Monthly Archives: July 2014

The dynamics of sperm cooperation in a competitive environment

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The dynamics of sperm cooperation in a competitive environment
H. S. Fisher, L. Giomi, H. E. Hoekstra, L. Mahadevan
(Submitted on 2 Jul 2014)

Sperm cooperation has evolved in a variety of taxa and is often considered a response to sperm competition, yet the benefit of this form of collective movement remains unclear. Here we use fine-scale imaging and a minimal mathematical model to study sperm aggregation in the rodent genus Peromyscus. We demonstrate that as the number of sperm cells in an aggregate increase, the group moves with more persistent linearity but without increasing speed; this benefit, however, is offset in larger aggregates as the geometry of the group forces sperm to swim against one another. The result is a non-monotonic relationship between aggregate size and average velocity with both a theoretically predicted and empirically observed optimum of 6-7 sperm/aggregate. To understand the role of sexual selection in driving these sperm group dynamics, we compared two sister-species with divergent mating systems and find that sperm of P.maniculatus (highly promiscuous), which have evolved under intense competition, form optimal-sized aggregates more often than sperm of P.polionotus (strictly monogamous), which lack competition. Our combined mathematical and experimental study of coordinated sperm movement reveals the importance of geometry, motion and group size on sperm velocity and suggests how these physical variables interact with evolutionary selective pressures to regulate cooperation in competitive environments.

Pervasive variation of transcription factor orthologs contributes to regulatory network evolution

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Pervasive variation of transcription factor orthologs contributes to regulatory network evolution
Shilpa Nadimpalli, Anton V. Persikov, Mona Singh
Comments: 29 pages, 5 figures, 5 supplemental figures, 3 supplemental tables
Subjects: Genomics (q-bio.GN)

Differences in transcriptional regulatory networks underlie much of the phenotypic variation observed across organisms. Changes to cis-regulatory elements are widely believed to be the predominant means by which regulatory networks evolve, yet examples of regulatory network divergence due to transcription factor (TF) variation have also been observed. To systematically ascertain the extent to which TFs contribute to regulatory divergence, we analyzed the evolution of the largest class of metazoan TFs, Cys2-His2 zinc finger (C2H2-ZF) TFs, across 12 Drosophila species spanning ~45 million years of evolution. Remarkably, we uncovered that a significant fraction of all C2H2-ZF 1-to-1 orthologs in flies exhibit variations that can affect their DNA-binding specificities. In addition to loss and recruitment of C2H2-ZF domains, we found diverging DNA-contacting residues in ~47% of domains shared between D. melanogaster and the other fly species. These diverging DNA-contacting residues, found in ~66% of the D. melanogaster C2H2-ZF genes in our analysis and corresponding to ~24% of all annotated D. melanogaster TFs, show evidence of functional constraint: they tend to be conserved across phylogenetic clades and evolve slower than other diverging residues. These same variations were rarely found as polymorphisms within a population of D. melanogaster flies, indicating their rapid fixation. The predicted specificities of these dynamic domains gradually change across phylogenetic distances, suggesting stepwise evolutionary trajectories for TF divergence. Further, whereas proteins with conserved C2H2-ZF domains are enriched in developmental functions, those with varying domains exhibit no functional enrichments. Our work suggests that a subset of highly dynamic and largely unstudied TFs are a likely source of regulatory variation in Drosophila and other metazoans.

Posterior predictive checks to quantify lack-of-fit in admixture models of latent population structure

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Posterior predictive checks to quantify lack-of-fit in admixture models of latent population structure
David Mimno, David M Blei, Barbara E Engelhardt
Subjects: Methodology (stat.ME); Genomics (q-bio.GN); Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE); Applications (stat.AP)

Admixture models are a ubiquitous approach to capture latent population structure in genetic samples. Despite the widespread application of admixture models, little thought has been devoted to the quality of the model fit or the accuracy of the estimates of parameters of interest for a particular study. Here we develop methods for validating admixture models based on posterior predictive checks (PPCs), a Bayesian method for assessing the quality of a statistical model. We develop PPCs for five population-level statistics of interest: within-population genetic variation, background linkage disequilibrium, number of ancestral populations, between-population genetic variation, and the downstream use of admixture parameters to correct for population structure in association studies. Using PPCs, we evaluate the quality of the model estimates for four qualitatively different population genetic data sets: the POPRES European individuals, the HapMap phase 3 individuals, continental Indians, and African American individuals. We found that the same model fitted to different genomic studies resulted in highly study-specific results when evaluated using PPCs, illustrating the utility of PPCs for model-based analyses in large genomic studies.

Epidemic clones, oceanic gene pools and epigenotypes in the free living marine pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus

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Epidemic clones, oceanic gene pools and epigenotypes in the free living marine pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Yujun Cui, Xianwei Yang, Xavier Didelot, Chenyi Guo, Dongfang Li, Yanfeng Yan, Yiquan Zhang, Yanting Yuan, Huanming Yang, Jian Wang, Jun Wang, Yajun Song, Dongsheng Zhou, Daniel Falush, Ruifu Yang
Subjects: Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)

In outbreeding organisms, genetic variation is reassorted each generation, leading to geographic gene pools. By contrast bacterial clones can spread and adapt independently leading to a wide variety of possible genetic structures. Here we investigated global patterns of variation in 157 whole genome sequences of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a free living and seafood associated marine bacterium. Pandemic clones, responsible for recent outbreaks of gastroenteritis in humans have spread globally. However, there are oceanic gene pools, one located in the oceans surrounding Asia and another in the Mexican Gulf. Frequent recombination means that most isolates have acquired the genetic profile of their current location. Within oceanic gene pools, there is nevertheless the opportunity for substructure, for example due to niche partitioning by different clones. We investigated this structure by calculating the effective population size in two different ways. Under standard population genetic models, the two estimates should give similar answers but we found a 30 fold difference. This discrepancy provides evidence for an ‘epigenotype’ model in which distinct ecotypes are maintained by selection on an otherwise homogeneous genetic background. To investigate the genetic factors involved, we used 54 unrelated isolates to conduct a genome wide scan for epistatically interacting loci. We found a single example of strong epistasis between distant genome regions. One of the genes involved in this interaction has previously been implicated in biofilm formation, while the other is a hypothetical protein. Further work will allow a detailed understanding of how selection acts to structure the pattern of variation within natural bacterial populations.

Most viewed on Haldane’s Sieve: June 2014

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The most viewed posts on Haldane’s Sieve in June 2014 were: