TY - JOUR A1 - Biscotti, Maria Assunta A1 - Carducci, Federica A1 - Barucca, Marco A1 - Gerdol, Marco A1 - Pallavicini, Alberto A1 - Schartl, Manfred A1 - Canapa, Adriana A1 - Contar Adolfi, Mateus T1 - The transcriptome of the newt Cynops orientalis provides new insights into evolution and function of sexual gene networks in sarcopterygians JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Amphibians evolved in the Devonian period about 400 Mya and represent a transition step in tetrapod evolution. Among amphibians, high-throughput sequencing data are very limited for Caudata, due to their largest genome sizes among terrestrial vertebrates. In this paper we present the transcriptome from the fire bellied newt Cynops orientalis. Data here presented display a high level of completeness, comparable to the fully sequenced genomes available from other amphibians. Moreover, this work focused on genes involved in gametogenesis and sexual development. Surprisingly, the gsdf gene was identified for the first time in a tetrapod species, so far known only from bony fish and basal sarcopterygians. Our analysis failed to isolate fgf24 and foxl3, supporting the possible loss of both genes in the common ancestor of Rhipidistians. In Cynops, the expression analysis of genes described to be sex-related in vertebrates singled out an expected functional role for some genes, while others displayed an unforeseen behavior, confirming the high variability of the sex-related pathway in vertebrates. KW - developmental biology KW - evolution Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227326 VL - 10 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Höhne, Christin A1 - Prokopov, Dmitry A1 - Kuhl, Heiner A1 - Du, Kang A1 - Klopp, Christophe A1 - Wuertz, Sven A1 - Trifonov, Vladimir A1 - Stöck, Matthias T1 - The immune system of sturgeons and paddlefish (Acipenseriformes): a review with new data from a chromosome‐scale sturgeon genome JF - Reviews in Aquaculture N2 - Sturgeon immunity is relevant for basic evolutionary and applied research, including caviar‐ and meat‐producing aquaculture, protection of wild sturgeons and their re‐introduction through conservation aquaculture. Starting from a comprehensive overview of immune organs, we discuss pathways of innate and adaptive immune systems in a vertebrate phylogenetic and genomic context. The thymus as a key organ of adaptive immunity in sturgeons requires future molecular studies. Likewise, data on immune functions of sturgeon‐specific pericardial and meningeal tissues are largely missing. Integrating immunological and endocrine functions, the sturgeon head kidney resembles that of teleosts. Recently identified pattern recognition receptors in sturgeon require research on downstream regulation. We review first acipenseriform data on Toll‐like receptors (TLRs), type I transmembrane glycoproteins expressed in membranes and endosomes, initiating inflammation and host defence by molecular pattern‐induced activation. Retinoic acid‐inducible gene‐I‐like (RIG‐like) receptors of sturgeons present RNA and key sensors of virus infections in most cell types. Sturgeons and teleosts share major components of the adaptive immune system, including B cells, immunoglobulins, major histocompatibility complex and the adaptive cellular response by T cells. The ontogeny of the sturgeon innate and onset of adaptive immune genes in different organs remain understudied. In a genomics perspective, our new data on 100 key immune genes exemplify a multitude of evolutionary trajectories after the sturgeon‐specific genome duplication, where some single‐copy genes contrast with many duplications, allowing tissue specialization, sub‐functionalization or both. Our preliminary conclusion should be tested by future evolutionary bioinformatics, involving all >1000 immunity genes. This knowledge update about the acipenseriform immune system identifies several important research gaps and presents a basis for future applications. KW - evolution KW - genomics KW - immune genes KW - immune organs KW - immune system KW - sturgeon Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239865 VL - 13 IS - 3 SP - 1709 EP - 1729 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Borges, Alyssa R. A1 - Link, Fabian A1 - Engstler, Markus A1 - Jones, Nicola G. T1 - The Glycosylphosphatidylinositol Anchor: A Linchpin for Cell Surface Versatility of Trypanosomatids JF - Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology N2 - The use of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) to anchor proteins to the cell surface is widespread among eukaryotes. The GPI-anchor is covalently attached to the C-terminus of a protein and mediates the protein’s attachment to the outer leaflet of the lipid bilayer. GPI-anchored proteins have a wide range