scholarly journals Rapid development of 56 novel microsatellite markers for the benthic freshwater bug Aphelocheirus aestivalis using Illumina paired-end sequencing data and M13-tailed primers

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 9995-10003
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kaczmarczyk-Ziemba

AbstractThe freshwater true bug Aphelocheirus aestivalis (Aphelocheiridae) is widely distributed in Europe but occurs rather locally and often in isolated populations. Moreover, it is threatened with extinction in parts of its range. Unfortunately, little is known about the genetic diversity and population structure due to the lack of molecular tools for this species. Thus, to overcome the limitations, a whole-genome sequencing has been performed to identify polymorphic microsatellite markers for A. aestivalis. The whole-genome sequencing has been performed with the Illumina MiSeq platform. Obtained paired-end reads were processed and overlapped into 2,378,426 sequences, and the subset of 267 sequences containing microsatellite motifs were then used for in silico primer designing. Finally, 56 microsatellite markers were determined and 34 of them were polymorphic. Analyses performed in two samples (collected from Drawa and Gowienica rivers, respectively) showed that the number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 21, and the observed and expected heterozygosity varied from 0 to 0.933 and 0.064 to 0.931, respectively. The microsatellite markers developed in the present study provide new suitable tools available for the scientific community to study A. aestivalis population dynamics. The assessment of its genetic diversity and population structure will provide important data, that can be used in population management and conservation efforts, elucidating the broad- and fine-scale population genetic structure of A. aestivalis.

Heredity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Jensen ◽  
Mette Lillie ◽  
Kristofer Bergström ◽  
Per Larsson ◽  
Jacob Höglund

AbstractThe use of genetic markers in the context of conservation is largely being outcompeted by whole-genome data. Comparative studies between the two are sparse, and the knowledge about potential effects of this methodology shift is limited. Here, we used whole-genome sequencing data to assess the genetic status of peripheral populations of the wels catfish (Silurus glanis), and discuss the results in light of a recent microsatellite study of the same populations. The Swedish populations of the wels catfish have suffered from severe declines during the last centuries and persists in only a few isolated water systems. Fragmented populations generally are at greater risk of extinction, for example due to loss of genetic diversity, and may thus require conservation actions. We sequenced individuals from the three remaining native populations (Båven, Emån, and Möckeln) and one reintroduced population of admixed origin (Helge å), and found that genetic diversity was highest in Emån but low overall, with strong differentiation among the populations. No signature of recent inbreeding was found, but a considerable number of short runs of homozygosity were present in all populations, likely linked to historically small population sizes and bottleneck events. Genetic substructure within any of the native populations was at best weak. Individuals from the admixed population Helge å shared most genetic ancestry with the Båven population (72%). Our results are largely in agreement with the microsatellite study, and stresses the need to protect these isolated populations at the northern edge of the distribution of the species.


mBio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henju Marjuki ◽  
How-Yi Chang ◽  
Nadav Topaz ◽  
Melissa J. Whaley ◽  
Jeni Vuong ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Carriage evaluations were conducted during 2015 to 2016 at two U.S. universities in conjunction with the response to disease outbreaks caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B and at a university where outbreak and response activities had not occurred. All eligible students at the two universities received the serogroup B meningococcal factor H binding protein vaccine (MenB-FHbp); 5.2% of students (181/3,509) at one university received MenB-4C. A total of 1,514 meningococcal carriage isolates were obtained from 8,905 oropharyngeal swabs from 7,001 unique participants. Whole-genome sequencing data were analyzed to understand MenB-FHbp’s impact on carriage and antigen genetic diversity and distribution. Of 1,422 isolates from carriers with known vaccination status (726 [51.0%] from MenB-FHbp-vaccinated, 42 [3.0%] from MenB-4C-vaccinated, and 654 [46.0%] from unvaccinated participants), 1,406 (98.9%) had intact fHbp alleles (716 from MenB-FHbp-vaccinated participants). Of 726 isolates from MenB-FHbp-vaccinated participants, 250 (34.4%) harbored FHbp peptides that may be covered by MenB-FHbp. Genogroup B was detected in 122/1,422 (8.6%) and 112/1,422 (7.9%) isolates from MenB-FHbp-vaccinated and unvaccinated participants, respectively. FHbp subfamily and peptide distributions between MenB-FHbp-vaccinated and unvaccinated participants were not statistically different. Eighteen of 161 MenB-FHbp-vaccinated repeat carriers (11.2%) acquired a new strain containing one or more new vaccine antigen peptides during multiple rounds of sample collection, which was not statistically different (P = 0.3176) from the unvaccinated repeat carriers (1/30; 3.3%). Our findings suggest that lack of MenB vaccine impact on carriage was not due to missing the intact fHbp gene; MenB-FHbp did not affect antigen genetic diversity and distribution during the study period. IMPORTANCE The impact of serogroup B meningococcal (MenB) vaccines on carriage is not completely understood. Using whole-genome sequencing data, we assessed the diversity and distribution of MenB vaccine antigens (particularly FHbp) among 1,514 meningococcal carriage isolates recovered from vaccinated and unvaccinated students at three U.S. universities, two of which underwent MenB-FHbp mass vaccination campaigns following meningococcal disease outbreaks. The majority of carriage isolates recovered from participants harbored intact fHbp genes, about half of which were recovered from MenB-FHbp-vaccinated participants. The distribution of vaccine antigen peptides was similar among carriage isolates recovered from vaccinated and unvaccinated participants, and almost all strains recovered from repeat carriers retained the same vaccine antigen profile, suggesting insignificant vaccine selective pressure on the carriage population in these universities.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Meisner ◽  
Anders Albrechtsen

AbstractAccurate inference of population structure is important in many studies of population genetics. In this paper we present, HaploNet, a novel method for performing dimensionality reduction and clustering in genetic data. The method is based on local clustering of phased haplotypes using neural networks from whole-genome sequencing or genotype data. By utilizing a Gaussian mixture prior in a variational autoencoder framework, we are able to learn a low-dimensional latent space in which we cluster haplotypes along the genome in a highly scalable manner. We demonstrate that we can use encodings of the latent space to infer global population structure using principal component analysis with haplotype information. Additionally, we derive an expectation-maximization algorithm for estimating ancestry proportions based on the haplotype clustering and the neural networks in a likelihood framework. Using different examples of sequencing data, we demonstrate that our approach is better at distinguishing closely related populations than standard principal component analysis and admixture analysis. We show that HaploNet performs similarly to ChromoPainter for principal component analysis while being much faster and allowing for unsupervised clustering.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Cheng ◽  
Huangqing Zhao ◽  
Ningbo Chen ◽  
Xiukai Cao ◽  
Quratulain Hanif ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1585
Author(s):  
Ana C. Reis ◽  
Liliana C. M. Salvador ◽  
Suelee Robbe-Austerman ◽  
Rogério Tenreiro ◽  
Ana Botelho ◽  
...  

Classical molecular analyses of Mycobacterium bovis based on spoligotyping and Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) brought the first insights into the epidemiology of animal tuberculosis (TB) in Portugal, showing high genotypic diversity of circulating strains that mostly cluster within the European 2 clonal complex. Previous surveillance provided valuable information on the prevalence and spatial occurrence of TB and highlighted prevalent genotypes in areas where livestock and wild ungulates are sympatric. However, links at the wildlife–livestock interfaces were established mainly via classical genotype associations. Here, we apply whole genome sequencing (WGS) to cattle, red deer and wild boar isolates to reconstruct the M. bovis population structure in a multi-host, multi-region disease system and to explore links at a fine genomic scale between M. bovis from wildlife hosts and cattle. Whole genome sequences of 44 representative M. bovis isolates, obtained between 2003 and 2015 from three TB hotspots, were compared through single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variant calling analyses. Consistent with previous results combining classical genotyping with Bayesian population admixture modelling, SNP-based phylogenies support the branching of this M. bovis population into five genetic clades, three with apparent geographic specificities, as well as the establishment of an SNP catalogue specific to each clade, which may be explored in the future as phylogenetic markers. The core genome alignment of SNPs was integrated within a spatiotemporal metadata framework to further structure this M. bovis population by host species and TB hotspots, providing a baseline for network analyses in different epidemiological and disease control contexts. WGS of M. bovis isolates from Portugal is reported for the first time in this pilot study, refining the spatiotemporal context of TB at the wildlife–livestock interface and providing further support to the key role of red deer and wild boar on disease maintenance. The SNP diversity observed within this dataset supports the natural circulation of M. bovis for a long time period, as well as multiple introduction events of the pathogen in this Iberian multi-host system.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoting Xia ◽  
Shunjin Zhang ◽  
Huaju Zhang ◽  
Zijing Zhang ◽  
Ningbo Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Native cattle breeds are an important source of genetic variation because they might carry alleles that enable them to adapt to local environment and tough feeding conditions. Jiaxian Red, a Chinese native cattle breed, is reported to have originated from crossbreeding between taurine and indicine cattle; their history as a draft and meat animal dates back at least 30 years. Using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data of 30 animals from the core breeding farm, we investigated the genetic diversity, population structure and genomic regions under selection of Jiaxian Red cattle. Furthermore, we used 131 published genomes of world-wide cattle to characterize the genomic variation of Jiaxian Red cattle. Results The population structure analysis revealed that Jiaxian Red cattle harboured the ancestry with East Asian taurine (0.493), Chinese indicine (0.379), European taurine (0.095) and Indian indicine (0.033). Three methods (nucleotide diversity, linkage disequilibrium decay and runs of homozygosity) implied the relatively high genomic diversity in Jiaxian Red cattle. We used θπ, CLR, FST and XP-EHH methods to look for the candidate signatures of positive selection in Jiaxian Red cattle. A total number of 171 (θπ and CLR) and 17 (FST and XP-EHH) shared genes were identified using different detection strategies. Functional annotation analysis revealed that these genes are potentially responsible for growth and feed efficiency (CCSER1), meat quality traits (ROCK2, PPP1R12A, CYB5R4, EYA3, PHACTR1), fertility (RFX4, SRD5A2) and immune system response (SLAMF1, CD84 and SLAMF6). Conclusion We provide a comprehensive overview of sequence variations in Jiaxian Red cattle genomes. Selection signatures were detected in genomic regions that are possibly related to economically important traits in Jiaxian Red cattle. We observed a high level of genomic diversity and low inbreeding in Jiaxian Red cattle. These results provide a basis for further resource protection and breeding improvement of this breed.


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