Heredity最新文献

{"title":"Last Glacial and Holocene dynamics override post-colonial disturbance in shaping genetic diversity of a heavily exploited palaeoendemic conifer, Lagarostrobos franklinii.","authors":"James R P Worth, James R Marthick, Yoshihisa Suyama, Gregory J Jordan","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00798-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00798-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The impact of past anthropogenic disturbance on the amount and distribution of genetic diversity is a key factor in determining the resilience of tree species to environmental change. This is particularly the case for narrowly distributed species where disturbance has impacted most of the species' range. Here we examine the legacy of post-colonial logging and fire on patterns of genetic diversity in the Tasmanian palaeoendemic conifer Lagarostrobos franklinii (Podocarpaceae), a fire-sensitive and slow growing rainforest tree valued for its durable timber. Thirty-three populations (12 of which represent primary stands) from across the species range were genotyped using eight nuclear SSRs (871 samples) and MIG-seq-based single nucleotide polymorphisms (254 samples). Genetic differentiation was relatively high for conifers (Fst of 0.113 and 0.143 for nuclear SSR and MIG-seq, respectively) with cryptic divergence between populations geographically close but in differing river catchments likely reflecting postglacial dispersal from distinct Last Glacial refugia and low levels of gene flow. Population level genetic diversity was greatest in the core of the range with no significant correlation with the history of post-colonial human disturbance (i.e. primary vs. non primary stands). Unexpectedly, given the greater impact of logging at lower elevations, a significant decline in allelic richness with increasing elevation was observed. Overall, this study shows that L. franklinii has been resilient to past timber exploitation and uncovers previously undetected genetic patterns. This demonstrates that genetic tools can be invaluable in characterising species specific impacts of disturbance and in helping guide the ongoing conservation of important species.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145292011","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":"Chromatin state dynamics of autosomes and the B chromosome during spermatogenesis in Pseudococcus viburni.","authors":"Marion Herbette, Laura Ross","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00800-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00800-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The mealybug Pseudococcus viburni is a plant-feeding insect with a non-Mendelian genetic system known as paternal genome elimination (PGE). In PGE, males eliminate their paternally inherited chromosomes during meiosis, transmitting only the maternal genome to the next generation. This involves genome-wide imprinting, where paternal chromosomes are heterochromatinised in embryogenesis and throughout adulthood. In this species, a non-essential B chromosome can escape paternal genome elimination, thereby enhancing its transmission rate to the next generation. Previous studies show that the B chromosome escapes elimination by changing its chromatin compaction during meiosis to resemble that of maternal chromosomes. Although the exact mechanism underlying this change is poorly understood. Here we investigated histone methylation and acetylation modifications, as well as the Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1), to characterise differences between maternal, paternal and B chromosomes during male meiosis of P. viburni. Maternal and paternal chromosomes show distinct histone modification patterns, with marks associated with euchromatin present on maternal chromosomes and marks associated with heterochromatin present on paternal chromosomes. We then identified key histone modification changes that coincide with chromatin remodelling of the B chromosome, which allows it to segregate with maternal chromosomes. In addition, we showed that these chromatin modifications occur regardless of the parental origin of the B chromosome. Overall, our findings support the role of histone modifications for proper chromosome segregation during meiosis in mealybugs and provide insight into the mechanisms by which the B chromosome exploits PGE for its preferential transmission.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145285950","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":"Genetic structure and historical gene flow in Araucaria angustifolia populations across two Brazilian regions.","authors":"Bruno Marchetti de Souza, João Ricardo Bachega Feijó Rosa, Evandro Vagner Tambarussi, Marcos Silveira Wrege, Elenice Fritzsons, Lucileide Vilela Resende, Eliseu Binneck, Leandro Eugenio Cardamone Diniz, Alexandre Magno Sebbenn, Dario Grattapaglia, Valderês Aparecida de Sousa, Miguel Luiz Menezes Freitas, Ananda Virgínia de Aguiar","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00791-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00791-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Araucaria angustifolia (araucaria) is a conifer tree of high ecological and social values in the Brazilian subtropical region. However, the species is threatened with extinction. We examined the genetic variability and gene flow between populations of araucaria through a coalescent approach. DNA samples were collected from 185 trees in a provenance and progeny established with seeds collected in 15 natural populations. The genotyping was performed using a 3 K Axiom SNPs array to verify the intensity and direction of the migratory flow between neighboring populations. All models were run with MIGRATE-N software. The migration rate, the effective number of migrants per generation ( <math><mrow><mi>x</mi> <msub><mrow><mi>N</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>i</mi></mrow> </msub> <msub><mrow><mi>m</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>ij</mi></mrow> </msub> </mrow> </math> ), and the effective population size (N_e) were estimated. The mean N_e observed for the southernmost populations (729 ± 293) was found higher than that of the northernmost ones (390 ± 176). We identified neighboring populations that stand out as the main sources of migrant individuals and the ones that receive a high migration flow. By correlating the migration parameters with climatic variables, we observed that the minimum average temperature in the coldest month, and the amount of rain in the driest month show a high and significant correlation with <math><mrow><mi>x</mi> <msub><mrow><mi>N</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>i</mi></mrow> </msub> <msub><mrow><mi>m</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>ij</mi></mrow> </msub> </mrow> </math> values. In general, the observed gene flow suggests a connection between the remnant populations of araucaria, which constitute the greatest sources of genetic diversity of the species found in the southernmost region of Brazil.