Dataset Information

Sex reversal assessments reveal different vulnerability to endocrine disruption between deeply diverged anuran lineages.

ABSTRACT: Multiple anthropogenic stressors cause worldwide amphibian declines. Among several poorly investigated causes is global pollution of aquatic ecosystems with endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). These substances interfere with the endocrine system and can affect the sexual development of vertebrates including amphibians. We test the susceptibility to an environmentally relevant contraceptive, the artificial estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), simultaneously in three deeply divergent systematic anuran families, a model-species, Xenopus laevis (Pipidae), and two non-models, Hyla arborea (Hylidae) and Bufo viridis (Bufonidae). Our new approach combines synchronized tadpole exposure to three EE2-concentrations (50, 500, 5,000 ng/L) in a flow-through-system and pioneers genetic and histological sexing of metamorphs in non-model anurans for EDC-studies. This novel methodology reveals striking quantitative differences in genetic-male-to-phenotypic-female sex reversal in non-model vs. model species. Our findings qualify molecular sexing in EDC-analyses as requirement to identify sex reversals and state-of-the-art approaches as mandatory to detect species-specific vulnerabilities to EDCs in amphibians.

SUBMITTER: Tamschick S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4814869 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Sex reversal assessments reveal different vulnerability to endocrine disruption between deeply diverged anuran lineages.

Tamschick Stephanie S Rozenblut-Kościsty Beata B Ogielska Maria M Lehmann Andreas A Lymberakis Petros P Hoffmann Frauke F Lutz Ilka I Kloas Werner W Stöck Matthias M

Scientific reports 20160331

Multiple anthropogenic stressors cause worldwide amphibian declines. Among several poorly investigated causes is global pollution of aquatic ecosystems with endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). These substances interfere with the endocrine system and can affect the sexual development of vertebrates including amphibians. We test the susceptibility to an environmentally relevant contraceptive, the artificial estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), simultaneously in three deeply divergent systematic ...[more]

PMID: 27029458

Similar Datasets

Project description:The bat family Nycteridae contains only the genus Nycteris, which comprises 13 currently recognized species from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, one species from Madagascar, and two species restricted to Malaysia and Indonesia in South-East Asia. We investigated genetic variation, clade membership, and phylogenetic relationships in Nycteridae with broad sampling across Africa for most clades. We sequenced mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytb) and four independent nuclear introns (2,166 bp) from 253 individuals. Although our samples did not include all recognized species, we recovered at least 16 deeply divergent monophyletic lineages using independent mitochondrial and multilocus nuclear datasets in both gene tree and species tree analyses. Mean pairwise uncorrected genetic distances among species-ranked Nycteris clades (17% for cytb and 4% for concatenated introns) suggest high levels of phylogenetic diversity in Nycteridae. We found a large number of designated clades whose members are distributed wholly or partly in East Africa (10 of 16 clades), indicating that Nycteris diversity has been historically underestimated and raising the possibility that additional unsampled and/or undescribed Nycteris species occur in more poorly sampled Central and West Africa. Well-resolved mitochondrial, concatenated nuclear, and species trees strongly supported African ancestry for SE Asian species. Species tree analyses strongly support two deeply diverged subclades that have not previously been recognized, and these clades may warrant recognition as subgenera. Our analyses also strongly support four traditionally recognized species groups of Nycteris. Mitonuclear discordance regarding geographic population structure in Nycteris thebaica appears to result from male-biased dispersal in this species. Our analyses, almost wholly based on museum voucher specimens, serve to identify species-rank clades that can be tested with independent datasets, such as morphology, vocalizations, distributions, and ectoparasites. Our analyses highlight the need for a comprehensive revision of Nycteridae.

Project description:The gut microbiome is shaped by both host diet and host phylogeny. However, separating the relative influence of these two factors over long periods of evolutionary time is often difficult. We conducted a 16S rRNA gene amplicon-based survey of the gut microbiome from 237 individuals and 19 species of omnivorous cockroaches from the order Blattodea. The order Blattodea represents an ancient lineage of insects that emerged over 300 million years ago, have a diverse gut microbiota, and have a typically gregarious lifestyle. All cockroaches shared a broadly similar gut microbiota, with 66 microbial families present across all species and 13 present in every individual examined. Although our network analysis of the cockroach gut microbiome showed a large amount of connectivity, we demonstrated that gut microbiota cluster strongly by host species. We conducted follow-up tests to determine if cockroaches exhibit phylosymbiosis, or the tendency of host-associated microbial communities to parallel the phylogeny of related host species. Across the full data set, gut microbial community similarity was not found to correlate with host phylogenetic distance. However, a weak but significant phylosymbiotic signature was observed using the matching cluster metric, which allows for localized changes within a phylogenetic tree that are more likely to occur over long evolutionary distances. This finding suggests that host phylogeny plays a large role in structuring the cockroach gut microbiome over shorter evolutionary distances and a weak but significant role in shaping the gut microbiome over extended periods of evolutionary time.IMPORTANCE The gut microbiome plays a key role in host health. Therefore, it is important to understand the evolution of the gut microbiota and how it impacts, and is impacted by, host evolution. In this study, we explore the relationship between host phylogeny and gut microbiome composition in omnivorous, gregarious cockroaches within the Blattodea order, an ancient lineage that spans 300 million years of evolutionary divergence. We demonstrate a strong relationship between host species identity and gut microbiome composition and found a weaker but significant role for host phylogeny in determining microbiome similarity over extended periods of evolutionary time. This study advances our understanding of the role of host phylogeny in shaping the gut microbiome over different evolutionary distances.

Project description:BackgroundA deep divergence of mitochondrial DNA is common in species delimitated by morphological traits. Several hypotheses can explain such variations, such as cryptic species, introgression, allopatric divergence and ancestral lineage. The black-throated tit harbors several deeply divergent mitochondrial lineages. Two lineages with 5% divergence, but having a high level of gene flow, have been detected in its subspecies, A. C. concinnus and A. c. talifuenses. In this study, we conducted a genetic analysis at a contact zone of these two lineages to identify whether these lineages either reflect a high level of intraspecific variation in mitochondrial loci or represent incipient speciation. Mitochondrial ND2 and 11 microsatellite loci were used to conduct phylogenetic and population structure analyses.ResultsND2 haplotypes actually diverged into two groups within subspecies A. c. talifuenses; however, they formed a non-sister relationship when including all available GenBank ND2 sequences. Analyses of microsatellite data indicated no existing population structure and showed a pattern of isolation by distance. Individuals sampled at the contact zone were almost identified as F2 hybrids.ConclusionsIsolation for 2.4 Ma, as suggested by a previous study, appeared to be insufficient to develop robust reproductive barriers. Reproductive barriers were weak, or even absent between the divergent lineages, highlighting that incipient speciation was unlikely to be the case. Considering the results from previous studies, the divergent lineages may be better explained by secondary contact after allopatric isolation because of Pleistocene climate changes, but other hypotheses cannot be definitively ruled out because of the lack of representative samples from the other distribution region and its relatives. Considering that divergence in morphology was hardly observed and the particular split in genetics, the two subspecies might be better merged. The current findings also highlight the likely contribution of male-biased dispersal to male-biased gene flow among mitochondrial lineages; more efforts are needed to illustrate the evolutionary history of the black-throated tit.

Dataset Information

Sex reversal assessments reveal different vulnerability to endocrine disruption between deeply diverged anuran lineages.

Publications

Sex reversal assessments reveal different vulnerability to endocrine disruption between deeply diverged anuran lineages.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets