and recent developments in de novo TE analysis. We also present various methodologies used to assess these tools and discuss opportunities for further advancement of the field.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Arian F. A. Smit
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98109, USA; (J.M.S.); (R.H.); (J.R.)
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Warmuth VM, Weissensteiner MH, Wolf J. Ineffective silencing of transposable elements on an avian W Chromosome. Genome Res 2022; 32:671-681. [PMID: 35149543 PMCID: PMC8997356 DOI: 10.1101/gr.275465.121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
One of the defining features of transposable elements (TEs) is their ability to move to new locations in the host genome. To minimise the potentially deleterious effects of de novo TE insertions, hosts have evolved several mechanisms to control TE activity, including recombination-mediated removal and epigenetic silencing; however, increasing evidence suggests that silencing of TEs is often incomplete. The crow family experienced a recent radiation of LTR retrotransposons (LTRs), offering an opportunity to gain insight into the regulatory control of young, potentially still active TEs. We quantified the abundance of TE-derived transcripts across several tissues in 15 Eurasian crows (Corvus (corone) spp.) raised under common garden conditions and find evidence for ineffective TE suppression on the female-specific W Chromosome. Using RNA-seq data, we show that ~ 9.5% of all transcribed TEs had considerably greater (average: 16-fold) transcript abundance in female crows, and that more than 85% of these female-biased TEs originated on the W Chromosome. After accounting for differences in TE density among chromosomal classes, W-linked TEs were significantly more highly expressed than TEs residing on other chromosomes, consistent with ineffective silencing on the former. Together, our results suggest that the crow W Chromosome acts as a source of transcriptionally active TEs, with possible negative fitness consequences for female birds analogous to Drosophila (an X/Y system), where overexpression of Y-linked TEs is associated with male-specific aging and fitness loss ('toxic Y').
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Tusso S, Suo F, Liang Y, Du LL, Wolf JBW. Reactivation of transposable elements following hybridization in fission yeast. Genome Res 2021; 32:324-336. [PMID: 34907076 PMCID: PMC8805722 DOI: 10.1101/gr.276056.121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Hybridization is thought to reactivate transposable elements (TEs) that were efficiently suppressed in the genomes of the parental hosts. Here, we provide evidence for this “genomic shock hypothesis” in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. In this species, two divergent lineages (Sp and Sk) have experienced recent, likely human-induced, hybridization. We used long-read sequencing data to assemble genomes of 37 samples derived from 31 S. pombe strains spanning a wide range of ancestral admixture proportions. A comprehensive TE inventory revealed exclusive presence of long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons. Sequence analysis of active full-length elements, as well as solo LTRs, revealed a complex history of homologous recombination. Population genetic analyses of syntenic sequences placed insertion of many solo LTRs before the split of the Sp and Sk lineages. Most full-length elements were inserted more recently, after hybridization. With the exception of a single full-length element with signs of positive selection, both solo LTRs and, in particular, full-length elements carry signatures of purifying selection indicating effective removal by the host. Consistent with reactivation upon hybridization, the number of full-length LTR retrotransposons, varying extensively from zero to 87 among strains, significantly increases with the degree of genomic admixture. This study gives a detailed account of global TE diversity in S. pombe, documents complex recombination histories within TE elements, and provides evidence for the “genomic shock hypothesis.”
