Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ronald S. Burton
Summary: The interaction between products of nuclear and mitochondrial genomes in eukaryotic cells is crucial for aerobic metabolism. Rapid evolution of the mitochondrial genome can lead to mitonuclear incompatibilities between conspecific populations, potentially limiting gene flow and contributing to reproductive isolation. However, the primary role of mitonuclear incompatibilities in the speciation process lacks definitive evidence to date.
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR LIFE SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Jennifer D. Yuzon, Nathan A. Wyatt, Asieh Vasighzadeh, Shaun Clare, Emma Navratil, Timothy L. Friesen, Eva H. Stukenbrock
Summary: Agro-ecosystems provide favorable conditions for the rapid evolution and spread of plant pathogens, and hybridization of crop pathogens can lead to the emergence of new lineages with altered virulence profiles. Little is known about the genetics of fungal pathogen hybridization and the mechanisms preventing hybridization between related species. In this study, the reproductive barriers of Pyrenophora teres, a global pathogen of barley, were investigated. Experimental mating and phenotyping in susceptible barley cultivars revealed that hybrids of P. teres show mixed infection phenotypes but have inferior pathogenic fitness compared to the pure parents. Analysis of hybrid genomes identified negative epistasis between parental alleles at specific loci, indicating possible niche adaptation contributing to speciation in P. teres.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Athmaja Viswanath, Asher D. Cutter
Summary: Hybrids between species often have reduced fitness due to negative genetic interactions caused by differences in gene regulatory controls. In this study, researchers analyzed the transcriptome profiles of sterile interspecies hybrids and identified hundreds of genes with distinct inheritance and regulatory divergence, suggesting that multiway incompatibilities contribute to hybrid male sterility.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ning Sun, Liandong Yang, Fei Tian, Honghui Zeng, Ziwen He, Kai Zhao, Cheng Wang, Minghui Meng, Chenguang Feng, Chengchi Fang, Wenqi Lv, Jing Bo, Yongtao Tang, Xiaoni Gan, Zuogang Peng, Yiyu Chen, Shunping He
Summary: This study examines genome-wide variation in two species of cyprinid fishes in Lake Sunmcuo on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and identifies numerous large genomic islands associated with speciation with gene flow. These islands harbor divergent genes related to olfactory receptors, indicating their potential role in food selection and assortative mating. The findings support the hypothesis of parapatric speciation rather than sympatric speciation.
NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Oscar M. Vargas, Santiago Madrinan, Beryl Simpson
Summary: This study aims to test whether the endemic genus Linochilus undergoes more speciation through geographic isolation. The results show that 80% of recent speciation events are driven by geographic isolation, while only 6.7% are attributed to parapatric ecological speciation.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Fern Spaulding, Jessica F. McLaughlin, Rebecca G. Cheek, Kevin G. McCracken, Travis C. Glenn, Kevin Winker
Summary: This study examines the divergence and speciation processes in a clade of ducks and reveals the uncertain relationships and species limits within the green-winged teal complex. By analyzing mitochondrial and genome-wide nuclear DNA, the researchers determined the phylogenetic relationships and gene flow among different lineages. The results showed that while nuclear DNA suggests three subspecies and a close relative from South America, the mitochondrial genomes revealed a different phylogeny. The study highlights the power of ultraconserved elements in studying systematics and population genomics in cases with uncertain relationships and species limits.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Naoko P. Kurata, Michael J. Hickerson, Sandra L. Hoffberg, Ned Gardiner, Melanie L. J. Stiassny, S. Elizabeth Alter
Summary: Freshwater fishes exhibit notable diversity despite occupying a small fraction of the earth's surface. Research suggests that high-energy rapids can act as physical barriers affecting gene flow direction, but also provide multidirectional dispersal opportunities for riverine fishes in certain temporal and spatial scales.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Vanessa Luzuriaga-Aveiga, Mauricio Ugarte, Jason T. Weir
Summary: In this study, coalescent modelling was used to analyze two weakly diverged species of elevationally replacing Ramphocelus tanagers. The results showed that while the majority of the genome has fused due to high gene flow, select loci associated with plumage color remain divergent, maintaining geographical color differences between the incipient species.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jose Goncalves-Dias, Akanksha Singh, Corbinian Graf, Markus G. Stetter
Summary: Crop domestication and expansion is not a linear process, but involves gene flow from locally adapted wild relatives, which provide adaptive alleles. Gene flow decreases genetic load in domesticated crop species, while also creating reproductive barriers between crop species. This study on grain amaranth demonstrates the important role of gene flow in domestication and expansion, despite genetic species barriers.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Review
Plant Sciences
Lei Li, Detlef Weigel
Summary: Hybrid necrosis in plants is a genetic autoimmunity syndrome in offspring of interspecific or intraspecific crosses, linked to the activation and formation of immune receptor complexes. Research not only advances understanding of immune gene evolution, but also reveals new aspects of plant immune signaling.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF PHYTOPATHOLOGY, VOL 59, 2021
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Neil Rosser, Nathaniel B. Edelman, Lucie M. Queste, Michaela Nelson, Fernando Seixas, Kanchon K. Dasmahapatra, James Mallet
Summary: The study analyzed the phenomenon of female hybrid sterility between two geographic subspecies of Heliconius pardalinus, revealing that the sterility is mainly influenced by the Z chromosome, with complex epistatic interactions involving multiple genes. This is the first study to characterize hybrid sterility in Lepidoptera using genome mapping, showing that it is produced by multiple complex epistatic interactions often involving the sex chromosome, in line with the dominance theory of Haldane's rule.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ricardo J. Pereira, Thiago G. Lima, N. Tessa Pierce-Ward, Lin Chao, Ronald S. Burton
Summary: Research has found that interactions between mitochondria and nuclear genes may be one of the reasons for reproductive isolation in early stages of population divergence. Through experimental evolution, it was observed that changes in nuclear gene frequencies in response to alternative mitochondrial backgrounds can affect the adaptability and survivorship of populations. Whole genome sequencing revealed a complex polygenic architecture of mitonuclear incompatibilities, potentially creating genome-wide barriers to gene flow between different populations.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Joseph D. Manthey, John Klicka, Garth M. Spellman
Summary: The genomic signature of allopatric speciation is largely shaped by genomic architecture, with gene density and recombination rate variation regionally explaining a large portion of variance in genomic diversity, differentiation, and divergence.chromosome size has a significant impact on genetic differentiation, divergence, lineage sorting, neutral evolution, genetic diversity, and recombination rate.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Maddie E. James, Henry Arenas-Castro, Jeffrey S. Groh, Scott L. Allen, Jan Engelstadter, Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos
Summary: This study reveals multiple origins within ecotypes of an Australian wildflower, Senecio lautos, implying that selection can repeatedly create similar phenotypes despite the low level of gene flow between different environments.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Aaron A. Vogan, Jesper Svedberg, Magdalena Grudzinska-Sterno, Hanna Johannesson
Summary: This study reveals the role of meiotic drive in the formation of Bateson-Dobzhansky-Muller (BDM) incompatibilities. Using the model fungus Neurospora, the researchers demonstrate that the large meiotic drive haplotypes Sk-2 and Sk-3 contain putative sexual incompatibilities. Their experiments show that when strains of N. intermedia carry Sk-2 or Sk-3, the proportion of viable progeny drops substantially, indicating the contribution of meiotic drive to reproductive isolation and speciation.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ana-Hermina Ghenu, Alexandre Blanckaert, Roger K. Butlin, Jonna Kulmuni, Claudia Bank
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Alexandre Blanckaert, Joachim Hermisson
Article
Ecology
Denis Roze, Alexandre Blanckaert
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Alexandre Blanckaert, Claudia Bank
Review
Ecology
Ines Fragata, Alexandre Blanckaert, Marco Antonio Dias Louro, David A. Liberles, Claudia Bank
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2019)
Review
Ecology
Pierre Nouhaud, Alexandre Blanckaert, Claudia Bank, Jonna Kulmuni
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Biology
Alexandre Blanckaert, Claudia Bank, Joachim Hermisson
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2020)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Emma L. Berdan, Alexandre Blanckaert, Roger K. Butlin, Claudia Bank
Summary: Chromosomal inversions, segments of chromosomes that are flipped relative to normal orientation, can facilitate evolutionary processes like adaptation and speciation. Inverted regions with reduced recombination allow for beneficial allele combinations, influencing the evolution of the allelic content inside them. Accumulation of deleterious mutations in inverted regions can lead to divergence between arrangements and offer a selective advantage for individuals with heterozygous arrangements, maintaining inversion polymorphism in the population.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Emma L. Berdan, Alexandre Blanckaert, Tanja Slotte, Alexander Suh, Anja M. Westram, Ines Fragata
Summary: The proposed research framework uses the population genetic effects of mutations to determine their relative evolutionary significance in a given scenario. Further study on population genetic effects of different mutation types and their connection to different evolutionary outcomes is needed. Linking experimental and theoretical approaches to examine different mutation types simultaneously is crucial for understanding their evolutionary significance.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alexandre Blanckaert, Bret A. Payseur
Summary: Natural hybrid zones offer insights into the genetic basis of speciation in progress. By using genome sequence data, researchers have developed a statistical method to detect incompatibility loci and identify regions in the genome where departures from the local site frequency spectrum occur. This approach is applicable to a variety of scenarios and does not require prior knowledge of demographic history.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
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)