{"title":"Can genomic signatures guide the selection of host-specific agents for weed biological control?","authors":"Nagalingam Kumaran, S. Raghu","doi":"10.1111/eva.13760","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.13760","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biological control of weeds involves deliberate introduction of host-specific natural enemies into invaded range to reduce the negative impacts of invasive species. Assessing the specificity is a crucial step, as introduction of generalist natural enemies into a new territory may pose risks to the recipient communities. A mechanistic understanding of host use can provide valuable insights for the selection of specialist natural enemies, bolster confidence in non-target risk assessment and potentially accelerate the host specificity testing process in biological control. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of studies on the genomics of host specialization with a view to examine if genomic signatures can help predict host specificity in insects. Focusing on phytophagous Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera, we compared chemosensory receptors and enzymes between “specialist” (insects with narrow host range) and “generalist” (insects with wide host range) insects. The availability of genomic data for biological control agents (natural enemies of weeds) is limited thus our analyses utilized data from pest insects and model organisms for which genomic data are available. Our findings revealed that specialists generally exhibit a lower number of chemosensory receptors and enzymes compared with their generalist counterparts. This pattern was more prominent in Coleoptera and Diptera relative to Lepidoptera. This information can be used to reject agents with large gene repertoires to potentially accelerate the risk assessment process. Similarly, confirming smaller gene repertoires in specialists could further strengthen the risk evaluation. Despite the distinctive signatures between specialists and generalists, challenges such as finite genomic data for biological control agents, ad hoc comparisons, and fewer comparative studies among congeners limit our ability to use genomic signatures to predict host specificity. A few studies have empirically compared phylogenetically closely related species, enhancing the resolution and the predictive power of genomics signatures thus suggesting the need for more targeted studies comparing congeneric specialists and generalists.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eva.13760","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141639452","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}
Frédéric J. J. Chain, Britta S. Meyer, Melanie J. Heckwolf, Sören Franzenburg, Christophe Eizaguirre, Thorsten B. H. Reusch
{"title":"Epigenetic diversity of genes with copy number variations among natural populations of the three-spined stickleback","authors":"Frédéric J. J. Chain, Britta S. Meyer, Melanie J. Heckwolf, Sören Franzenburg, Christophe Eizaguirre, Thorsten B. H. Reusch","doi":"10.1111/eva.13753","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eva.13753","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Duplicated genes provide the opportunity for evolutionary novelty and adaptive divergence. In many cases, having more gene copies increases gene expression, which might facilitate adaptation to stressful or novel environments. Conversely, overexpression or misexpression of duplicated genes can be detrimental and subject to negative selection. In this scenario, newly duplicate genes may evade purifying selection if they are epigenetically silenced, at least temporarily, leading them to persist in populations as copy number variations (CNVs). In animals and plants, younger gene duplicates tend to have higher levels of DNA methylation and lower levels of gene expression, suggesting epigenetic regulation could promote the retention of gene duplications via expression repression or silencing. Here, we test the hypothesis that DNA methylation variation coincides with young duplicate genes that are segregating as CNVs in six populations of the three-spined stickleback that span a salinity gradient from 4 to 30 PSU. Using reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing, we found DNA methylation and CNV differentiation outliers rarely overlapped. Whereas lineage-specific genes and young duplicates were found to be highly methylated, just two gene CNVs showed a significant association between promoter methylation level and copy number, suggesting that DNA methylation might not interact with CNVs in our dataset. If most new duplications are regulated for dosage by epigenetic mechanisms, our results do not support a strong contribution from DNA methylation soon after duplication. Instead, our results are consistent with a preference to duplicate genes that are already highly methylated.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11246597/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141615407","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}
Jacob G. Holland, Kimberley F. Prior, Aidan J. O'Donnell, Sarah E. Reece
{"title":"Testing the evolutionary drivers of malaria parasite rhythms and their consequences for host–parasite interactions","authors":"Jacob G. Holland, Kimberley F. Prior, Aidan J. O'Donnell, Sarah E. Reece","doi":"10.1111/eva.13752","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eva.13752","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Undertaking certain activities at the time of day that maximises fitness is assumed to explain the evolution of circadian clocks. Organisms often use daily environmental cues such as light and food availability to set the timing of their clocks. These cues may be the environmental rhythms that ultimately determine fitness, act as proxies for the timing of less tractable ultimate drivers, or are used simply to maintain internal synchrony. While many pathogens/parasites undertake rhythmic activities, both the proximate and ultimate drivers of their rhythms are poorly understood. Explaining the roles of rhythms in infections offers avenues for novel interventions to interfere with parasite fitness and reduce the severity and spread of disease. Here, we perturb several rhythms in the hosts of malaria parasites to investigate why parasites align their rhythmic replication to the host's feeding-fasting rhythm. We manipulated host rhythms governed by light, food or both, and assessed the fitness implications for parasites, and the consequences for hosts, to test which host rhythms represent ultimate drivers of the parasite's rhythm. We found that alignment with the host's light-driven rhythms did not affect parasite fitness metrics. In contrast, aligning with the timing of feeding-fasting rhythms may be beneficial for the parasite, but only when the host possess a functional canonical circadian clock. Because parasites in clock-disrupted hosts align with the host's feeding-fasting rhythms and yet derive no apparent benefit, our results suggest cue(s) from host food act as a proxy rather than being a key selective driver of the parasite's rhythm. Alternatively, parasite rhythmicity may only be beneficial because it promotes synchrony between parasite cells and/or allows parasites to align to the biting rhythms of vectors. Our results also suggest that interventions can disrupt parasite rhythms by targeting the proxies or the selective factors driving them without impacting host health.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11246599/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141615409","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}
Meaghan I. Clark, Sarah W. Fitzpatrick, Gideon S. Bradburd
{"title":"Pitfalls and windfalls of detecting demographic declines using population genetics in long-lived species","authors":"Meaghan I. Clark, Sarah W. Fitzpatrick, Gideon S. Bradburd","doi":"10.1111/eva.13754","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eva.13754","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Detecting recent demographic changes is a crucial component of species conservation and management, as many natural populations face declines due to anthropogenic habitat alteration and climate change. Genetic methods allow researchers to detect changes in effective population size (N<sub>e</sub>) from sampling at a single timepoint. However, in species with long lifespans, there is a lag between the start of a decline in a population and the resulting decrease in genetic diversity. This lag slows the rate at which diversity is lost, and therefore makes it difficult to detect recent declines using genetic data. However, the genomes of old individuals can provide a window into the past, and can be compared to those of younger individuals, a contrast that may help reveal recent demographic declines. To test whether comparing the genomes of young and old individuals can help infer recent demographic bottlenecks, we use forward-time, individual-based simulations with varying mean individual lifespans and extents of generational overlap. We find that age information can be used to aid in the detection of demographic declines when the decline has been severe. When average lifespan is long, comparing young and old individuals from a single timepoint has greater power to detect a recent (within the last 50 years) bottleneck event than comparing individuals sampled at different points in time. Our results demonstrate how longevity and generational overlap can be both a hindrance and a boon to detecting recent demographic declines from population genomic data.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11246600/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141615408","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}
Andrea L. Kokkonen, Peter C. Searle, Dennis K. Shiozawa, R. Paul Evans
{"title":"Using de novo transcriptomes to decipher the relationships in cutthroat trout subspecies (Oncorhynchus clarkii)","authors":"Andrea L. Kokkonen, Peter C. Searle, Dennis K. Shiozawa, R. Paul Evans","doi":"10.1111/eva.13735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.13735","url":null,"abstract":"<p>For almost 200 years, the taxonomy of cutthroat trout (<i>Oncorhynchus clarkii</i>), a salmonid native to Western North America, has been in flux as ichthyologists and fisheries biologists have tried to describe the diversity within these fishes. Starting in the 1950s, Robert Behnke reexamined the cutthroat trout and identified 14 subspecies based on morphological traits, Pleistocene events, and modern geographic ranges. His designations became instrumental in recognizing and preserving the remaining diversity of cutthroat trout. Over time, molecular techniques (i.e. karyotypes, allozymes, mitochondrial DNA, SNPs, and microsatellite arrays) have largely reinforced Behnke's phylogenies, but have also revealed that some relationships are consistently weakly supported. To further resolve these relationships, we generated de novo transcriptomes for nine cutthroat subspecies, as well as a Bear River Bonneville form and two Colorado River lineages (blue and green). We present phylogenies of these subspecies generated from multiple sets of orthologous genes extracted from our transcriptomes. We confirm many of the relationships identified in previous morphological and molecular studies, as well as discuss the importance of significant differences apparent in our phylogenies from these studies within a geological perspective. Specific findings include three distinct clades: (1) Bear River Bonneville form and Yellowstone cutthroat trout; (2) Bonneville cutthroat trout (<i>n</i> = 2); and (3) Greenback and Rio Grande cutthroat trout. We also identify potential gene transfer between Bonneville cutthroat trout and a population of Colorado River green lineage cutthroat trout. Using these findings, it appears that additional groups warrant species-level consideration if other recent species elevations are retained.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eva.13735","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141597106","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":"Correction to “A seven-step guide to spatial, agent-based modelling of tumour evolution”","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/eva.13756","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eva.13756","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Colyer, B., Bak, M., Basanta, D., & Noble, R. (2024). A seven-step guide to spatial, agent-based modelling of tumour evolution. <i>Evolutionary Applications</i>, 17, e13687.</p><p>The Acknowledgements section omitted to acknowledge funding from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U54CA217376.</p><p>We apologize for this error.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11232041/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141562138","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}
Elijah K. Horwitz, Hannah M. Strobel, Jason Haiso, Justin R. Meyer
{"title":"More evolvable bacteriophages better suppress their host","authors":"Elijah K. Horwitz, Hannah M. Strobel, Jason Haiso, Justin R. Meyer","doi":"10.1111/eva.13742","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.13742","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The number of multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria is increasing rapidly, while the number of new antibiotic discoveries has stagnated. This trend has caused a surge in interest in bacteriophages as anti-bacterial therapeutics, in part because there is near limitless diversity of phages to harness. While this diversity provides an opportunity, it also creates the dilemma of having to decide which criteria to use to select phages. Here we test whether a phage's ability to coevolve with its host (evolvability) should be considered and how this property compares to two previously proposed criteria: fast reproduction and thermostability. To do this, we compared the suppressiveness of three phages that vary by a single amino acid yet differ in these traits such that each strain maximized two of three characteristics. Our studies revealed that both evolvability and reproductive rate are independently important. The phage most able to suppress bacterial populations was the strain with high evolvability and reproductive rate, yet this phage was unstable. Phages varied due to differences in the types of resistance evolved against them and their ability to counteract resistance. When conditions were shifted to exaggerate the importance of thermostability, one of the stable phages was most suppressive in the short-term, but not over the long-term. Our results demonstrate the utility of biological therapeutics' capacities to evolve and adjust in action to resolve complications like resistance evolution. Furthermore, evolvability is a property that can be engineered into phage therapeutics to enhance their effectiveness.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eva.13742","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141536663","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}
Sevim Seda Çokoğlu, Dilek Koptekin, Fatma Rabia Fidan, Mehmet Somel
{"title":"Investigating food production-associated DNA methylation changes in paleogenomes: Lack of consistent signals beyond technical noise","authors":"Sevim Seda Çokoğlu, Dilek Koptekin, Fatma Rabia Fidan, Mehmet Somel","doi":"10.1111/eva.13743","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eva.13743","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Neolithic transition introduced major diet and lifestyle changes to human populations across continents. Beyond well-documented bioarcheological and genetic effects, whether these changes also had molecular-level epigenetic repercussions in past human populations has been an open question. In fact, methylation signatures can be inferred from UDG-treated ancient DNA through postmortem damage patterns, but with low signal-to-noise ratios; it is thus unclear whether published paleogenomes would provide the necessary resolution to discover systematic effects of lifestyle and diet shifts. To address this we compiled UDG-treated shotgun genomes of 13 pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers (HGs) and 21 Neolithic farmers (NFs) individuals from West and North Eurasia, published by six different laboratories and with coverage c.1×–58× (median = 9×). We used epiPALEOMIX and a