scholarly journals Developmental trajectories of gene expression reveal candidates for diapause termination: a key life-history transition in the apple maggot fly Rhagoletis pomonella

2011 ◽  
Vol 214 (23) ◽  
pp. 3948-3960 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Ragland ◽  
S. P. Egan ◽  
J. L. Feder ◽  
S. H. Berlocher ◽  
D. A. Hahn
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kasumovic ◽  
Zhiliang Chen ◽  
Marc R Wilkins

Background: Ecological and evolutionary model organisms have provided extensive insight into the ecological triggers, adaptive benefits, and evolution of life-history driven developmental plasticity. Despite this, we still have a poor understanding of the underlying genetic changes that occur during shifts towards different developmental trajectories. The goal of this study is to determine whether we can identify underlying gene expression patterns that can describe the different life-history trajectories individuals follow in response to social cues of competition. To do this, we use the Australian black field cricket (Teleogryllus commodus), a species with sex-specific developmental trajectories moderated by the density and quality of calls heard during immaturity. In this study, we manipulated the social information males and females could hear by rearing individuals in either calling or silent treatments. We next used RNA-Seq to develop a reference transcriptome to study changes in brain gene expression at two points prior to sexual maturation. Results: We show accelerated development in both sexes when exposed to calling; changes were also seen in growth, lifespan, and reproductive effort. Functional relationships between genes and phenotypes were apparent from ontological enrichment analysis. We demonstrate that increased phenotypic expression was often associated with the expression of a greater number of genes with similar effect, thus providing a suite of candidate genes for future research in this and other invertebrate organisms. Conclusions: Our results provide interesting insight into the genomic underpinnings of developmental plasticity. We highlight the relationship between genes of known effect and behavioral and phenotypic traits that are under strong sexual selection in Teleogryllus commodus. We also demonstrate the variation in suites of genes associated with different developmental trajectories. Our results provide the opportunity for a genomic exploration of other evolutionary theories such as condition dependence and sexual conflict.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kasumovic ◽  
Zhiliang Chen ◽  
Marc R Wilkins

Background: Ecological and evolutionary model organisms have provided extensive insight into the ecological triggers, adaptive benefits, and evolution of life-history driven developmental plasticity. Despite this, we still have a poor understanding of the underlying genetic changes that occur during shifts towards different developmental trajectories. The goal of this study is to determine whether we can identify underlying gene expression patterns that can describe the different life-history trajectories individuals follow in response to social cues of competition. To do this, we use the Australian black field cricket (Teleogryllus commodus), a species with sex-specific developmental trajectories moderated by the density and quality of calls heard during immaturity. In this study, we manipulated the social information males and females could hear by rearing individuals in either calling or silent treatments. We next used RNA-Seq to develop a reference transcriptome to study changes in brain gene expression at two points prior to sexual maturation. Results: We show accelerated development in both sexes when exposed to calling; changes were also seen in growth, lifespan, and reproductive effort. Functional relationships between genes and phenotypes were apparent from ontological enrichment analysis. We demonstrate that increased phenotypic expression was often associated with the expression of a greater number of genes with similar effect, thus providing a suite of candidate genes for future research in this and other invertebrate organisms. Conclusions: Our results provide interesting insight into the genomic underpinnings of developmental plasticity. We highlight the relationship between genes of known effect and behavioral and phenotypic traits that are under strong sexual selection in Teleogryllus commodus. We also demonstrate the variation in suites of genes associated with different developmental trajectories. Our results provide the opportunity for a genomic exploration of other evolutionary theories such as condition dependence and sexual conflict.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob W. Malcom ◽  
Thomas E. Juenger ◽  
Mathew A. Leibold

ABSTRACTBackgroundIdentifying the molecular basis of heritable variation provides insight into the underlying mechanisms generating phenotypic variation and the evolutionary history of organismal traits. Life history trait variation is of central importance to ecological and evolutionary dynamics, and contemporary genomic tools permit studies of the basis of this variation in non-genetic model organisms. We used high density genotyping, RNA-Seq gene expression assays, and detailed phenotyping of fourteen ecologically important life history traits in a wild-caught panel of 32Daphnia pulexclones to explore the molecular basis of trait variation in a model ecological species.ResultsWe found extensive phenotypic and a range of heritable genetic variation (~0 < H2< 0.44) in the panel, and accordingly identify 75-261 genes—organized in 3-6 coexpression modules—associated with genetic variation in each trait. The trait-related coexpression modules possess well-supported promoter motifs, and in conjunction with marker variation at trans- loci, suggest a relatively small number of important expression regulators. We further identify a candidate genetic network with SNPs in eight known transcriptional regulators, and dozens of differentially expressed genes, associated with life history variation. The gene-trait associations include numerous un-annotated genes, but also support several a priori hypotheses, including an ecdysone-induced protein and several Gene Ontology pathways.ConclusionThe genetic and gene expression architecture ofDaphnialife history traits is complex, and our results provide numerous candidate loci, genes, and coexpression modules to be tested as the molecular mechanisms that underlieDaphniaeco-evolutionary dynamics.


2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 412-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.E. Elaine van Ommen Kloeke ◽  
Ping Gong ◽  
Jacintha Ellers ◽  
Dick Roelofs

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1911) ◽  
pp. 20191608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren E. Powell ◽  
Robert A. Barton ◽  
Sally E. Street

Life history is a robust correlate of relative brain size: larger-brained mammals and birds have slower life histories and longer lifespans than smaller-brained species. The cognitive buffer hypothesis (CBH) proposes an adaptive explanation for this relationship: large brains may permit greater behavioural flexibility and thereby buffer the animal from unpredictable environmental challenges, allowing for reduced mortality and increased lifespan. By contrast, the developmental costs hypothesis (DCH) suggests that life-history correlates of brain size reflect the extension of maturational processes needed to accommodate the evolution of large brains, predicting correlations with pre-adult life-history phases. Here, we test novel predictions of the hypotheses in primates applied to the neocortex and cerebellum, two major brain structures with distinct developmental trajectories. While neocortical growth is allocated primarily to pre-natal development, the cerebellum exhibits relatively substantial post-natal growth. Consistent with the DCH, neocortical expansion is related primarily to extended gestation while cerebellar expansion to extended post-natal development, particularly the juvenile period. Contrary to the CBH, adult lifespan explains relatively little variance in the whole brain or neocortex volume once pre-adult life-history phases are accounted for. Only the cerebellum shows a relationship with lifespan after accounting for developmental periods. Our results substantiate and elaborate on the role of maternal investment and offspring development in brain evolution, suggest that brain components can evolve partly independently through modifications of distinct developmental phases, and imply that environmental input during post-natal maturation may be particularly crucial for the development of cerebellar function. They also suggest that relatively extended post-natal maturation times provide a developmental mechanism for the marked expansion of the cerebellum in the apes.


Cell ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 176 (4) ◽  
pp. 928-943.e22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Schiebinger ◽  
Jian Shu ◽  
Marcin Tabaka ◽  
Brian Cleary ◽  
Vidya Subramanian ◽  
...  

Heredity ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart H Berlocher ◽  
Bruce A McPheron

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