of functions, including acting as receptors, transporters, and adhesion molecules. In unicellular eukaryotic parasites, abundantly expressed GPI-anchored proteins are major virulence factors, which support infection and survival within distinct host environments. While, for example, the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) is the major component of the cell surface of the bloodstream form of African trypanosomes, procyclin is the most abundant protein of the procyclic form which is found in the invertebrate host, the tsetse fly vector. Trypanosoma cruzi, on the other hand, expresses a variety of GPI-anchored molecules on their cell surface, such as mucins, that interact with their hosts. The latter is also true for Leishmania, which use GPI anchors to display, amongst others, lipophosphoglycans on their surface. Clearly, GPI-anchoring is a common feature in trypanosomatids and the fact that it has been maintained throughout eukaryote evolution indicates its adaptive value. Here, we explore and discuss GPI anchors as universal evolutionary building blocks that support the great variety of surface molecules of trypanosomatids. KW - cell surface proteome KW - evolution KW - GPI-anchor KW - Kinetoplastea Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-249253 SN - 2296-634X VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sieger, Charlotte Sophie A1 - Hovestadt, Thomas T1 - The degree of spatial variation relative to temporal variation influences evolution of dispersal JF - Oikos N2 - In the face of ongoing global climate and land use change, organisms have multiple possibilities to cope with the modification of their environment. The two main possibilities are to either adapt locally or disperse to a more suitable habitat. The evolution of both local adaptation and dispersal interacts and can be influenced by the spatial and temporal variation (of e.g. temperature or precipitation). In an individual based model (IBM), we explore evolution of phenotypes in landscapes with varying degree of spatial relative to global temporal variation in order to examine its influence on the evolution of dispersal, niche optimum and niche width. The relationship between temporal and spatial variation did neither influence the evolution of local adaptation in the niche optimum nor of niche widths. Dispersal probability is highly influenced by the spatio‐temporal relationship: with increasing spatial variation, dispersal probability decreases. Additionally, the shape of the distribution of the trait values over patch attributes switches from hump‐ to U‐shaped. At low spatial variance more individuals emigrate from average habitats, at high spatial variance more from extreme habitats. The comparatively high dispersal probability in extreme patches of landscapes with a high spatial variation can be explained by evolutionary succession of two kinds of adaptive response. Early in the simulations, extreme patches in landscapes with a high spatial variability act as sink habitats, where population persistence depends on highly dispersive individuals with a wide niche. With ongoing evolution, local adaptation of the remaining individuals takes over, but simultaneously a possible bet‐hedging strategy promotes higher dispersal probabilities in those habitats. Here, in generations that experience extreme shifts from the temporal mean of the patch attribute, the expected fitness becomes higher for dispersing individuals than for philopatric individuals. This means that under certain circumstances, both local adaptation and high dispersal probability can be selected for for coping with the projected environmental changes in the future. KW - bet-hedging KW - dispersal KW - ecological niche KW - evolution KW - individual based model KW - spatial variation KW - temporal variation Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239049 VL - 129 IS - 11 SP - 1611 EP - 1622 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gupta, Shishir K. A1 - Minocha, Rashmi A1 - Thapa, Prithivi Jung A1 - Srivastava, Mugdha A1 - Dandekar, Thomas T1 - Role of the pangolin in origin of SARS-CoV-2: an evolutionary perspective JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences N2 - After the recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, unanswered questions remain related to its evolutionary history, path of transmission or divergence and role of recombination. There is emerging evidence on amino acid substitutions occurring in key residues of the receptor-binding domain of the spike glycoprotein in coronavirus isolates from bat and pangolins. In this article, we summarize our current knowledge on the origin of SARS-CoV-2. We also analyze the host ACE2-interacting residues of the receptor-binding domain of spike glycoprotein in SARS-CoV-2 isolates from bats, and compare it to pangolin SARS-CoV-2 isolates collected from Guangdong province (GD Pangolin-CoV) and Guangxi autonomous regions (GX Pangolin-CoV) of South China. Based on our comparative analysis, we support the view that the Guangdong Pangolins are the intermediate hosts that adapted the SARS-CoV-2 and represented a significant evolutionary link in the path of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus. We also discuss the role of intermediate hosts in the origin of Omicron. KW - COVID-19 KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - origin KW - evolution KW - intermediate host KW - pangolin KW - mutation KW - recombination KW - adaptation KW - transmission KW - comparative sequence analysis Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-285995 SN - 1422-0067 VL - 23 IS - 16 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Baalbergen, Els A1 - Helwerda, Renate A1 - Schelfhorst, Rense A1 - Castillo Cajas, Ruth F. A1 - van Moorsel, Coline H. M. A1 - Kundrata, Robin A1 - Welter-Schultes, Francisco W. A1 - Giokas, Sinos A1 - Schilthuizen, Menno T1 - Predator-Prey Interactions between Shell-Boring Beetle Larvae and Rock-Dwelling Land Snails JF - PLOS ONE N2 - Drilus beetle larvae (Coleoptera: Elateridae) are specialized predators of land snails. Here, we describe various aspects of the predator-prey interactions between multiple Drilus species attacking multiple Albinaria (Gastropoda: Clausiliidae) species in Greece. We observe that Drilus species may be facultative or obligate Albinaria-specialists. We map geographically varying predation rates in Crete, where on average 24% of empty shells carry fatal Drilus bore holes. We also provide first-hand observations and video-footage of prey entry and exit strategies of the Drilus larvae, and evaluate the potential mutual evolutionary impacts. We find limited evidence for an effect of shell features and snail behavioral traits on inter-and intraspecifically differing predation rates. We also find that Drilus predators adjust their predation behavior based on specific shell traits of the prey. In conclusion, we suggest that, with these baseline data, this interesting predator-prey system will be available for further, detailed more evolutionary ecology studies. KW - clausiliidae KW - evolution KW - pulmonata KW - albinaria KW - behavior KW - species gastropoda Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115963 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 9 IS - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Garcia, Tzintzuni I. A1 - Matos, Isa A1 - Shen, Yingjia A1 - Pabuwal, Vagmita A1 - Coelho, Maria Manuela A1 - Wakamatsu, Yuko A1 - Schartl, Manfred A1 - Walter, Ronald B. T1 - Novel Method for Analysis of Allele Specific Expression in Triploid Oryzias latipes Reveals Consistent Pattern of Allele Exclusion JF - PLOS ONE N2 - Assessing allele-specific gene expression (ASE) on a large scale continues to be a technically challenging problem. Certain biological phenomena, such as X chromosome inactivation and parental imprinting, affect ASE most drastically by completely shutting down the expression of a whole set of alleles. Other more subtle effects on ASE are likely to be much more complex and dependent on the genetic environment and are perhaps more important to understand since they may be responsible for a significant amount of biological diversity. Tools to assess ASE in a diploid biological system are becoming more reliable. Non-diploid systems are, however, not uncommon. In humans full or partial polyploid states are regularly found in both healthy (meiotic cells, polynucleated cell types) and diseased tissues (trisomies, non-disjunction events, cancerous tissues). In this work we have studied ASE in the medaka fish model system. We have developed a method for determining ASE in polyploid organisms from RNAseq data and we have implemented this method in a software tool set. As a biological model system we have used nuclear transplantation to experimentally produce artificial triploid medaka composed of three different haplomes. We measured ASE in RNA isolated from the livers of two adult, triploid medaka fish that showed a high degree of similarity. The majority of genes examined (82%) shared expression more or less evenly among the three alleles in both triploids. The rest of the genes (18%) displayed a wide range of ASE levels. Interestingly the majority of genes (78%) displayed generally consistent ASE levels in both triploid individuals. A large contingent of these genes had the same allele entirely suppressed in both triploids. When viewed in a chromosomal context, it is revealed that these genes are from large sections of 4 chromosomes and may be indicative of some broad scale suppression of gene expression. KW - RNA-SEQ data KW - copy-number alteration KW - squalius alburnoides KW - gene expression KW - medaka KW - variant detection KW - transplantation KW - genome KW - generation KW - evolution Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-116000 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 9 IS - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Poethke, Hans-Joachim A1 - Hovestadt, Thomas A1 - Mitesser, Oliver T1 - Local extinction and the evolution of dispersal rates: Causes and correlations N2 - We present the results of individual-based simulation experiments on the evolution of dispersal rates of organisms living in metapopulations. We find conflicting results regarding the relationship between local extinction rate and evolutionarily stable (ES) dispersal rate depending on which principal mechanism causes extinction: if extinction is caused by environmental catastrophes eradicating local populations, we observe a positive correlation between extinction and ES dispersal rate; if extinction is a consequence of stochastic local dynamics and environmental fluctuations, the correlation becomes ambiguous; and in cases where extinction is caused by dispersal mortality, a negative correlation between local extinction rate and ES dispersal rate emerges. We conclude that extinction rate, which both affects and is affected by dispersal rates, is not an ideal predictor for optimal dispersal rates. KW - Ausbreitung KW - Evolution KW - Computersimulation KW - Metapopulation KW - dispersal KW - evolution KW - ESS KW - metapopulation KW - extinction KW - individual-based model Y1 - 2003 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-47718 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Floren, Andreas A1 - von Rintelen, Thomas A1 - Herbert, Paul D. N. A1 - de Araujo, Bruno Cancian A1 - Schmidt, Stefan A1 - Balke, Michael A1 - Narakusumo, Raden Pramesa A1 - Peggie, Djunijanti A1 - Ubaidillah, Rosichon A1 - von Rintelen, Kristina A1 - Müller, Tobias T1 - Integrative ecological and molecular analysis indicate high diversity and strict elevational separation of canopy beetles in tropical mountain forests JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Tropical mountain forests contribute disproportionately to terrestrial biodiversity but little is known about insect diversity in the canopy and how it is distributed between tree species. We sampled tree-specific arthropod communities from 28 trees by canopy fogging and analysed beetle communities which were first morphotyped and then identified by their DNA barcodes. Our results show that communities from forests at 1100 and 1700 m a.s.l. are almost completely distinct. Diversity was much lower in the upper forest while community structure changed from many rare, less abundant species to communities with a pronounced dominance structure. We also found significantly higher beta-diversity between trees at the lower than higher elevation forest where community similarity was high. Comparisons on tree species found at both elevations reinforced these results. There was little species overlap between sites indicating limited elevational ranges. Furthermore, we exploited the advantage of DNA barcodes to patterns of haplotype diversity in some of the commoner species. Our results support the advantage of fogging and DNA barcodes for community studies and underline the need for comprehensive research aimed at the preservation of these last remaining pristine forests. KW - beta-diversity KW - community data KW - gradients KW - insects KW - hypthesis KW - evolution KW - passes KW - ants Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-230565 VL - 10 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weber, Klaus A1 - Osborn, Mary A1 - Franke, Werner W. A1 - Seib, Erinita A1 - Scheer, Ulrich A1 - Herth, Werner T1 - Identification of microtubular structures in diverse plant and animal cells by immunological cross-reaction revealed in immunofluorescence microscopy using antibodies against tubulin from porcine brain N2 - Antibody against tubulin from porcine brain was used to evaluate the immunological cross reactivity of tubulin from a variety of animal and plant cells. Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy revealed microtubule-containing structures including cytoplasmic microtubules, spindle microtubules, cilia and fIagella. Thus tubulin from diverse species of both mammals and plants show immunological cross-reactivity with tubulin from porcine brain. Results obtained by immunofluorescence microscopy are whenever possible compared with previously known ultrastructural results obtained by electron microscopy. KW - Cytologie KW - Microtubules KW - immunofluorescence KW - evolution KW - antibody KW - sperm Y1 - 1977 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-41383 ER -