Monte Carlo normalization scheme to estimate methylation levels per genome. Our paleomethylome dataset showed expected genome-wide methylation patterns such as CpG island hypomethylation. However, analyzing the data using various approaches did not yield any systematic signals for subsistence type, genetic sex, or tissue effects. Comparing the HG-NF methylation differences in our dataset with methylation differences between hunter-gatherers versus farmers in modern-day Central Africa also did not yield consistent results. Meanwhile, paleomethylome profiles did cluster strongly by their laboratories of origin. Using larger data volumes, minimizing technical noise and/or using alternative protocols may be necessary for capturing subtle environment-related biological signals from paleomethylomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11217591/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141490138","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}
Sara A. Hugentobler, Anna M. Sturrock, Malte Willmes, Tasha Q. Thompson, Rachel C. Johnson, Flora Cordoleani, Natalie J. Stauffer-Olsen, George Whitman, Mariah H. Meek
{"title":"Remnant salmon life history diversity rediscovered in a highly compressed habitat","authors":"Sara A. Hugentobler, Anna M. Sturrock, Malte Willmes, Tasha Q. Thompson, Rachel C. Johnson, Flora Cordoleani, Natalie J. Stauffer-Olsen, George Whitman, Mariah H. Meek","doi":"10.1111/eva.13741","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eva.13741","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Chinook salmon (<i>Oncorhynchus tshawytscha</i>) display remarkable life history diversity, underpinning their ability to adapt to environmental change. Maintaining life history diversity is vital to the resilience and stability of Chinook salmon metapopulations, particularly under changing climates. However, the conditions that promote life history diversity are rapidly disappearing, as anthropogenic forces promote homogenization of habitats and genetic lineages. In this study, we use the highly modified Yuba River in California to understand if distinct genetic lineages and life histories still exist, despite reductions in spawning habitat and hatchery practices that have promoted introgression. There is currently a concerted effort to protect federally listed Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon populations, given that few wild populations still exist. Despite this, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the genetic and life history diversity of Chinook salmon present in the Yuba River. To understand this diversity, we collected migration timing data and GREB1L genotypes from hook-and-line, acoustic tagging, and carcass surveys of Chinook salmon in the Yuba River between 2009 and 2011. Variation in the GREB1L region of the genome is tightly linked with run timing in Chinook salmon throughout their range, but the relationship between this variation and entry on spawning grounds is little explored in California's Central Valley. We found that the date Chinook salmon crossed the lowest barrier to Yuba River spawning habitat (Daguerre Point Dam) was tightly correlated with their GREB1L genotype. Importantly, our study confirms that ESA-listed spring-run Chinook salmon are spawning in the Yuba River, promoting a portfolio of life history and genetic diversity, despite the highly compressed habitat. This work highlights the need to identify and protect this life history diversity, especially in heavily impacted systems, to maintain healthy Chinook salmon metapopulations. Without protection, we run the risk of losing the last vestiges of important genetic variation.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11217596/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141490139","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}
Lydia Scheschonk, Anne M. L. Nilsen, Kai Bischof, Alexander Jueterbock
{"title":"Chloroplast DNA methylation in the kelp Saccharina latissima is determined by origin and possibly influenced by cultivation","authors":"Lydia Scheschonk, Anne M. L. Nilsen, Kai Bischof, Alexander Jueterbock","doi":"10.1111/eva.13744","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eva.13744","url":null,"abstract":"<p>DNA cytosine methylation is an important epigenetic mechanism in genomic DNA. In most land plants, it is absent in the chloroplast DNA. We detected methylation in the chloroplast DNA of the kelp <i>Saccharina latissima</i>, a non-model macroalgal species of high ecological and economic importance. Since the functional role of the chloroplast methylome is yet largely unknown, this fundamental research assessed the chloroplast DNA cytosine methylation in wild and laboratory raised kelp from different climatic origins (High-Arctic at 79° N, and temperate at 54° N), and in laboratory samples from these origins raised at different temperatures (5, 10 and 15°C). Results suggest genome-wide differences in methylated sites and methylation level between the origins, while rearing temperature had only weak effects on the chloroplast methylome. Our findings point at the importance of matching conditions to origin in restoration and cultivation processes to be valid even on plastid level.</p>","PeriodicalId":168,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Applications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11219511/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141496514","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}