{"title":"Multiple Domestication Centers of the Indian Pig Population.","authors":"Shailesh Desai, Prajjval Pratap Singh, Rudra Kumar Pandey, Rahul Kumar Mishra, Akhilesh Kumar Chaubey, Ajit Kumar, Sachin Kr Tiwary, Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Alessandro Achilli, Nicola Rambaldi Migliore, Gyaneshwer Chaubey","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf030","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf030","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The domestication of animals is a major milestone in human history and has been studied in various fields. Pig domestication, in particular, has been widely studied, and it is believed that India is one of at least six domestication centers. However, there is a lack of systematic studies using high-resolution genetic markers, including complete mitogenomes, to investigate the domestication and genetic roots of pigs in India. In the present study, we investigated the origin and evolution of Indian pigs using mitochondrial genetic data to complement archaeological data sets. The phylogenetic status of Indian pig breeds was determined by analyzing all available mitochondrial data, incorporating a global data set of 239 mitogenomes. The Bayesian and maximum likelihood tree analyses unveiled at least eight haplogroups diverging from three main branches, two of which are geographically restricted to India. We propose that the North Indian domestic haplogroup might represent an independent in situ domestication event in North India, probably dating before ∼5,000 YBP. An additional North East Indian domestic haplogroup is nested within a widespread Asian clade that also includes Indian mitogenomes from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that diverged more recently from distinct East and Southeast Asian roots. In conclusion, we propose that North Indian farmers could have been responsible for the independent domestication of local wild boars giving rise to the current domestic lineage identified in North India. At least one additional domestic lineage arrived in India more recently and remained mainly localized in the northeast. Domestic mitogenomes from the Indian islands show a notable connection with pig populations from Vietnam, and their arrival might be related to Austroasiatic-speaking human populations. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the complex dynamics of pig domestication in India.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11886846/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143491577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ran Li, Ze-Kai Wang, Dong-Kai Liu, Ying-Xue Zhang, Xiao-Yu Li, Hai-Xin Li
{"title":"Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of the Heptageniid Mayfly Parafronurus youi (Ephemeroptera), and Its Annotation.","authors":"Ran Li, Ze-Kai Wang, Dong-Kai Liu, Ying-Xue Zhang, Xiao-Yu Li, Hai-Xin Li","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf027","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf027","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>As a group of winged insects (Pterygota) retaining many primitive characteristics, genomic research on mayflies remains highly limited, posing challenges to the study of their origin and evolution. In this study, we present the first chromosome-level genome assembly of the Chinese endemic mayfly Parafronurus youi utilizing Illumina short-read, PacBio long-read, and Hi-C sequencing technologies. The high-quality genome is 412.90 Mb in size with 99.07% of the sequences anchored to 11 chromosomes (ranging from 24.88 to 45.89 Mb). Genome annotation predicted 15,647 protein-coding genes with an average length of 9,934.7 bp, of which 85.9% were functionally annotated in the UniProtKB database. Repetitive elements accounted for 32.83% of the genome, including 27.33% transposable elements and 4.07% simple repeats. This study not only enriches genomic resources for mayflies but also establishes a foundation for investigating molecular mechanisms underlying ecological adaptation and evolutionary traits, contributing to the conservation of freshwater ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11882360/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143482979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuki Gyoja, Keita Sato, Takahiro Yamashita, Takehiro G Kusakabe
{"title":"An Extensive Survey of Vertebrate-specific, Nonvisual Opsins Identifies a Novel Subfamily, Q113-Bistable Opsin.","authors":"Fuki Gyoja, Keita Sato, Takahiro Yamashita, Takehiro G Kusakabe","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf032","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf032","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A group of nonvisual opsins specific to vertebrates is essential to understand evolution of lateral eyes, one of the most prominent innovations in this lineage. Nevertheless, our knowledge of their evolutionary history remains limited. To develop an integrated view of their evolution, we surveyed these non-visual opsins (VA opsin, pinopsin, parapinopsin, parietopsin, and parapinopsin-like) in 451 vertebrate genomes. Through extensive manual curation, we completed a high-quality catalog. We could not