Background: Parental experience can influence progeny behavior through gamete-mediated non-genetic inheritance, that is, mechanisms that do not involve changes in inherited DNA sequence. However, underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood in vertebrates, especially for maternal effects. Here, we use the medaka, a model fish species, to investigate the role of auts2a, the ortholog of human AUTS2, a gene repressed in the fish oocyte following maternal stress and associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTeleost fish represent one of the largest and most diverse clades of vertebrates, which makes them great models in various research areas such as ecology and evolution. Recent sequencing endeavors provided high-quality genomes for species covering the main fish evolutionary lineages, opening up large-scale comparative genomics studies. However, transcriptomic data across fish species and organs are heterogenous and have not been integrated with newly sequenced genomes making gene expression quantification and comparative analyses particularly challenging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe expansion of the neocortex, a hallmark of mammalian evolution, was accompanied by an increase in cerebellar neuron numbers. However, little is known about the evolution of the cellular programmes underlying the development of the cerebellum in mammals. In this study we generated single-nucleus RNA-sequencing data for around 400,000 cells to trace the development of the cerebellum from early neurogenesis to adulthood in human, mouse and the marsupial opossum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe vertebrate brain emerged more than ~500 million years ago in common evolutionary ancestors. To systematically trace its cellular and molecular origins, we established a spatially resolved cell type atlas of the entire brain of the sea lamprey-a jawless species whose phylogenetic position affords the reconstruction of ancestral vertebrate traits-based on extensive single-cell RNA-seq and in situ sequencing data. Comparisons of this atlas to neural data from the mouse and other jawed vertebrates unveiled various shared features that enabled the reconstruction of cell types, tissue structures and gene expression programs of the ancestral vertebrate brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuro Oncol
October 2023
The testis produces gametes through spermatogenesis and evolves rapidly at both the morphological and molecular level in mammals, probably owing to the evolutionary pressure on males to be reproductively successful. However, the molecular evolution of individual spermatogenic cell types across mammals remains largely uncharacterized. Here we report evolutionary analyses of single-nucleus transcriptome data for testes from 11 species that cover the three main mammalian lineages (eutherians, marsupials and monotremes) and birds (the evolutionary outgroup), and include seven primates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe gene plays major roles during brain development and is associated with various neuropathologies including autism. Data in non-mammalian species are scarce, and the aim of our study was to provide a comprehensive analysis of evolution in teleost fish, which are widely used for in vivo functional analysis and biomedical purposes. Comparative genomics in 78 species showed that and originate from the teleost-specific whole genome duplication (TGD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe draft genome of the moss model, Physcomitrella patens, comprised approximately 2000 unordered scaffolds. In order to enable analyses of genome structure and evolution we generated a chromosome-scale genome assembly using genetic linkage as well as (end) sequencing of long DNA fragments. We find that 57% of the genome comprises transposable elements (TEs), some of which may be actively transposing during the life cycle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe origin of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum; AABBDD) has been a subject of controversy and of intense debate in the scientific community over the last few decades. In 2015, three articles published in New Phytologist discussed the origin of hexaploid bread wheat (AABBDD) from the diploid progenitors Triticum urartu (AA), a relative of Aegilops speltoides (BB) and Triticum tauschii (DD). Access to new genomic resources since 2013 has offered the opportunity to gain novel insights into the paleohistory of modern bread wheat, allowing characterization of its origin from its diploid progenitors at unprecedented resolution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenome Biol
December 2015
Background: Brassicaceae is a family of green plants of high scientific and economic interest, including thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), cruciferous vegetables (cabbages) and rapeseed.
Results: We reconstruct an evolutionary framework of Brassicaceae composed of high-resolution ancestral karyotypes using the genomes of modern A. thaliana, Arabidopsis lyrata, Capsella rubella, Brassica rapa and Thellungiella parvula.
While recent advances have been gained on genome evolution in angiosperm lineages, virtually nothing is known about karyotype evolution in the other group of seed plants, the gymnosperms. Here we used high density gene-based linkage mapping to compare the karyotype structure of two families of conifers (the most abundant group of gymnosperms) separated around 290 million years ago: Pinaceae and Cupressaceae. We propose for the first time a model based on the fusion of 20 ancestral chromosomal blocks that may have shaped the modern karyotpes of Pinaceae (with n=12) and Cupressaceae (with n=11).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 1.5 Gbp/2C genome of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) has been sequenced. A strategy was established for dealing with the challenges imposed by the sequencing of such a large, complex and highly heterozygous genome by a whole-genome shotgun (WGS) approach, without the use of costly and time-consuming methods, such as fosmid or BAC clone-based hierarchical sequencing methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Many northern-hemisphere forests are dominated by oaks. These species extend over diverse environmental conditions and are thus interesting models for studies of plant adaptation and speciation. The genomic toolbox is an important asset for exploring the functional variation associated with natural selection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe used nine complete genome sequences, from grape, poplar, Arabidopsis, soybean, lotus, apple, strawberry, cacao, and papaya, to investigate the paleohistory of rosid crops. We characterized an ancestral rosid karyotype, structured into 7/21 protochomosomes, with a minimal set of 6,250 ordered protogenes and a minimum physical coding gene space of 50 megabases. We also proposed ancestral karyotypes for the Caricaceae, Brassicaceae, Malvaceae, Fabaceae, Rosaceae, Salicaceae, and Vitaceae families with 9, 8, 10, 6, 12, 9, 12, and 19 protochromosomes, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant Cell Physiol
January 2015
Comparative genomics combined with phylogenetic reconstructions are powerful approaches to study the evolution of genes and genomes. However, the current rapid expansion of the volume of genomic information makes it increasingly difficult to interrogate, integrate and synthesize comparative genome data while taking into account the maximum breadth of information available. GenomicusPlants (http://www.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant Physiol
January 2015
Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) inflorescences, or spikes, are characteristically unbranched and normally bear one spikelet per rachis node. Wheat mutants on which supernumerary spikelets (SSs) develop are particularly useful resources for work towards understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying wheat inflorescence architecture and, ultimately, yield components. Here, we report the characterization of genetically unrelated mutants leading to the identification of the wheat FRIZZY PANICLE (FZP) gene, encoding a member of the APETALA2/Ethylene Response Factor transcription factor family, which drives the SS trait in bread wheat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNature
June 2014
Eucalypts are the world's most widely planted hardwood trees. Their outstanding diversity, adaptability and growth have made them a global renewable resource of fibre and energy. We sequenced and assembled >94% of the 640-megabase genome of Eucalyptus grandis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCultivated citrus are selections from, or hybrids of, wild progenitor species whose identities and contributions to citrus domestication remain controversial. Here we sequence and compare citrus genomes--a high-quality reference haploid clementine genome and mandarin, pummelo, sweet-orange and sour-orange genomes--and show that cultivated types derive from two progenitor species. Although cultivated pummelos represent selections from one progenitor species, Citrus maxima, cultivated mandarins are introgressions of C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The recent access to a large set of genome sequences, combined with a robust evolutionary scenario of modern monocot (i.e. grasses) and eudicot (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF