Lineage specific reductions in genome size in salamanders are associated with increased rates of mutation
John Herrick, Bianca Sclavi
(Submitted on 4 Aug 2013)

Very low levels of genetic diversity have been reported in vertebrates with large genomes, notably salamanders and lungfish [1-3]. Interpreting differences in heterozygosity, which reflects genetic diversity in a population, is complicated because levels of heterozygosity vary widely between conspecific populations, and correlate with many different physiological and demographic variables such as body size and effective population size. Here we return to the question of genetic variability in salamanders, and report on the relationship between evolutionary rates and genome sizes in five different salamander families. We found that rates of evolution are exceptionally low in salamanders as a group. Evolutionary rates are as low as those reported for cartilaginous fish, which have the slowest rates recorded so far in vertebrates [4]. We also found that, independent of life history, salamanders with the smallest genomes (14 pg) are evolving at rates two to three times faster than salamanders with the largest genomes (>50 pg). After accounting for evolutionary duration, we conclude that speciation events in salamanders are associated with contractions in genome size and concomitant increases in mutation and diversification rates.

Synteny in Bacterial Genomes: Inference, Organization and Evolution
Ivan Junier, Olivier Rivoire
(Submitted on 16 Jul 2013)

Genes are not located randomly along genomes. Synteny, the conservation of their relative positions in genomes of different species, reflects fundamental constraints on natural evolution. We present approaches to infer pairs of co-localized genes from multiple genomes, describe their organization, and study their evolutionary history. In bacterial genomes, we thus identify synteny units, or “syntons”, which are clusters of proximal genes that encompass and extend operons. The size distribution of these syntons divide them into large syntons, which correspond to fundamental macro-molecular complexes of bacteria, and smaller ones, which display a remarkable exponential distribution of sizes. This distribution is “universal” in two respects: it holds for vastly different genomes, and for functionally distinct genes. Similar statistical laws have been reported previously in studies of bacterial genomes, and generally attributed to purifying selection or neutral processes. Here, we perform a new analysis based on the concept of parsimony, and find that the prevailing evolutionary mechanism behind the formation of small syntons is a selective process of gene aggregation. Altogether, our results imply a common evolutionary process that selectively shapes the organization and diversity of bacterial genomes.

An algebraic framework to sample the rearrangement histories of a cancer metagenome with double cut and join, duplication and deletion events
Daniel R. Zerbino, Benedict Paten, Glenn Hickey, David Haussler
(Submitted on 22 Mar 2013)

Algorithms to study structural variants (SV) in whole genome sequencing (WGS) cancer datasets are currently unable to sample the entire space of rearrangements while allowing for copy number variations (CNV). In addition, rearrangement theory has up to now focused on fully assembled genomes, not on fragmentary observations on mixed genome populations. This affects the applicability of current methods to actual cancer datasets, which are produced from short read sequencing of a heterogeneous population of cells. We show how basic linear algebra can be used to describe and sample the set of possible sequences of SVs, extending the double cut and join (DCJ) model into the analysis of metagenomes. We also describe a functional pipeline which was run on simulated as well as experimental cancer datasets.

Major changes in the core developmental pathways of nematodes: Romanomermis culicivorax reveals the derived status of the Caenorhabditis elegans model
Philipp H. Schiffer, Michael Kroiher, Christopher Kraus, Georgios D. Koutsovoulos, Sujai Kumar, Julia I. R. Camps, Ndifon A. Nsah, Dominik Stappert, Krystalynne Morris, Peter Heger, Janine Altmüller, Peter Frommolt, Peter Nürnberg, W. Kelley Thomas, Mark L. Blaxter, Einhard Schierenberg
(Submitted on 17 Mar 2013)

Background Despite its status as a model organism, the development of Caenorhabditis elegans is not necessarily archetypical for nematodes. The phylum Nematoda is divided into the Chromadorea (indcludes C. elegans) and the Enoplea. Compared to C. elegans, enoplean nematodes have very different patterns of cell division and determination. Embryogenesis of the enoplean Romanomermis culicivorax has been studied in great detail, but the genetic circuitry underpinning development in this species is unknown. Results We created a draft genome of R. culicivorax and compared its developmental gene content with that of two nematodes, C. elegans and Trichinella spiralis (another enoplean), and a representative arthropod Tribolium castaneum. This genome evidence shows that R. culicivorax retains components of the conserved metazoan developmental toolkit lost in C. elegans. T. spiralis has independently lost even more of the toolkit than has C. elegans. However, the C. elegans toolkit is not simply depauperate, as many genes essential for embryogenesis in C. elegans are unique to this lineage, or have only extremely divergent homologues in R. culicivorax and T. spiralis. These data imply fundamental differences in the genetic programmes for early cell specification, inductive interactions, vulva formation and sex determination. Conclusions Thus nematodes, despite their apparent phylum-wide morphological conservatism, have evolved major differences in the molecular logic of their development. R. culicivorax serves as a tractable, contrasting model to C. elegans for understanding how divergent genomic and thus regulatory backgrounds can generate a conserved phenotype. The availability of the draft genome will promote use of R. culicivorax as a research model.

A Unifying Parsimony Model of Genome Evolution
Benedict Paten, Daniel R. Zerbino, Glenn Hickey, David Haussler
(Submitted on 9 Mar 2013)

The study of molecular evolution rests on the classical fields of population genetics and systematics, but the increasing availability of DNA sequence data has broadened the field in the last decades, leading to new theories and methodologies. This includes parsimony and maximum likelihood methods of phylogenetic tree estimation, the theory of genome rearrangements, and the coalescent model with recombination. These all interact in the study of genome evolution, yet to date they have only been pursued in isolation. We present the first unified parsimony framework for the study of genome evolutionary histories that includes all of these aspects, proposing a graphical data structure called a history graph that is intended to form a practical basis for analysis. We define tractable upper and lower bound parsimony cost functions on history graphs that incorporate both substitutions and rearrangements. We demonstrate that these bounds become tight for a special unambiguous type of history graph called an ancestral variation graph (AVG), which captures in its combinatorial structure the operations required in an evolutionary history. For an input history graph G, we demonstrate that there exists a finite set of interpretations of G that contains all minimal (lacking extraneous elements) and most parsimonious AVG interpretations of G. We define a partial order over this set and an associated set of sampling moves that can be used to explore these DNA histories. These results generalise and conceptually simplify the problem so that we can sample evolutionary histories using parsimony cost functions that account for all substitutions and rearrangements in the presence of duplications.