find them in 202 mammals, supporting previous reports of their loss. VA opsins are highly conserved among nonmammals. In contrast, other opsin subfamilies experienced more dynamic molecular evolution with many secondary losses. In addition, we found a previously unreported opsin subfamily that we named Q113-Bistable (QB) opsin. We found its orthologs only in several lizards and the tuatara. Nevertheless, QB opsin pseudogenes were discovered in diverse taxa, including ray-finned fishes, indicating its ancient origin. QB opsin, parapinopsin, and parietopsin are extremely prone to be lost in the course of evolution, and loss events involving these opsins seem to occur concomitantly. Furthermore, we demonstrated the spectral properties of QB opsin as a UV-sensitive, bistable photo-pigment. This study provides the first integrated view of the entire evolutionary history of this group of opsins.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11893379/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143556625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Broad Genome Survey Reveals Widespread Presence of Secretoglobin Genes in Squamate and Archosaur Reptiles that Flowered into Diversity in Mammals.","authors":"Robert C Karn, Christina M Laukaitis","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf024","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Secretoglobins (SCGBs) are a superfamily of small, dimeric, cytokine-like proteins found originally in the reproductive tracts and airways of mammals. Most SCGB research has focused on respiratory diseases in humans and laboratory animal models but knowledge of their biological functions is sparse. We report here a broad survey of Scgbs, the genes that encode SCGBs, in animal genomes. We tested the view that they are uniquely mammalian in origin and distribution, hoping that understanding their distribution would shed light on their evolutionary history and perhaps point to putative biological functions. Rather than being uniquely mammalian, we found many different SCGBs in turtles, crocodilians, lizards, and birds, suggesting they existed in the Carboniferous Period (∼320 MYA) when the sauropsids evolved in the amniote lineage. We identified no SCGBs in amphibians or fishes, suggesting that this characteristic originated in an amniote ancestor. Amniotes include sauropsid and synapsid lineages, and three subfamilies of SCGBs (SCGB2A, SCGB3A, and SCGB1C) are found in both sauropsid and synapsid lineages. Uteroglobin (SCGB1A), the first identified SCGB protein, is uniquely mammalian, having appeared in monotremes. The SCGB subfamilies including androgen-binding proteins (SCGB1B and SCGB2B) are first seen in metatherians. This complex distribution suggests that there is an as-yet-undiscovered basic function of SCGBs shared by all amniotes.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11884772/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143413949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Amino Acid Properties, Substitution Rates, and the Nearly Neutral Theory.","authors":"Jennifer E James, Martin Lascoux","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf025","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Do the properties of amino acids affect their rates of substitution? The neutral theory predicts that greater selective constraint leads to slower rates of evolution; similarly, we expect amino acids that are more different from each other to have lower rates of exchange because such changes are most likely to affect protein structure and function. Here, we test these predictions, using substitution rates estimated from empirical amino acid exchangeability matrices. To measure degree of amino acid difference, we focused on two physicochemical properties, charge and size, uncorrelated metrics that are known to have important implications for protein structure and function. We find that for both charge and size, amino acid pairs with large differences had lower rates of substitution. We also found that amino acids that differed in both properties had the lowest rates of substitution, suggesting that both physicochemical properties are under selective constraint. Mutation properties, such as the number of mutations or the number of transitions as opposed to transversions separating amino acid pairs, were also important predictors of substitution rates. The relationship between amino acid substitution rates and differences in their physiochemical properties holds across several taxonomically restricted datasets. This finding suggests that purifying selection affects amino acid substitution rates in a similar manner across taxonomic groups with different effective population sizes.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11884779/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Daniela Tizabi, Russell T Hill, Tsvetan Bachvaroff