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Fang Suo
- National Institute of Biological Sciences
| | - Yue Liang
- National Institute of Biological Sciences
| | - Li-Lin Du
- National Institute of Biological Sciences
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12
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Galbraith JD, Kortschak RD, Suh A, Adelson DL. Genome Stability Is in the Eye of the Beholder: CR1 Retrotransposon Activity Varies Significantly across Avian Diversity. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 13:6433158. [PMID: 34894225 PMCID: PMC8665684 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab259] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Since the sequencing of the zebra finch genome it has become clear that avian genomes, while largely stable in terms of chromosome number and gene synteny, are more dynamic at an intrachromosomal level. A multitude of intrachromosomal rearrangements and significant variation in transposable element (TE) content have been noted across the avian tree. TEs are a source of genome plasticity, because their high similarity enables chromosomal rearrangements through nonallelic homologous recombination, and they have potential for exaptation as regulatory and coding sequences. Previous studies have investigated the activity of the dominant TE in birds, chicken repeat 1 (CR1) retrotransposons, either focusing on their expansion within single orders, or comparing passerines with nonpasserines. Here, we comprehensively investigate and compare the activity of CR1 expansion across orders of birds, finding levels of CR1 activity vary significantly both between and within orders. We describe high levels of TE expansion in genera which have speciated in the last 10 Myr including kiwis, geese, and Amazon parrots; low levels of TE expansion in songbirds across their diversification, and near inactivity of TEs in the cassowary and emu for millions of years. CR1s have remained active over long periods of time across most orders of neognaths, with activity at any one time dominated by one or two families of CR1s. Our findings of higher TE activity in species-rich clades and dominant families of TEs within lineages mirror past findings in mammals and indicate that genome evolution in amniotes relies on universal TE-driven processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- James D Galbraith
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | | | - Alexander Suh
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.,Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC), Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Sweden
| | - David L Adelson
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
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13
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Yang Y, Wang T, Chen J, Wu L, Wu X, Zhang W, Luo J, Xia J, Meng Z, Liu X. Whole-genome sequencing of brown-marbled grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) provides insights into adaptive evolution and growth differences. Mol Ecol Resour 2021; 22:711-723. [PMID: 34455708 DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.13494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2020] [Revised: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The brown-marbled grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) is an important species of fish in the coral reef ecosystem and marine aquaculture industry. In this study, a high-quality chromosome-level genome of brown-marbled grouper was assembled using Oxford Nanopore technology and Hi-C technology. The GC content and heterozygosity were approximately 42% and 0.35%, respectively. A total of 230 contigs with a total length of 1047 Mb and contig N50 of 13.8 Mb were assembled, and 228 contigs (99.13%) were anchored into 24 chromosomes. A total of 24,005 protein-coding genes were predicted, among which 23,862 (99.4%) predicted genes were annotated. Phylogenetic analysis showed that brown-marbled grouper and humpback grouper were clustered into one clade that separated approximately 11-23 million years ago. Collinearity analyses showed that there was no obvious duplication of large fragments between chromosomes in the brown-marbled grouper. Genomes of the humpback grouper and giant grouper showed a high collinearity with that of the brown-marbled grouper. A total of 305 expanded gene families were detected in the brown-marbled grouper genome, which is mainly involved in disease resistance. In addition, a genetic linkage map with 3061.88 cM was constructed. Based on the physical and genetic map, one growth-related quantitative trait loci was detected in 32,332,447 bp of chromosome 20, and meox1 and etv4 were considered candidate growth-related genes. This study provides pivotal genetic resources for further evolutionary analyses and artificial breeding of groupers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Life Sciences School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Tong Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Life Sciences School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jingfang Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Life Sciences School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Lina Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Life Sciences School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xi Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Life Sciences School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Weiwei Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Education, Marine Sciences College of Hainan University, Haikou, China
| | - Jian Luo
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Education, Marine Sciences College of Hainan University, Haikou, China
| | - Junhong Xia
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Life Sciences School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Southern Laboratory of Ocean Science and Engineering, Zhuhai, China
| | - Zining Meng
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Life Sciences School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Southern Laboratory of Ocean Science and Engineering, Zhuhai, China
| | - Xiaochun Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Life Sciences School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Southern Laboratory of Ocean Science and Engineering, Zhuhai, China
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14
