Quantity, Not Quality: Rapid Adaptation in a Polygenic Trait Proceeded Exclusively through Expression Differentiation

In the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s dwellings suddenly became a predominant site of economic activity. We argue that, predictably, policy-makers and employers took the home for granted as a background support of economic life. Acting as if home is a cost-less resource that is free for appropriation in an emergency, ignoring how home functions as a site of gendered relations of care and labour, and assuming home is a largely harmonious site, all shaped the invisibility of the imposition. Taking employee flexibility for granted and presenting work-from-home as a privilege offered by generous employers assumed rapid adaptation. As Australia emerges from lockdown, ‘building back better’ to meet future shocks entails better supporting adaptive capabilities of workers in the care economy, and of homes that have likewise played an unacknowledged role as buffer and shelter for the economy. Investing in infrastructure capable of providing a more equitable basis for future resilience is urgent to reap the benefits that work-from-home offers. This article points to the need for rethinking public investment and infrastructure priorities for economic recovery and reconstruction in the light of a gender perspective on COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ experience. JEL Codes: E01, E22, J24

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Genome sequences reveal global dispersal routes and suggest convergent genetic adaptations in seahorse evolution

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-021-21379-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Chunyan Li ◽

Melisa Olave ◽

Yali Hou ◽

Geng Qin ◽

Ralf F. Schneider ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Coastal Waters ◽

Genetic Basis ◽

De Novo ◽

Ocean Currents ◽

Rapid Adaptation ◽

Developmental Gene ◽

De Novo Genome Assembly ◽

Biogeographic Patterns ◽

Hippocampus Erectus ◽

New Habitats

AbstractSeahorses have a circum-global distribution in tropical to temperate coastal waters. Yet, seahorses show many adaptations for a sedentary, cryptic lifestyle: they require specific habitats, such as seagrass, kelp or coral reefs, lack pelvic and caudal fins, and give birth to directly developed offspring without pronounced pelagic larval stage, rendering long-range dispersal by conventional means inefficient. Here we investigate seahorses’ worldwide dispersal and biogeographic patterns based on a de novo genome assembly of Hippocampus erectus as well as 358 re-sequenced genomes from 21 species. Seahorses evolved in the late Oligocene and subsequent circum-global colonization routes are identified and linked to changing dynamics in ocean currents and paleo-temporal seaway openings. Furthermore, the genetic basis of the recurring “bony spines” adaptive phenotype is linked to independent substitutions in a key developmental gene. Analyses thus suggest that rafting via ocean currents compensates for poor dispersal and rapid adaptation facilitates colonizing new habitats.

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Temperament, Plasticity, and Emotions in Defensive Behaviour of Paca (Mammalia, Hystricognatha)

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11020293 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 293

Author(s):

Selene S. C. Nogueira ◽

Sérgio L. G. Nogueira-Filho ◽

José M. B. Duarte ◽

Michael Mendl

Keyword(s):

Conservation Status ◽

Behavioural Plasticity ◽

Affective States ◽

Defensive Behaviour ◽

Rapid Adaptation ◽

Behavioural Responses ◽

Judgement Bias ◽

Temperament Dimension ◽

Ambiguous Cue

Within a species, some individuals are better able to cope with threatening environments than others. Paca (Cuniculus paca) appear resilient to over-hunting by humans, which may be related to the behavioural plasticity shown by this species. To investigate this, we submitted captive pacas to temperament tests designed to assess individual responses to short challenges and judgement bias tests (JBT) to evaluate individuals’ affective states. Results indicated across-time and context stability in closely correlated “agitated”, “fearful” and “tense” responses; this temperament dimension was labelled “restless”. Individual “restless” scores predicted responses to novelty, although not to simulated chasing and capture by humans in a separate modified defence test battery (MDTB). Restless animals were more likely to show a greater proportion of positive responses to an ambiguous cue during JBT after the MDTB. Plasticity in defensive behaviour was inferred from changes in behavioural responses and apparently rapid adaptation to challenge in the different phases of the MDTB. The results indicate that both temperament and behavioural plasticity may play a role in influencing paca responses to risky situations. Therefore, our study highlights the importance of understanding the role of individual temperament traits and behavioural plasticity in order to better interpret the animals’ conservation status and vulnerabilities.