{"title":"Nanopore Sequencing of Amoebophrya Species Reveals Novel Collection of Bacteria Putatively Associated With Karlodinium veneficum.","authors":"Daniela Tizabi, Russell T Hill, Tsvetan Bachvaroff","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf022","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf022","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The dinoflagellate parasite Amoebophrya sp. ex Karlodinium veneficum plays a major role in controlling populations of the toxic bloom-forming dinoflagellate K. veneficum and is one of the few cultured representatives of Marine Alveolate Group II. The obligate parasitic nature of this Amoebophrya spp. precludes isolation in culture, and therefore, genomic characterization of this parasite relies on metagenomic sequencing. Whole-genome sequencing of an Amoebophrya sp. ex K. veneficum-infected culture using Nanopore long reads revealed a diverse community of novel bacteria as well as several species previously reported to be associated with algae. In sum, 39 metagenome-assembled genomes were assembled, and less than half of these required binning of multiple contigs. Seven were abundant but of unknown genera, 13 were identifiable at the generic level by BLAST (8 of which were apparently complete single-contig genomes), and the remaining 19 comprised less abundant (individually accounting for <2% of the total bacterial reads in the culture) and often rarer and/or novel species. Attempts to culture strains identified through sequencing revealed that only two of these bacterial isolates were readily amenable to cultivation, stressing the importance of a dual culture- and sequencing-based approach for robust community analysis. Functional annotations of metagenome-assembled genomes are presented here to support the characterization of a microbial community associated with K. veneficum and/or Amoebophrya sp. ex K. veneficum cultured from the Chesapeake Bay and give preliminary insights into the nature of the associations these bacteria have with this parasite-host complex.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11890096/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143407081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Talieh Ostovar, Jacob B Landis, Elizabeth W McCarthy, Nicolas Sierro, Amy Litt
{"title":"Differential Gene Expression and Unbalanced Homeolog Expression Bias in 4 Million-Year-Old Allopolyploids of Nicotiana Section Repandae.","authors":"Talieh Ostovar, Jacob B Landis, Elizabeth W McCarthy, Nicolas Sierro, Amy Litt","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf029","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf029","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Allopolyploidy, a phenomenon prevalent in angiosperms involving hybridization and whole-genome duplication, results in species with multiple subgenomes, altering genome structure and gene expression, leading to novel phenotypes. Allopolyploids often experience unbalanced homeolog expression bias, the preferential expression of homeologs from one of the two progenitor genomes. To explore the consequences of allopolyploidy and unbalanced homeolog expression bias, we investigate global gene expression and the fate of homeologs in Nicotiana (Solanaceae). We focus on Nicotiana section Repandae, including three allotetraploid species, Nicotiana nudicaulis, N. repanda, and N. stocktonii, derived from diploid progenitors N. sylvestris and N. obtusifolia ∼4.3 Ma. We identify genes with differential expression and investigate expression of candidate genes for flower size variation. Our results show expression differences with the allopolyploids intermediate between the two progenitor species, with a slight bias toward N. obtusifolia. Moreover, we demonstrate unbalanced homeolog expression bias toward the N. obtusifolia subgenome across developmental stages in the allopolyploids, with a stronger bias in N. nudicaulis. In contrast, unbalanced homeolog expression bias shifts toward N. sylvestris for flower size genes in N. nudicaulis, showing that genes involved in particular phenotypes can display different patterns of unbalanced homeolog expression than the overall transcriptome. We also see differential expression of several known flower size genes across corolla developmental stages. Our results highlight the role of unbalanced homeolog expression bias in shaping the evolutionary trajectory of Nicotiana species and provide a foundation for future research into the ecological and evolutionary implications of allopolyploidy in flowering plants.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11890095/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Short-Term View of Protein Sequence Evolution from Salmonella.","authors":"Joshua L Cherry","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf040","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Much of the study of protein sequence evolution is based on sequence changes inferred to have occurred in nature. The sequences compared for this purpose are usually sufficiently distant that purifying selection has had nearly its full effect and most of the changes inferred have been exposed to a variety of conditions. Here I make use of large numbers of Salmonella genome sequences to study changes known to be of very recent origin because they are inferred from comparison of very closely related sequences. The effects of purifying selection are weak yet discernible on this short timescale: the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous changes is smaller than expected under selective neutrality, but only slightly so. Essential genes have lower rates of nonsynonymous change, as they do on a longer timescale, but much more of this association remains after controlling for expression level. Positive selection for nonsynonymous change is inferred for 151 genes. For nearly half of these, this is attributable to selection for loss of function. Other forms of positive selection inferred include selection for amino acid changes that make enzymes less sensitive to antibiotics and selection for activating changes to proteins involved in transcriptional regulation. Positively selected variants of many genes are likely favored only under unusual conditions and disfavored in the long term, making detection of the positive selection with more distant comparisons difficult or impossible. The short-term view provided by close comparisons complements the long-term view obtained from more distant comparisons such as those between species.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143572771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anastasia A Teterina, John H Willis, Charles F Baer, Patrick C Phillips
{"title":"Pervasive conservation of intron number and other genetic elements revealed by a chromosome-level genome assembly of the hyper-polymorphic nematode Caenorhabditis brenneri.","authors":"Anastasia A Teterina, John H Willis, Charles F Baer, Patrick C Phillips","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf037","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf037","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With within-species genetic diversity estimates that span the gamut of that seen across the entirety of animals, the Caenorhabditis genus of nematodes holds unique potential to provide insights into how population size and reproductive strategies influence gene and genome organization and evolution. Our study focuses on Caenorhabditis brenneri, currently known as one of the most genetically diverse nematodes within its genus and, notably, across Metazoa. Here, we present a high-quality, gapless genome assembly and annotation for C. brenneri, revealing a common nematode chromosome arrangement characterized by gene-dense central regions and repeat-rich arms. Comparison of C. brenneri with other nematodes from the 'Elegans' group revealed conserved macrosynteny but a lack of microsynteny, characterized by frequent rearrangements and low correlation of orthogroup size, indicative of high rates of gene turnover, consistent with previous studies. We also assessed genome organization within corresponding syntenic blocks in selfing and outcrossing species, affirming that selfing species predominantly experience loss of both genes and intergenic DNA. Comparison of gene structures revealed a strikingly small number of shared introns across species, yet consistent distributions of intron number and length, regardless of population size or reproductive mode, suggesting that their evolutionary dynamics are primarily reflective of functional constraints. Our study provides valuable insights into genome evolution and expands the nematode genome resources with the highly genetically diverse C. brenneri, facilitating research into various aspects of nematode biology and evolutionary processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143556678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Breeding Sex Ratio Interacts with Demographic History to Shape Comparative Patterns of Variation on the X Chromosome and the Autosomes.","authors":"William J Spurley, Bret A Payseur","doi":"10.1093/gbe/evaf035","DOIUrl":"10.1093/gbe/evaf035","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In many populations, unequal numbers of females and males reproduce each generation. This imbalance in the breeding sex ratio (BSR) shapes patterns of genetic variation on the sex chromosomes and the autosomes in distinct ways. Despite recognition of this phenomenon, effects of the BSR on some aspects of variation remain unclear, especially for populations with non-equilibrium demographic histories. To address this gap in the field, we used coalescent simulations to examine relative patterns of variation at X-linked loci and autosomal loci in populations spanning the range of BSR with historical changes in population size. Shifts in BSR away from 1:1 reduce nucleotide diversity and the number of unique haplotypes and increase linkage disequilibrium and the frequency of the most common haplotype, with contrasting effects on X-linked loci and autosomal loci. Strong population bottlenecks transform relationships between the BSR, the site frequency spectrum, and linkage disequilibrium while relationships between the BSR, nucleotide diversity, and haplotype characteristics are broadly conserved. Our findings indicate that evolutionary interpretations of variation on the X chromosome should consider the combined effects of the BSR and demographic history. The genomic signatures we report could be used to reconstruct these fundamental population parameters from genomic data in natural populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":12779,"journal":{"name":"Genome Biology and Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143556679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}