Project description:Gene copy-number variation, which provides the raw material for the evolution of novel genes, is surprisingly widespread in natural populations. Experimental evolution studies have demonstrated an extremely high spontaneous rate of origin of gene duplications. When organisms are suboptimally adapted to their environment, gene duplication may compensate for reduced fitness by amplifying promiscuous activity of a gene, or increasing dosage of a suboptimal gene. The overarching goal of this study is to inverstigate whether CNVs constitute a common mechanism of adaptive genetic change during compensatory evolution and to further characterize the role of natural selection in dictating their evolutionary spread at a population-genomic level. Outcrossing populations of C. elegans with low fitness were evolved for >200 generations and the frequencies of CNVs in these populations were analyzed by oligonucleotide array comparative genome hybridization, quantitative PCR, and single-worm PCR. Multiple duplications and deletions were detected in intermediate to high frequencies and several lines of evidence suggest that the changes in frequency were adaptive. 1) Many copy-number changes reached high frequency, were near fixation, or were fixed in a short time. 2) Many independent duplications and deletions in high frequency harbor overlapping regions which likely include genes that are under selection for either higher or lower rates of expression. 3) The size spectrum of deuplications and deletions in the adaptive recovery populations is significantly larger than that of spontaneous copy-number variants in mutation accumulation experiments. This is expected if larger CNVs are more likely to encompass genes that are being selected for altered gene dosage. Out results validate the great potential borne by gene copy-number changes for compensatory evolution and adaptation. Experimental genome evolution of copy-number variants in 25 experimental lines compared to 5 ancestral control lines.
Project description:Gene copy-number variation, which provides the raw material for the evolution of novel genes, is surprisingly widespread in natural populations. Experimental evolution studies have demonstrated an extremely high spontaneous rate of origin of gene duplications. When organisms are suboptimally adapted to their environment, gene duplication may compensate for reduced fitness by amplifying promiscuous activity of a gene, or increasing dosage of a suboptimal gene. The overarching goal of this study is to inverstigate whether CNVs constitute a common mechanism of adaptive genetic change during compensatory evolution and to further characterize the role of natural selection in dictating their evolutionary spread at a population-genomic level. Outcrossing populations of C. elegans with low fitness were evolved for >200 generations and the frequencies of CNVs in these populations were analyzed by oligonucleotide array comparative genome hybridization, quantitative PCR, and single-worm PCR. Multiple duplications and deletions were detected in intermediate to high frequencies and several lines of evidence suggest that the changes in frequency were adaptive. 1) Many copy-number changes reached high frequency, were near fixation, or were fixed in a short time. 2) Many independent duplications and deletions in high frequency harbor overlapping regions which likely include genes that are under selection for either higher or lower rates of expression. 3) The size spectrum of deuplications and deletions in the adaptive recovery populations is significantly larger than that of spontaneous copy-number variants in mutation accumulation experiments. This is expected if larger CNVs are more likely to encompass genes that are being selected for altered gene dosage. Out results validate the great potential borne by gene copy-number changes for compensatory evolution and adaptation.
Project description:Gene duplication and deletion are pivotal processes shaping the structural and functional repertoire of genomes, with implications for disease, adaptation and evolution. We employed an experimental evolution framework partnered with high-throughput genomics to assess the molecular and transcriptional characteristics of novel gene copy-number variants (CNVs) in Caenorhabditis elegans populations subjected to varying intensity of selection. Here, we report a direct spontaneous genome-wide rate of gene duplication of 2.9 × 10-5 /gene/generation in C. elegans, the highest for any species to date. The increase in average transcript abundance of new duplicates arising under minimal selection is significantly greater than two-fold compared to single-copies of the same gene, suggesting that genes in segmental duplications are frequently overactive at inception. The average increase in transcriptional activity of gene duplicates is greater in MA lines that passed through single individual bottlenecks than in MA lines with larger population bottlenecks. Furthermore, there is an inverse relationship between the ancestral transcription levels of newly originating gene duplicates and population size, with duplicate copies of highly expressed genes less likely to accumulate in larger populations. The results demonstrate that there is a fitness cost of superfluous gene expression and purifying selection against new gene duplicates. However, on average, duplications also provide a significant increase in gene expression that can facilitate adaptation to novel environmental challenges.
Project description:Background: Copy number variation is an important component of genetic variation in higher eukaryotes. The extent of natural copy number variation in C. elegans is unknown outside of 2 highly divergent wild isolates and the canonical N2 Bristol strain. Results: We have used array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to detect copy number variation in the genomes of 12 natural isolates of Caenorhabditis elegans. Deletions relative to the canonical N2 strain are more common in these isolates than duplications, and indels are enriched in multigene families on the autosome arms. Among the strains in our study, the Hawaiian and Madeiran strains (CB4856 and JU258) carry the largest number of deletions, followed by the Vancouver strain (KR314). Overall we detected 510 different deletions affecting 1136 genes, or over 5% of the genes in the canonical N2 genome. The indels we identified had a median length of 2.7 kb. Since many deletions are found in multiple isolates, deletion loci were used as markers to derive an unrooted tree to estimate genetic relatedness among the strains. Conclusion: Copy number variation is extensive in C. elegans, affecting over 5% of the genes in the genome. The deletions we have detected in natural isolates of C. elegans contribute significantly to the number of deletion alleles available to researchers. The relationships between strains are complex and different regions of the genome possess different genealogies due to recombination throughout the natural history of the species, which may not be apparent in studies utilizing smaller numbers of genetic markers.
Project description:Background: Copy number variation is an important component of genetic variation in higher eukaryotes. The extent of natural copy number variation in C. elegans is unknown outside of 2 highly divergent wild isolates and the canonical N2 Bristol strain. Results: We have used array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to detect copy number variation in the genomes of 12 natural isolates of Caenorhabditis elegans. Deletions relative to the canonical N2 strain are more common in these isolates than duplications, and indels are enriched in multigene families on the autosome arms. Among the strains in our study, the Hawaiian and Madeiran strains (CB4856 and JU258) carry the largest number of deletions, followed by the Vancouver strain (KR314). Overall we detected 510 different deletions affecting 1136 genes, or over 5% of the genes in the canonical N2 genome. The indels we identified had a median length of 2.7 kb. Since many deletions are found in multiple isolates, deletion loci were used as markers to derive an unrooted tree to estimate genetic relatedness among the strains. Conclusion: Copy number variation is extensive in C. elegans, affecting over 5% of the genes in the genome. The deletions we have detected in natural isolates of C. elegans contribute significantly to the number of deletion alleles available to researchers. The relationships between strains are complex and different regions of the genome possess different genealogies due to recombination throughout the natural history of the species, which may not be apparent in studies utilizing smaller numbers of genetic markers. Twelve C. elegans natural isolate samples were studied. There were no replicates or dye-swap hybridizations.