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Hiltunen M, Ament-Velásquez SL, Johannesson H. The Assembled and Annotated Genome of the Fairy-Ring Fungus Marasmius oreades. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 13:evab126. [PMID: 34051082 PMCID: PMC8290104 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Marasmius oreades is a basidiomycete fungus that grows in so called "fairy rings," which are circular, underground mycelia common in lawns across temperate areas of the world. Fairy rings can be thought of as natural, long-term evolutionary experiments. As each ring has a common origin and expands radially outwards over many years, different sectors will independently accumulate mutations during growth. The genotype can be followed to the next generation, as mushrooms producing the sexual spores are formed seasonally at the edge of the ring. Here, we present new genomic data from 95 single-spore isolates of the species, which we used to construct a genetic linkage map and an updated version of the genome assembly. The 44-Mb assembly was anchored to 11 linkage groups, producing chromosome-length scaffolds. Gene annotation revealed 13,891 genes, 55% of which contained a pfam domain. The repetitive fraction of the genome was 22%, and dominated by retrotransposons and DNA elements of the KDZ and Plavaka groups. The level of assembly contiguity we present is so far rare in mushroom-forming fungi, and we expect studies of genomics, transposons, phylogenetics, and evolution to be facilitated by the data we present here of the iconic fairy-ring mushroom.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus Hiltunen
- Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Sweden
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15
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Gonçalves M, Siegismund HR, Jansen van Vuuren B, Koepfli KP, Ferrand N, Godinho R. De novo whole-genome assembly and resequencing resources for the roan (Hippotragus equinus), an iconic African antelope. G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS 2021; 11:6114458. [PMID: 33604669 PMCID: PMC8022987 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkab002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2020] [Accepted: 12/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus) is the second-largest member of the Hippotraginae (Bovidae), and is widely distributed across sub-Saharan mesic woodlands. Despite being listed as "Least Concern" across its African range, population numbers are decreasing with many regional Red List statuses varying between Endangered and Locally Extinct. Although the roan antelope has become an economically-important game species in Southern Africa, the vast majority of wild populations are found only in fragmented protected areas, which is of conservation concern. Genomic information is crucial in devising optimal management plans. To this end, we report here the first de novo assembly and annotation of the whole-genome sequence of a male roan antelope from a captive-breeding program. Additionally, we uncover single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) through re-sequencing of five wild individuals representing five of the six described subspecies. We used 10X Genomics Chromium chemistry to produce a draft genome of 2.56 Gb consisting of 16,880 scaffolds with N50 = 8.42 Mb and a BUSCO completeness of 91.2%. The draft roan genome includes 1.1 Gbp (42.2%) repetitive sequences. De novo annotation identified 20,518 protein-coding genes. Genome synteny to the domestic cow showed an average identity of 92.7%. Re-sequencing of five wild individuals to an average sequencing depth of 9.8x resulted in the identification of a filtered set of 3.4x106 bi-allelic SNVs. The proportion of alternative homozygous SNVs for the individuals representing different subspecies, as well as differentiation as measured by PCA, were consistent with expected divergence from the reference genome and among samples. The roan antelope genome is a valuable resource for evolutionary and population genomic questions, as well as management and conservation actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margarida Gonçalves
- CIBIO/InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal.,Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
| | - Hans R Siegismund
- Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Bettine Jansen van Vuuren
- Department of Zoology, Centre for Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation, University of Johannesburg, 2006 Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Klaus-Peter Koepfli
- Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, Front Royal, VA 22630, USA.,Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Center for Species Survival, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC 20008, USA
| | - Nuno Ferrand
- CIBIO/InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal.,Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.,Department of Zoology, Centre for Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation, University of Johannesburg, 2006 Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Raquel Godinho
- CIBIO/InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal.,Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.,Department of Zoology, Centre for Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation, University of Johannesburg, 2006 Johannesburg, South Africa
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16
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Galbraith JD, Ludington AJ, Suh A, Sanders KL, Adelson DL. New Environment, New Invaders-Repeated Horizontal Transfer of LINEs to Sea Snakes. Genome Biol Evol 2020; 12:2370-2383. [PMID: 33022046 PMCID: PMC7846101 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evaa208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Although numerous studies have found horizontal transposon transfer (HTT) to be widespread across metazoans, few have focused on HTT in marine ecosystems. To investigate potential recent HTTs into marine species, we searched for novel repetitive elements in sea snakes, a group of elapids which transitioned to a marine habitat at most 18 Ma. Our analysis uncovered repeated HTTs into sea snakes following their marine transition. The seven subfamilies of horizontally transferred LINE retrotransposons we identified in the olive sea snake (Aipysurus laevis) are transcribed, and hence are likely still active and expanding across the genome. A search of 600 metazoan genomes found all seven were absent from other amniotes, including terrestrial elapids, with the most similar LINEs present in fish and marine invertebrates. The one exception was a similar LINE found in sea kraits, a lineage of amphibious elapids which independently transitioned to a marine environment 25 Ma. Our finding of repeated horizontal transfer events into marine snakes greatly expands past findings that the marine environment promotes the transfer of transposons. Transposons are drivers of evolution as sources of genomic sequence and hence genomic novelty. We identified 13 candidate genes for HTT-induced adaptive change based on internal or neighboring HTT LINE insertions. One of these, ADCY4, is of particular interest as a part of the KEGG adaptation pathway “Circadian Entrainment.” This provides evidence of the ecological interactions between species influencing evolution of metazoans not only through specific selection pressures, but also by contributing novel genomic material.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Alexander Suh
- Department of Ecology and Genetics-Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Sweden.,Department of Organismal Biology-Systematic Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Sweden.,School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Kate L Sanders
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Australia
| | - David L Adelson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Australia
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17
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Blommaert J. Genome size evolution: towards new model systems for old questions. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201441. [PMID: 32842932 PMCID: PMC7482279 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 07/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Genome size (GS) variation is a fundamental biological characteristic; however, its evolutionary causes and consequences are the topic of ongoing debate. Whether GS is a neutral trait or one subject to selective pressures, and how strong these selective pressures are, may remain open questions. Fundamentally, the genomic sequences responsible for this variation directly impact the potential evolutionary outcomes and, equally, are the targets of different evolutionary pressures. For example, duplications and deletions of genic regions (large or small) can have immediate and drastic phenotypic effects, while an expansion or contraction of non-coding DNA is less likely to cause catastrophic phenotypic effects. However, in the long term, the accumulation or deletion of ncDNA is likely to have larger effects. Modern sequencing technologies are allowing for the dissection of these proximate causes, but a combination of these new technologies with more traditional evolutionary experiments and approaches could revolutionize this debate and potentially resolve many of these arguments. Here, I discuss an ambitious way forward for GS research, putting it in context of historical debates, theories and sometimes contradictory evidence, and highlighting the promise of combining new sequencing technologies and analytical developments with more traditional experimental evolution approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie Blommaert
- Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
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18
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Gemmell NJ, Rutherford K, Prost S, Tollis M, Winter D, Macey JR, Adelson DL, Suh A, Bertozzi T, Grau JH, Organ C, Gardner PP, Muffato M, Patricio M, Billis K, Martin FJ, Flicek P, Petersen B, Kang L, Michalak P, Buckley TR, Wilson M, Cheng Y, Miller H, Schott RK, Jordan MD, Newcomb RD, Arroyo JI, Valenzuela N, Hore TA, Renart J, Peona V, Peart CR, Warmuth VM, Zeng L, Kortschak RD, Raison JM, Zapata VV, Wu Z, Santesmasses D, Mariotti M, Guigó R, Rupp SM, Twort VG, Dussex N, Taylor H, Abe H, Bond DM, Paterson JM, Mulcahy DG, Gonzalez VL, Barbieri CG, DeMeo DP, Pabinger S, Van Stijn T, Clarke S, Ryder O, Edwards SV, Salzberg SL, Anderson L, Nelson N, Stone C. The tuatara genome reveals ancient features of amniote evolution. Nature 2020; 584:403-409. [PMID: 32760000 PMCID: PMC7116210 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2561-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Accepted: 06/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)-the only living member of the reptilian order Rhynchocephalia (Sphenodontia), once widespread across Gondwana1,2-is an iconic species that is endemic to New Zealand2,3. A key link to the now-extinct stem reptiles (from which dinosaurs, modern reptiles, birds and mammals evolved), the tuatara provides key insights into the ancestral amniotes2,4. Here we analyse the genome of the tuatara, which-at approximately 5 Gb-is among the largest of the vertebrate genomes yet assembled. Our analyses of this genome, along with comparisons with other vertebrate genomes, reinforce the uniqueness of the tuatara. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the tuatara lineage diverged from that of snakes and lizards around 250 million years ago. This lineage also shows moderate rates of molecular evolution, with instances of punctuated evolution. Our genome sequence analysis identifies expansions of proteins, non-protein-coding RNA families and repeat elements, the latter of which show an amalgam of reptilian and mammalian features. The sequencing of the tuatara genome provides a valuable resource for deep comparative analyses of tetrapods, as well as for tuatara biology and conservation. Our study also provides important insights into both the technical challenges and the cultural obligations that are associated with genome sequencing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neil J Gemmell
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
| | - Kim Rutherford
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Stefan Prost
- LOEWE-Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
- South African National Biodiversity Institute, National Zoological Garden, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Marc Tollis
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
- School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
| | - David Winter