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145274345","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":"Investigating the effects of chimerism on the inference of selection: quantifying genomic targets of purifying, positive, and balancing selection in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus).","authors":"Vivak Soni, Cyril J Versoza, Susanne P Pfeifer, Jeffrey D Jensen","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00804-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41437-025-00804-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is of considerable biomedical importance, yet there remains a need to characterize the evolutionary forces shaping empirically observed patterns of genomic variation in the species. However, two uncommon biological traits potentially prevent the use of standard population genetic approaches in this primate: a high frequency of twin births and the prevalence of hematopoietic chimerism. Here we characterize the impact of these biological features on the inference of natural selection, and directly model twinning and chimerism when performing inference of the distribution of fitness effects to characterize general selective dynamics as well as when scanning the genome for loci shaped by the action of episodic positive and balancing selection. Results suggest a generally increased degree of purifying selection relative to human populations, consistent with the larger estimated effective population size of common marmosets. Furthermore, genomic scans based on an appropriate evolutionary baseline model reveal a small number of genes related to immunity, sensory perception, and reproduction to be strong sweep candidates. Notably, two genes in the major histocompatibility complex were found to have strong evidence of being maintained by balancing selection, in agreement with observations in other primate species. Taken together, this work, presenting the first whole-genome characterization of selective dynamics in the common marmoset, thus provides important insights into the landscape of both persistent and episodic selective forces in this species.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145250856","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":"Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer.","authors":"Adam Z Hasik, Anna M Hewett, Katie Maris, Sean J Morris, Ali Morris, Gregory F Albery, Josephine M Pemberton","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00801-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00801-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Inbreeding depression is the reduction in fitness of inbred individuals relative to their more outbred counterparts. Parasitism also reduces fitness and is a route by which inbreeding depression may operate, yet the complete pathway from inbreeding to parasitism to fitness has almost never been documented in the wild. We investigated parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in a wild population of a large mammal (red deer, Cervus elaphus), using high-quality individual-level data on fitness in juveniles and adult females, longitudinal infection data for three gastrointestinal helminth parasites, and genomic inbreeding coefficients. We found evidence for parasite-mediated inbreeding depression via strongyle nematodes in juvenile survival, independent of direct adverse effects of inbreeding on survival and indirect effects of inbreeding on survival via birth weight. Inbreeding also reduced fitness in reproductive adults by reducing overwinter survival. Our study reveals three independent pathways by which inbreeding depresses fitness and highlights the rarely-studied route of parasitism.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145205901","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":"Unanswered questions when human karyotyping shows a supernumerary chromosome.","authors":"Thomas Liehr, Sigrid Fuchs","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00799-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00799-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145199071","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 role of genetic variation in shaping phenotypic responses to diet in aging Drosophila melanogaster.","authors":"Nikolaj Klausholt Bak, Trudy F C Mackay, Fabio Morgante, Kåre Lehmann Nielsen, Jeppe Lund Nielsen, Torsten Nygaard Kristensen, Palle Duun Rohde","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00797-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41437-025-00797-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nutrition plays a central role in healthy living, however, extensive variability in individual responses to dietary interventions complicates our understanding of its effects. Here we present a comprehensive study utilizing the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP), investigating how genetic variation influences responses to diet and aging. We performed quantitative genetic analyses of the impact of reduced nutrient intake on lifespan, locomotor activity, dry weight, and heat knockdown time (HKDT) measured on the same individual flies. We found a significant decrease in lifespan for flies exposed to a restricted diet compared to those on a control diet. Similarly, a notable reduction in dry weight was observed in 7 and 16-day-old flies on the restricted diet compared to the control diet. In contrast, flies on the restricted diet exhibited higher locomotor activity. Additionally, HKDT was found to be age-dependent. Further, we detected significant genotype-by-diet interaction (GDI), genotype-by-age interaction (GAI) and genotype-by-age-by-diet interaction (GADI) for all traits. Thus, environmental factors play a crucial role in shaping trait variation at different ages and diets, and/or distinct genetic variation influences these traits at different ages and diets. Our genome-wide association study also identified a quantitative trait locus for age-dependent dietary response. The observed GDI and GAI indicate that susceptibility to environmental influences changes as organisms age. These findings could have significant implications for understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying dietary responses and aging in Drosophila melanogaster, which may inform future research on dietary recommendations and interventions aimed at promoting healthy aging in humans. The identification of associations between DNA sequence variation and age-dependent dietary responses opens new avenues for research into the genetic mechanisms underlying these interactions.