Dataset Information

High-altitude adaptation is accompanied by strong signatures of purifying selection in the mitochondrial genomes of three Andean waterfowl.

ABSTRACT: Evidence from a variety of organisms points to convergent evolution on the mitochondria associated with a physiological response to oxygen deprivation or temperature stress, including mechanisms for high-altitude adaptation. Here, we examine whether demography and/or selection explains standing mitogenome nucleotide diversity in high-altitude adapted populations of three Andean waterfowl species: yellow-billed pintail (Anas georgica), speckled teal (Anas flavirostris), and cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera). We compared a total of 60 mitogenomes from each of these three duck species (n = 20 per species) across low and high altitudes and tested whether part(s) or all of the mitogenome exhibited expected signatures of purifying selection within the high-altitude populations of these species. Historical effective population sizes (Ne) were inferred to be similar between high- and low-altitude populations of each species, suggesting that selection rather than genetic drift best explains the reduced genetic variation found in mitochondrial genes of high-altitude populations compared to low-altitude populations of the same species. Specifically, we provide evidence that establishment of these three Andean waterfowl species in the high-altitude environment, coincided at least in part with a persistent pattern of negative purifying selection acting on oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) function of the mitochondria. Our results further reveal that the extent of gene-specific purifying selection has been greatest in the speckled teal, the species with the longest history of high-altitude occupancy.

SUBMITTER: Graham AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10763953 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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High-altitude adaptation is accompanied by strong signatures of purifying selection in the mitochondrial genomes of three Andean waterfowl.

Graham Allie M AM Lavretsky Philip P Wilson Robert E RE McCracken Kevin G KG

PloS one 20240103 1

Evidence from a variety of organisms points to convergent evolution on the mitochondria associated with a physiological response to oxygen deprivation or temperature stress, including mechanisms for high-altitude adaptation. Here, we examine whether demography and/or selection explains standing mitogenome nucleotide diversity in high-altitude adapted populations of three Andean waterfowl species: yellow-billed pintail (Anas georgica), speckled teal (Anas flavirostris), and cinnamon teal (Spatula ...[more]

PMID: 38170710

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Project description:BackgroundLodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and interior spruce (Picea glauca, Picea engelmannii, and their hybrids) are distantly related conifer species. Previous studies identified 47 genes containing variants associated with environmental variables in both species, providing evidence of convergent local adaptation. However, if the intensity of purifying selection varies with the environment, clines in nucleotide diversity could evolve through linked (background) selection that would yield allele frequency-environment signatures resembling local adaptation. If similar geographic patterns in the strength of purifying selection occur in these species, this could result in the convergent signatures of local adaptation, especially if the landscape of recombination is conserved. In the present study, we investigated whether spatially/environmentally varying purifying selection could give rise to the convergent signatures of local adaptation that had previously reported.ResultsWe analyzed 86 lodgepole pine and 50 interior spruce natural populations spanning heterogeneous environments in western Canada where previous analyses had found signatures of convergent local adaptation. We estimated nucleotide diversity and Tajima's D for each gene within each population and calculated the strength of correlations between nucleotide diversity and environmental variables. Overall, these estimates in the genes with previously identified convergent local adaptation signatures had no similar pattern between pine and spruce. Clines in nucleotide diversity along environmental variables were found for interior spruce, but not for lodgepole pine. In spruce, genes with convergent adaption signatures showed a higher strength of correlations than genes without convergent adaption signatures, but there was no such disparity in pine, which suggests the pattern in spruce may have arisen due to a combination of selection and hybridization.ConclusionsThe results rule out purifying/background selection as a driver of convergent local adaption signatures in lodgepole pine and interior spruce.

Dataset Information

High-altitude adaptation is accompanied by strong signatures of purifying selection in the mitochondrial genomes of three Andean waterfowl.

Publications

High-altitude adaptation is accompanied by strong signatures of purifying selection in the mitochondrial genomes of three Andean waterfowl.

Similar Datasets

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