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | | | - David L Adelson
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Alexander Suh
- Department of Ecology and Genetics - Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC), Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Organismal Biology - Systematic Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC), Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Terry Bertozzi
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Evolutionary Biology Unit, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - José H Grau
- Amedes Genetics, Amedes Medizinische Dienstleistungen, Berlin, Germany
- Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Chris Organ
- Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
| | - Paul P Gardner
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Matthieu Muffato
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Mateus Patricio
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Konstantinos Billis
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Fergal J Martin
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Paul Flicek
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Bent Petersen
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Lin Kang
- Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Pawel Michalak
- Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Blacksburg, VA, USA
- Center for One Health Research, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Blacksburg, VA, USA
- Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Thomas R Buckley
- Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, Auckland, New Zealand
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Melissa Wilson
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Yuanyuan Cheng
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | | | - Ryan K Schott
- Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Melissa D Jordan
- The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Richard D Newcomb
- The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - José Ignacio Arroyo
- Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Nicole Valenzuela
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Tim A Hore
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Jaime Renart
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas 'Alberto Sols' CSIC-UAM, Madrid, Spain
| | - Valentina Peona
- Department of Ecology and Genetics - Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC), Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Organismal Biology - Systematic Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC), Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Claire R Peart
- Department of Ecology and Genetics - Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC), Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Division of Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - Vera M Warmuth
- Department of Ecology and Genetics - Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC), Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Division of Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - Lu Zeng
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - R Daniel Kortschak
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Joy M Raison
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | | | - Zhiqiang Wu
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Didac Santesmasses
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marco Mariotti
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Roderic Guigó
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Shawn M Rupp
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Victoria G Twort
- Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, Auckland, New Zealand
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Nicolas Dussex
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Helen Taylor
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Hideaki Abe
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Donna M Bond
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - James M Paterson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Daniel G Mulcahy
- Global Genome Initiative, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Vanessa L Gonzalez
- Global Genome Initiative, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
| | | | | | - Stephan Pabinger
- Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Center for Health and Bioresources, Molecular Diagnostics, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Shannon Clarke
- AgResearch, Invermay Agricultural Centre, Mosgiel, New Zealand
| | - Oliver Ryder
- San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, Escondido, CA, USA
| | - Scott V Edwards
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Steven L Salzberg
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Lindsay Anderson
- School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Nicola Nelson
- School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Clive Stone
- Ngatiwai Trust Board, Whangarei, New Zealand
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19
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Osipova E, Hecker N, Hiller M. RepeatFiller newly identifies megabases of aligning repetitive sequences and improves annotations of conserved non-exonic elements. Gigascience 2019; 8:giz132. [PMID: 31742600 PMCID: PMC6862929 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giz132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2019] [Revised: 09/10/2019] [Accepted: 10/15/2019] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Transposons and other repetitive sequences make up a large part of complex genomes. Repetitive sequences can be co-opted into a variety of functions and thus provide a source for evolutionary novelty. However, comprehensively detecting ancestral repeats that align between species is difficult because considering all repeat-overlapping seeds in alignment methods that rely on the seed-and-extend heuristic results in prohibitively high runtimes. RESULTS Here, we show that ignoring repeat-overlapping alignment seeds when aligning entire genomes misses numerous alignments between repetitive elements. We present a tool, RepeatFiller, that improves genome alignments by incorporating previously undetected local alignments between repetitive sequences. By applying RepeatFiller to genome alignments between human and 20 other representative mammals, we uncover between 22 and 84 Mb of previously undetected alignments that mostly overlap transposable elements. We further show that the increased alignment coverage improves the annotation of conserved non-exonic elements, both by discovering numerous novel transposon-derived elements that evolve under constraint and by removing thousands of elements that are not under constraint in placental mammals. CONCLUSIONS RepeatFiller contributes to comprehensively aligning repetitive genomic regions, which facilitates studying transposon co-option and genome evolution. Source code: https://github.com/hillerlab/GenomeAlignmentTools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ekaterina Osipova
