Genomic signatures of inbreeding and mutation load in a threatened rattlesnake

Abstract Objective Domestication of wild animals results in a reduction in the effective population size, and this could affect the deleterious mutation load of domesticated breeds. Furthermore, artificial selection will also contribute to the accumulation of deleterious mutations due to the increased rate of inbreeding among these animals. The process of domestication, founder population size, and artificial selection differ between cattle breeds, which could lead to a variation in their deleterious mutation loads. We investigated this using mitochondrial genome data from 364 animals belonging to 18 cattle breeds of the world. Results Our analysis revealed more than a fivefold difference in the deleterious mutation load among cattle breeds. We also observed a negative correlation between the breed age and the proportion of deleterious amino acid-changing polymorphisms. This suggests a proportionally higher deleterious SNPs in young breeds compared to older breeds. Our results highlight the magnitude of difference in the deleterious mutations present in the mitochondrial genomes of various breeds. The results of this study could be useful in predicting the rate of incidence of genetic diseases in different breeds.

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Mutation load at a mimicry supergene sheds new light on the evolution of inversion polymorphisms

Nature Genetics ◽

10.1038/s41588-020-00771-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Paul Jay ◽

Mathieu Chouteau ◽

Annabel Whibley ◽

Héloïse Bastide ◽

Hugues Parrinello ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mutation Load

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Comparative insights into genome signatures of ferric iron oxide- and anode-stimulated Desulfuromonas spp. strains

BMC Genomics ◽

10.1186/s12864-021-07809-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yong Guo ◽

Tomo Aoyagi ◽

Tomoyuki Hori

Keyword(s):

Iron Oxide ◽

Genome Rearrangement ◽

Ferric Iron ◽

Electron Acceptors ◽

Extracellular Electron Transfer ◽

Redox Potentials ◽

Bacterial Strains ◽

Biosynthesis Gene Cluster ◽

Genomic Signatures ◽

Flagellar Biosynthesis

Abstract Background Halotolerant Fe (III) oxide reducers affiliated in the family Desulfuromonadaceae are ubiquitous and drive the carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and metal cycles in marine subsurface sediment. Due to their possible application in bioremediation and bioelectrochemical engineering, some of phylogenetically close Desulfuromonas spp. strains have been isolated through enrichment with crystalline Fe (III) oxide and anode. The strains isolated using electron acceptors with distinct redox potentials may have different abilities, for instance, of extracellular electron transport, surface recognition and colonization. The objective of this study was to identify the different genomic signatures between the crystalline Fe (III) oxide-stimulated strain AOP6 and the anode-stimulated strains WTL and DDH964 by comparative genome analysis. Results The AOP6 genome possessed the flagellar biosynthesis gene cluster, as well as diverse and abundant genes involved in chemotaxis sensory systems and c-type cytochromes capable of reduction of electron acceptors with low redox potentials. The WTL and DDH964 genomes lacked the flagellar biosynthesis cluster and exhibited a massive expansion of transposable gene elements that might mediate genome rearrangement, while they were deficient in some of the chemotaxis and cytochrome genes and included the genes for oxygen resistance. Conclusions Our results revealed the genomic signatures distinctive for the ferric iron oxide- and anode-stimulated Desulfuromonas spp. strains. These findings highlighted the different metabolic abilities, such as extracellular electron transfer and environmental stress resistance, of these phylogenetically close bacterial strains, casting light on genome evolution of the subsurface Fe (III) oxide reducers.

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Nature of Deleterious Mutation Load in Drosophila

Genetics ◽

10.1093/genetics/144.4.1993 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 144 (4) ◽

pp. 1993-1999 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Peter D Keightley

Keyword(s):

Deleterious Mutation ◽

Spontaneous Mutation ◽

Mutation Accumulation ◽

Mutation Rates ◽

Mutation Load ◽

Spontaneous Mutation Rate ◽

A Minor ◽

Chromosome I ◽

Balancer Chromosomes ◽

Balancer Chromosome

Much population genetics and evolution theory depends on knowledge of genomic mutation rates and distributions of mutation effects for fitness, but most information comes from a few mutation accumulation experiments in Drosophila in which replicated chromosomes are sheltered from natural selection by a balancer chromosome. I show here that data from these experiments imply the existence of a large class of minor viability mutations with approximately equivalent effects. However, analysis of the distribution of viabilities of chromosomes exposed to EMS mutagenesis reveals a qualitatively different distribution of effects lacking such a minor effects class. A possible explanation for this difference is that transposable element insertions, a common class of spontaneous mutation event in Drosophila, frequently generate minor viability effects. This explanation would imply that current estimates of deleterious mutation rates are not generally applicable in evolutionary models, as transposition rates vary widely. Alternatively, much of the apparent decline in viability under spontaneous mutation accumulation could have been nonmutational, perhaps due to selective improvement of balancer chromosomes. This explanation accords well with the data and implies a spontaneous mutation rate for viability two orders of magnitude lower than previously assumed, with most mutation load attributable to major effects.

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