Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Sarah B. Marion, Mohamed A. F. Noor
Summary: For nearly a century, evolutionary biologists have observed high frequencies (>25%) of chromosomes causing lethality in natural populations. The evolutionary forces behind the maintenance of these mutations have been debated, and it is suggested that mutation-selection balance alone cannot explain them. Linked selection, through overdominance, linkage to beneficial mutations, or reducing effective population size, may play a role. The study of the genetic bases and evolutionary forces of lethal alleles has become timely once more with recent scientific advances.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ANIMAL BIOSCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Chiara De Pasqual, Kaisa Suisto, Jimi Kirvesoja, Swanne Gordon, Tarmo Ketola, Johanna Mappes
Summary: The persistence of intrapopulation phenotypic variation typically requires some form of balancing selection. Heterozygote advantage is a classic explanation for the maintenance of genetic variation. In the case of the aposematic moth Arctia plantaginis, males have two hindwing phenotypes determined by a heritable one locus-two allele polymorphism. Our study found that the presence of one or two copies of the yellow allele affects several life-history traits. Females carrying one yellow allele have higher fertility and offspring survival, indicating strong heterozygote advantage. The interplay between heterozygote advantage, yellow allele pleiotropic effect, and morph-specific predation pressure may maintain the color polymorphism.
Article
Biology
Emma L. Berdan, Alexandre Blanckaert, Roger K. Butlin, Thomas Flatt, Tanja Slotte, Ben Wielstra
Summary: Supergenes are fascinating examples of long-term balancing selection in nature, but their origin and maintenance are still unknown. Mutation accumulation can stabilize or destabilize the system, and the evolution of balanced lethal systems requires specific conditions.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Trey J. Scott
Summary: By comparing cooperative and private loci in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it was found that cooperative loci tend to be more pleiotropic than private loci in terms of protein-protein interactions, gene ontology terms, and gene expression specificity. These findings suggest that pleiotropy may be a general mechanism to limit cheating and that cooperation may shape pleiotropy in the genome.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Immunology
Ya-Yu Tsai, Chenxu Qu, Joseph D. Bonner, Rebeca Sanz-Pamplona, Sidney S. Lindsey, Marilena Melas, Kevin J. Mcdonnell, Gregory E. Idos, Christopher P. Walker, Kevin K. Tsang, Diane M. Da Silva, Ferran Moratalla-Navarro, Asaf Maoz, Hedy S. Rennert, W. Martin Kast, Joel K. Greenson, Victor Moreno, Gad Rennert, Stephen B. Gruber, Stephanie L. Schmit
Summary: The diversity at HLA loci is associated with the risk of developing colorectal cancer, and increased heterozygosity at these loci may reduce the odds of developing CRC.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Genetics & Heredity
Martijn F. L. Derks, Marije Steensma
Summary: Harmful alleles under balancing selection can persist at moderate to high frequencies due to interplay of artificial selection for the variant in heterozygotes and purifying selection against the variant in homozygotes. These pleiotropic variants can have advantageous effects for favorable traits in heterozygotes, while harmful effects in homozygotes.
FRONTIERS IN GENETICS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Siliang Song, Jianzhi Zhang
Summary: Because human same-sex sexual behavior is heritable and leads to fewer offspring, it is puzzling why these alleles have not been purged. The antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis suggests that these alleles benefit individuals performing opposite-sex sexual behavior. However, our analysis of the UK Biobank data shows that having more sexual partners no longer predicts more offspring, and same-sex behavior is genetically negatively correlated with the number of offspring, indicating a loss of genetic maintenance in modern societies.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Martin A. Stoffel, Susan E. Johnston, Jill G. Pilkington, Josephine M. Pemberton
Summary: This study explores the impact and evolutionary dynamics of embryonic lethal mutations in a wild population of Soay sheep over nearly three decades. The researchers discovered three semi-lethal mutations, two of which are decreasing in frequency due to natural selection. Surprisingly, the third mutation persists in the population and is linked to increased survival and body weight in lambs, indicating the presence of balancing selection.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Russell Moser, Kay E. Gurley, Olga Nikolova, Guangrong Qin, Rashmi Joshi, Eduardo Mendez, Ilya Shmulevich, Amanda Ashley, Carla Grandori, Christopher J. Kemp
Summary: The study identified targetable dependencies in cancers carrying mutations in Ras and p53, and revealed differences in functional kinome profiles between Ras mutant cell lines, indicating rewiring of survival pathways caused by co-mutations.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yumei Huang, Rui Shang, Guang-An Lu, Weishun Zeng, Chenglong Huang, Chuangchao Zou, Tian Tang
Summary: This study investigates the contribution of a single trans regulator, miR-983, to expression divergence and phenotypic divergence between Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans. The results show that miR-983 promotes interspecific expression divergence in the testes, despite its antagonism with genomic context effects. The effects of miR-983 on gene expression vary at different stages of spermatogenesis, aiding in minimizing antagonistic pleiotropy. Knocking out miR-983 has different effects on sperm length and defense ability between D. melanogaster and D. simulans. This study provides empirical evidence for the resolution of antagonistic pleiotropy and sheds light on the function and evolution of new trans regulators.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Ewa Pikus, Peter O. Dunn, Piotr Minias
Summary: This study examined the relationship between MHC gene diversity and fitness-related traits in a population of Eurasian coot. The results showed that high MHC gene diversity was associated with poorer condition, weaker ornament expression, later onset of breeding, and smaller clutches. The study suggests that the costs of high MHC diversity outweighed the benefits in an urban landscape.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Katy Paul, Jonathan D'Ambrosio, Florence Phocas
Summary: Recent studies have found moderate to high levels of inbreeding in farmed rainbow trout lines, impacting traits such as spawning date and egg weight. Different genomic regions show variable effects of inbreeding on traits, highlighting the complexity of inbreeding depression and its genetic architecture. Region-specific metrics may help in accurately managing the trade-off between genetic merit and the negative effects of inbreeding.
EVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Developmental Biology
Konstantinos Voskarides, Constantina Koutsofti, Maria Pozova
Summary: In this study, an experimental protocol was developed to compare the survival rates of mutant and wild-type zebrafish larvae under extreme starvation conditions. The results showed that the pathogenic homozygous mutations in TP53 did not significantly alter the survival rates of the larvae. It was also observed that zebrafish larvae can survive up to 17 days without food, relying on their initial nutritional supplies. This study has developed an easy and affordable protocol for estimating the survival rates of zebrafish larvae under stressful conditions.
Article
Biology
Michael D. Jardine, Filip Ruzicka, Charlotte Diffley, Kevin Fowler, Max Reuter
Summary: The study identified a non-coding indel polymorphism in the fruitless gene of Drosophila melanogaster, which exhibits antagonistic pleiotropy with different alleles affecting reproductive fitness and survival to adulthood. Different fitness effects observed in alternative genetic backgrounds may reflect dominance reversal and/or epistasis. This highlights the complex effects of sequence-level variation on various fitness components and helps explain the maintenance of genetic variation for fitness.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Ravi B. Parikh, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Colleen M. Brensinger, Connor W. Boyle, Eboni G. Price-Haywood, Jeffrey H. Burton, Sabrina B. Heltz, Amol S. Navathe
Summary: This study examined spending and utilization differences between Medicare Advantage (MA) and the fee-for-service-based Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) beneficiaries, finding that within the same health system, MSSP patients had consistently higher spending and utilization compared to MA patients, even after adjusting for clinical risk and demographic factors.