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Noethnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
- Center for Systems Biology, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany
| | - Nikolai Hecker
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Noethnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
- Center for Systems Biology, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany
| | - Michael Hiller
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Noethnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
- Center for Systems Biology, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany
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Guliaev AS, Semyenova SK. MGERT: a pipeline to retrieve coding sequences of mobile genetic elements from genome assemblies. Mob DNA 2019; 10:21. [PMID: 31114637 PMCID: PMC6515669 DOI: 10.1186/s13100-019-0163-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2019] [Accepted: 04/26/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Genomes of eukaryotes are inhabited by myriads of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) – transposons and retrotransposons - which play a great role in genome plasticity and evolution. A lot of computational tools were developed to annotate them either in genomic assemblies or raw reads using de novo or homology-based approaches. But there has been no pipeline enabling users to get coding and flanking sequences of MGEs suitable for a downstream analysis from genome assemblies. Results We developed a new pipeline, MGERT (Mobile Genetic Elements Retrieving Tool), that automates all the steps necessary to obtain protein-coding sequences of mobile genetic elements from genomic assemblies even if no previous knowledge on MGE content of a particular genome is available. Conclusions Using MGERT, researchers can easily find MGEs, their coding and flanking sequences in the genome of interest. Thus, this pipeline helps researchers to focus on the biological analysis of MGEs rather than excessive scripting and pipelining. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13100-019-0163-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrei S Guliaev
- Laboratory of Genome Organization, Institute of Gene Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilov Str., 34/5, Moscow, 119334 Russia
| | - Seraphima K Semyenova
- Laboratory of Genome Organization, Institute of Gene Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilov Str., 34/5, Moscow, 119334 Russia
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Zeng L, Pederson SM, Kortschak RD, Adelson DL. Transposable elements and gene expression during the evolution of amniotes. Mob DNA 2018; 9:17. [PMID: 29942365 PMCID: PMC5998507 DOI: 10.1186/s13100-018-0124-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2018] [Accepted: 06/01/2018] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Transposable elements (TEs) are primarily responsible for the DNA losses and gains in genome sequences that occur over time within and between species. TEs themselves evolve, with clade specific LTR/ERV, LINEs and SINEs responsible for the bulk of species-specific genomic features. Because TEs can contain regulatory motifs, they can be exapted as regulators of gene expression. While TE insertions can provide evolutionary novelty for the regulation of gene expression, their overall impact on the evolution of gene expression is unclear. Previous investigators have shown that tissue specific gene expression in amniotes is more similar across species than within species, supporting the existence of conserved developmental gene regulation. In order to understand how species-specific TE insertions might affect the evolution/conservation of gene expression, we have looked at the association of gene expression in six tissues with TE insertions in six representative amniote genomes. Results A novel bootstrapping approach has been used to minimise the conflation of effects of repeat types on gene expression. We compared the expression of orthologs containing recent TE insertions to orthologs that contained older TE insertions, and the expression of non-orthologs containing recent TE insertions to non-orthologs with older TE insertions. Both orthologs and non-orthologs showed significant differences in gene expression associated with TE insertions. TEs were found associated with species-specific changes in gene expression, and the magnitude and direction of expression changes were noteworthy. Overall, orthologs containing species-specific TEs were associated with lower gene expression, while in non-orthologs, non-species specific TEs were associated with higher gene expression. Exceptions were SINE elements in human and chicken, which had an opposite association with gene expression compared to other species. Conclusions Our observed species-specific associations of TEs with gene expression support a role for TEs in speciation/response to selection by species. TEs do not exhibit consistent associations with gene expression and observed associations can vary depending on the age of TE insertions. Based on these observations, it would be prudent to refrain from extrapolating these and previously reported associations to distantly related species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lu Zeng
- 1School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5005 Australia
| | - Stephen M Pederson
- 2Bioinformatics Hub, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5005 Australia
| | - R Daniel Kortschak
- 1School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5005 Australia
| | - David L Adelson
- 1School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5005 Australia
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