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145137322","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":"Breeder turnover creates allelic variation in groups of gray wolves.","authors":"David E Ausband","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00788-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00788-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Genetic diversity is an important driver affecting the health of wildlife populations. In cooperatively breeding species, human impacts and breeder turnover can affect genetic diversity in groups. We generally do not have strong inferences about how the genetic composition of a group changes through time as individuals are lost (e.g., die, emigrate) or adopted (e.g., immigrate). I wanted to know how breeder turnover, group size, and harvest affected the fluctuation of unique alleles in groups of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in Idaho, USA, during 2008-2020. Turnover of breeding males was strongly associated with allelic change in groups. Turnover of breeding females also had a strong association with allelic change in groups, but was not the most supported model. Harvest was strongly correlated with breeding female turnover but not breeding male turnover. Outside of breeding female turnover, harvest generally had little effect on allelic change in groups. Groups rarely adopted new individuals unless there was a breeding vacancy. I show that over time groups gain and lose alleles in roughly equal proportions, but there are episodic changes to alleles in groups as a function of breeding male turnover. These findings have implications for how we define and evaluate group persistence and breeder lineages in cooperative breeders. Such definitions have important implications for studying the evolution and maintenance of cooperative breeding. It may be beneficial to define characteristics and vital rates of groups based, at least in part, on their underlying genetics when such information can be obtained.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145130500","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":"Facultative polyandry under heat stress and the evolutionary potential for climate-driven shifts in mating systems.","authors":"Matilda Q R Pembury Smith, Laura Latkova, Rhonda R Snook","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00795-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00795-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ecology of mating interactions determines a species' mating system, yet whether environmental change can alter the mating system of a species remains unclear. Elevated temperatures can cause male sterility, prompting females to remate for fertility assurance. In monandrous systems, heat-induced male infertility poses a significant extinction risk, as females may mate exclusively with infertile males. A key question is whether male sterility could drive polyandry in a typically monandrous system. Here we address this by examining genetic variance underlying both male fertility resilience to heat stress and facultative polyandry, and assessing the fitness consequences of each mating system. We used isofemales lines of Drosophila subobscura, a monandrous species, exposing males to developmental heat stress. Male heat stress generated sterility and females mated to these males typically remated. While significant genetic variation in male fertility sensitivity and female remating emerged at moderate to high temperatures, we found little genetic variation in plasticity for polyandry. These results indicate evolutionary potential in both traits, but that a shift in mating system would arise through selection on genes associated with polyandry, rather than plasticity. Polyandry improved offspring production after initially mating to a sterile male, but did not fully restore reproductive output relative to fertile monandrous pairs, and mating with heat-stressed males increased female mortality. Heat stress also altered mating behaviour which could impact female mate choice. Together, these findings show that increasing temperatures may shape species' mating systems and the interplay between thermal ecology and sexual selection under climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145080446","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":"No evidence for heritability of extra-pair mating behavior in a cooperatively breeding bird.","authors":"Sai Wei, Zhibing Li, Xin Lu","doi":"10.1038/s41437-025-00796-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00796-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While extra-pair mating prevails among socially monogamous birds, it does not occur in all individuals within a population. Then, what underlies this variability? A poorly explored mechanism is the genetic contribution to the behavioral trait, especially for cooperatively breeding species where promiscuity may potentially conflict with the acquisition of indirect benefits to altruistic helpers. We addressed the gap through a quantitative genetic approach with 8 years of data from an individually marked population of Tibetan ground tits (Pseudopodoces humilis). Extra-pair mating was observed in 33.2% of nests, and cooperative breeding occurred in 39.5% of nests. Animal models demonstrated no significant genetic component contributing to the variance in extra-pair mating both during a specific year and over an individual's lifetime. Consequently, the heritabilities were not significantly different from zero. The lack of heritable variation in extra-pair mating can be accounted for by Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection, which suggests that genotypes associated with this behavior facilitating reproductive success should have become widespread within the population. Furthermore, the fitness benefits derived from promiscuity were greater for breeders than those from receiving help; for helpers, the fitness benefits from extra-pair mating outweighed the indirect genetic benefits obtained from providing help. This may explain why extra-pair mating and cooperative breeding can coexist in the same population. Our findings imply that individual variation in performing extra-pair mating behavior is more likely to be influenced by environmental factors.</p>","PeriodicalId":12991,"journal":{"name":"Heredity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145075213","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}