Weakened from Within: Intragenomic Conflict and Virulence

2002 ◽  
pp. 280-285
Author(s):  
Rolf F. Hoekstra ◽  
Alfons J.M. Debets
Keyword(s):  
Intragenomic Conflict

scholarly journals The social evolution of sleep: sex differences, intragenomic conflicts and clinical pathologies

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1894) ◽  
pp. 20182188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonçalo S. Faria ◽  
Susana A. M. Varela ◽  
Andy Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Maternal Origin ◽  
Intragenomic Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Sleep Sex

Sleep appears to be essential for most animals, including humans. Accordingly, individuals who sacrifice sleep are expected to incur costs and so should only be evolutionarily favoured to do this when these costs are offset by other benefits. For instance, a social group might benefit from having some level of wakefulness during the sleeping period if this guards against possible threats. Alternatively, individuals might sacrifice sleep in order to gain an advantage over mate competitors. Here, we perform a theoretical analysis of the social evolutionary pressures that drive investment into sleep versus wakefulness. Specifically, we: investigate how relatedness between social partners may modulate sleeping strategies, depending upon whether sleep sacrifice is selfish or altruistic; determine the conditions under which the sexes are favoured to adopt different sleeping strategies; identify the potential for intragenomic conflict between maternal-origin versus paternal-origin genes regarding an individual's sleeping behaviour; translate this conflict into novel and readily testable predictions concerning patterns of gene expression; and explore the concomitant effects of different kinds of mutations, epimutations, and uniparental disomies in relation to sleep disorders and other clinical pathologies. Our aim is to provide a theoretical framework for future empirical data and stimulate further research on this neglected topic.

Intragenomic conflict of maternal HLA haplotypes: A potential link between vigorous intrauterine growth and risk of autoimmunity in adulthood

2011 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 162-162
Author(s):  
C. Capittini ◽  
P. Bergamaschi ◽  
A. De Silvestri ◽  
A. Marchesi ◽  
V. Genovese ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intrauterine Growth ◽  
Intragenomic Conflict ◽  
Potential Link ◽  
Hla Haplotypes

scholarly journals The coevolution of toxin and antitoxin genes drives the dynamics of bacterial addiction complexes and intragenomic conflict

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1743) ◽  
pp. 3706-3715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Rankin ◽  
Leighton A. Turner ◽  
Jack A. Heinemann ◽  
Sam P. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Population Biology ◽  
Bacterial Genomes ◽  
Daughter Cells ◽  
Intragenomic Conflict ◽  
Bacterial Chromosomes ◽  
Gene Complexes ◽  
Deleterious Genes

Bacterial genomes commonly contain ‘addiction’ gene complexes that code for both a toxin and a corresponding antitoxin. As long as both genes are expressed, cells carrying the complex can remain healthy. However, loss of the complex (including segregational loss in daughter cells) can entail death of the cell. We develop a theoretical model to explore a number of evolutionary puzzles posed by toxin–antitoxin (TA) population biology. We first extend earlier results demonstrating that TA complexes can spread on plasmids, as an adaptation to plasmid competition in spatially structured environments, and highlight the role of kin selection. We then considered the emergence of TA complexes on plasmids from previously unlinked toxin and antitoxin genes. We find that one of these traits must offer at least initially a direct advantage in some but not all environments encountered by the evolving plasmid population. Finally, our study predicts non-transitive ‘rock-paper-scissors’ dynamics to be a feature of intragenomic conflict mediated by TA complexes. Intragenomic conflict could be sufficient to select deleterious genes on chromosomes and helps to explain the previously perplexing observation that many TA genes are found on bacterial chromosomes.

scholarly journals Intragenomic conflict produces sex ratio dynamics that favor maternal sex ratio distorters

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. 8085-8093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine S. Rood ◽  
Steven Freedberg
Keyword(s):  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Intragenomic Conflict

Sex-ratio meiotic drive in Drosophila simulans: cellular mechanism, candidate genes and evolution

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Montchamp-Moreau
Keyword(s):  
Sex Ratio ◽  
X Chromosome ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Meiotic Drive ◽  
Female Offspring ◽  
Drosophila Simulans ◽  
X Chromosomes ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Primary Sex Ratio ◽  
Intragenomic Conflict

The sex-ratio trait, reported in a dozen Drosophila species, is a type of naturally occurring meiotic drive in which the driving elements are located on the X chromosome. Typically, as the result of a shortage of Y-bearing spermatozoa, males carrying a sex-ratio X chromosome produce a large excess of female offspring. The presence of sex-ratio chromosomes in a species can have considerable evolutionary consequences, because they can affect individual fitness and trigger extended intragenomic conflict. Here, I present the main results of the study performed in Drosophila simulans. In this species, the loss of Y-bearing spermatozoa is related to the inability of the Y chromosome sister-chromatids to separate properly during meiosis II. Fine genetic mapping has shown that the primary sex-ratio locus on the X chromosome contains two distorter elements acting synergistically, both of which are required for drive expression. One element has been genetically mapped to a tandem duplication. To infer the natural history of the trait, the pattern of DNA sequence polymorphism in the surrounding chromosomal region is being analysed in natural populations of D. simulans harbouring sex-ratio X chromosomes. Initial results have revealed the recent spread of a distorter allele.

scholarly journals We were all young once: an intragenomic perspective on parent–offspring conflict

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1754) ◽  
pp. 20122637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Bossan ◽  
Peter Hammerstein ◽  
Arnulf Koehncke
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Life History ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Fitness Effect ◽  
Intragenomic Conflict ◽  
Evolutionary Conflict ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory

Parent–offspring conflict (POC) describes the evolutionary conflict between offspring and their parents over parental resource allocation. Offspring are expected to demand more resources than their parents are willing to supply because these offspring are more related to their own than to their siblings' offspring. Kin selection acts to limit these divergent interests. Our model departs from previous models by describing POC as an intragenomic conflict between genes determining life-history traits during infancy or parenthood. We explain why a direct fitness approach that measures the total fitness effect during exactly one generation is required to correctly assess POC in interbrood rivalry. We find that incorrect assumptions in previous models led to an overestimation of the scope of POC. Moreover, we show why the degree of monogamy is more important for POC than previously thought. Overall, we demonstrate that a life-history-centred intragenomic approach is necessary to correctly interpret POCs. We further discuss how our work relates to the current debate about the usefulness of inclusive fitness theory.

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