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Investigating mechanisms underlying genetic resistance to Salmon Rickettsial Syndrome in Atlantic salmon using RNA sequencing

BMC Genomics ◽

10.1186/s12864-021-07443-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Carolina P. Moraleda ◽

Diego Robledo ◽

Alejandro P. Gutiérrez ◽

Jorge del-Pozo ◽

José M. Yáñez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Atlantic Salmon ◽

Rna Sequencing ◽

Host Resistance ◽

Large Population ◽

Genetic Resistance ◽

Head Kidney ◽

Breeding Values ◽

Association Analyses ◽

Polygenic Trait ◽

Salmon Rickettsial Syndrome

Abstract Background Salmon Rickettsial Syndrome (SRS), caused by Piscirickettsia salmonis, is one of the primary causes of morbidity and mortality in Atlantic salmon aquaculture, particularly in Chile. Host resistance is a heritable trait, and functional genomic studies have highlighted genes and pathways important in the response of salmon to the bacteria. However, the functional mechanisms underpinning genetic resistance are not yet well understood. In the current study, a large population of salmon pre-smolts were challenged with P. salmonis, with mortality levels recorded and samples taken for genotyping. In parallel, head kidney and liver samples were taken from animals of the same population with high and low genomic breeding values for resistance, and used for RNA-Sequencing to compare their transcriptome profile both pre and post infection. Results A significant and moderate heritability (h2 = 0.43) was shown for the trait of binary survival. Genome-wide association analyses using 38 K imputed SNP genotypes across 2265 animals highlighted that resistance is a polygenic trait. Several thousand genes were identified as differentially expressed between controls and infected samples, and enriched pathways related to the host immune response were highlighted. In addition, several networks with significant correlation with SRS resistance breeding values were identified, suggesting their involvement in mediating genetic resistance. These included apoptosis, cytoskeletal organisation, and the inflammasome. Conclusions While resistance to SRS is a polygenic trait, this study has highlighted several relevant networks and genes that are likely to play a role in mediating genetic resistance. These genes may be future targets for functional studies, including genome editing, to further elucidate their role underpinning genetic variation in host resistance.

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Family quarrels in seeds and rapid adaptive evolution in Arabidopsis

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1817733116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (19) ◽

pp. 9463-9468 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Katherine S. Geist ◽

Joan E. Strassmann ◽

David C. Queller

Keyword(s):

Adaptive Evolution ◽

Kin Selection ◽

Conflicts Of Interest ◽

A Priori ◽

Flowering Plant ◽

Rapid Adaptation ◽

Arms Races ◽

Evolutionary Conflict ◽

Alternative Hypotheses

Evolutionary conflict can drive rapid adaptive evolution, sometimes called an arms race, because each party needs to respond continually to the adaptations of the other. Evidence for such arms races can sometimes be seen in morphology, in behavior, or in the genes underlying sexual interactions of host−pathogen interactions, but is rarely predicted a priori. Kin selection theory predicts that conflicts of interest should usually be reduced but not eliminated among genetic relatives, but there is little evidence as to whether conflict within families can drive rapid adaptation. Here we test multiple predictions about how conflict over the amount of resources an offspring receives from its parent would drive rapid molecular evolution in seed tissues of the flowering plant Arabidopsis. As predicted, there is more adaptive evolution in genes expressed in Arabidopsis seeds than in other specialized organs, more in endosperms and maternal tissues than in embryos, and more in the specific subtissues involved in nutrient transfer. In the absence of credible alternative hypotheses, these results suggest that kin selection and conflict are important in plants, that the conflict includes not just the mother and offspring but also the triploid endosperm, and that, despite the conflict-reducing role of kinship, family members can engage in slow but steady tortoise-like arms races.

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Rapid adaptation in subspace leakage environments via covariance matrix tapering

Conference Record of the Thirty-Fourth Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers (Cat. No.00CH37154) ◽

10.1109/acssc.2000.910960 ◽

2002 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

J.R. Guerci ◽

J.S. Bergin

Keyword(s):

Covariance Matrix ◽

Rapid Adaptation

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Metaplasmidome-encoded functions of Siberian low-centered polygonal tundra soils

The ISME Journal ◽

10.1038/s41396-021-01003-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adrian Gorecki ◽

Stine Holm ◽

Mikolaj Dziurzynski ◽

Matthias Winkel ◽

Sizhong Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Active Layer ◽

Bacterial Communities ◽

Extraction Methods ◽

Metal Resistance ◽

Rapid Adaptation ◽

Tundra Soils ◽

Genetic Traits ◽

Functional Potential ◽

Stress Response Genes ◽

Genes Encoding

AbstractPlasmids have the potential to transfer genetic traits within bacterial communities and thereby serve as a crucial tool for the rapid adaptation of bacteria in response to changing environmental conditions. Our knowledge of the environmental pool of plasmids (the metaplasmidome) and encoded functions is still limited due to a lack of sufficient extraction methods and tools for identifying and assembling plasmids from metagenomic datasets. Here, we present the first insights into the functional potential of the metaplasmidome of permafrost-affected active-layer soil—an environment with a relatively low biomass and seasonal freeze–thaw cycles that is strongly affected by global warming. The obtained results were compared with plasmid-derived sequences extracted from polar metagenomes. Metaplasmidomes from the Siberian active layer were enriched via cultivation, which resulted in a longer contig length as compared with plasmids that had been directly retrieved from the metagenomes of polar environments. The predicted hosts of plasmids belonged to Moraxellaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Pectobacteriaceae, Burkholderiaceae, and Firmicutes. Analysis of their genetic content revealed the presence of stress-response genes, including antibiotic and metal resistance determinants, as well as genes encoding protectants against the cold.

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