scholarly journals The complete mitochondrial genome of the intertidal spider (Desis jiaxiangi) provides novel insights into the adaptive evolution of the mitogenome and the evolution of spiders

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan Li ◽  
Yunyun Lv ◽  
Zhengyong Wen ◽  
Chao Bian ◽  
Xinhui Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Although almost all extant spider species live in terrestrial environments, a few species live fully submerged in freshwater or seawater. The intertidal spiders (genus Desis) built silk nests within coral crevices can survive submerged in high tides. The diving bell spider, Argyroneta aquatica, resides in a similar dynamic environment but exclusively in freshwater. Given the pivotal role played by mitochondria in supplying most energy for physiological activity via oxidative phosphorylation and the environment, herein we sequenced the complete mitogenome of Desis jiaxiangi to investigate the adaptive evolution of the aquatic spider mitogenomes and the evolution of spiders. Results We assembled a complete mitogenome of the intertidal spider Desis jiaxiangi and performed comparative mitochondrial analyses of data set comprising of Desis jiaxiangi and other 45 previously published spider mitogenome sequences, including that of Argyroneta aquatica. We found a unique transposition of trnL2 and trnN genes in Desis jiaxiangi. Our robust phylogenetic topology clearly deciphered the evolutionary relationships between Desis jiaxiangi and Argyroneta aquatica as well as other spiders. We dated the divergence of Desis jiaxiangi and Argyroneta aquatica to the late Cretaceous at ~ 98 Ma. Our selection analyses detected a positive selection signal in the nd4 gene of the aquatic branch comprising both Desis jiaxiangi and Argyroneta aquatica. Surprisingly, Pirata subpiraticus, Hypochilus thorelli, and Argyroneta aquatica each had a higher Ka/Ks value in the 13 PCGs dataset among 46 taxa with complete mitogenomes, and these three species also showed positive selection signal in the nd6 gene. Conclusions Our finding of the unique transposition of trnL2 and trnN genes indicates that these genes may have experienced rearrangements in the history of intertidal spider evolution. The positive selection signals in the nd4 and nd6 genes might enable a better understanding of the spider metabolic adaptations in relation to different environments. Our construction of a novel mitogenome for the intertidal spider thus sheds light on the evolutionary history of spiders and their mitogenomes.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Yu ◽  
Yuan Jin ◽  
Zhiqiu Yin ◽  
Hongguang Ren ◽  
Wei Zhou ◽  
...  

Currently, there is particular interest in the molecular mechanisms of adaptive evolution in bacteria.Neisseriais a genus of gram negative bacteria, and there has recently been considerable focus on its two human pathogenic speciesN. meningitidisandN. gonorrhoeae. Until now, no genome-wide studies have attempted to scan for the genes related to adaptive evolution. For this reason, we selected 18Neisseriagenomes (14N. meningitidis, 3N. gonorrhoeaeand 1 commensalN. lactamics) to conduct a comparative genome analysis to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the roles of natural selection and homologous recombination throughout the history of adaptive evolution. Among the 1012 core orthologous genes, we identified 635 genes with recombination signals and 10 genes that showed significant evidence of positive selection. Further functional analyses revealed that no functional bias was found in the recombined genes. Positively selected genes are prone to DNA processing and iron uptake, which are essential for the fundamental life cycle. Overall, the results indicate that both recombination and positive selection play crucial roles in the adaptive evolution ofNeisseriagenomes. The positively selected genes and the corresponding amino acid sites provide us with valuable targets for further research into the detailed mechanisms of adaptive evolution inNeisseria.


2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 722-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher T Jones ◽  
Noor Youssef ◽  
Edward Susko ◽  
Joseph P Bielawski

Abstract A central objective in biology is to link adaptive evolution in a gene to structural and/or functional phenotypic novelties. Yet most analytic methods make inferences mainly from either phenotypic data or genetic data alone. A small number of models have been developed to infer correlations between the rate of molecular evolution and changes in a discrete or continuous life history trait. But such correlations are not necessarily evidence of adaptation. Here, we present a novel approach called the phenotype–genotype branch-site model (PG-BSM) designed to detect evidence of adaptive codon evolution associated with discrete-state phenotype evolution. An episode of adaptation is inferred under standard codon substitution models when there is evidence of positive selection in the form of an elevation in the nonsynonymous-to-synonymous rate ratio $\omega$ to a value $\omega > 1$. As it is becoming increasingly clear that $\omega > 1$ can occur without adaptation, the PG-BSM was formulated to infer an instance of adaptive evolution without appealing to evidence of positive selection. The null model makes use of a covarion-like component to account for general heterotachy (i.e., random changes in the evolutionary rate at a site over time). The alternative model employs samples of the phenotypic evolutionary history to test for phenomenological patterns of heterotachy consistent with specific mechanisms of molecular adaptation. These include 1) a persistent increase/decrease in $\omega$ at a site following a change in phenotype (the pattern) consistent with an increase/decrease in the functional importance of the site (the mechanism); and 2) a transient increase in $\omega$ at a site along a branch over which the phenotype changed (the pattern) consistent with a change in the site’s optimal amino acid (the mechanism). Rejection of the null is followed by post hoc analyses to identify sites with strongest evidence for adaptation in association with changes in the phenotype as well as the most likely evolutionary history of the phenotype. Simulation studies based on a novel method for generating mechanistically realistic signatures of molecular adaptation show that the PG-BSM has good statistical properties. Analyses of real alignments show that site patterns identified post hoc are consistent with the specific mechanisms of adaptation included in the alternate model. Further simulation studies show that the covarion-like component of the PG-BSM plays a crucial role in mitigating recently discovered statistical pathologies associated with confounding by accounting for heterotachy-by-any-cause. [Adaptive evolution; branch-site model; confounding; mutation-selection; phenotype–genotype.]


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-148
Author(s):  
Michael W. Overton

AbstractBovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a frequent disease concern in dairy cattle and is most commonly diagnosed in young dairy heifers. The impact of BRD is highly variable, depending on the accuracy and completeness of detection, effectiveness of treatment, and on-farm culling practices. Consequences include decreased rate of weight gain, a higher culling risk either as heifers or as cows, delayed age at first service, delayed age at first calving, and in some cases, lower future milk production. In this data set of 104,100 dairy replacement heifers from across the USA, 36.6% had one or more cases diagnosed within the first 120 days of age with the highest risk of new cases occurring prior to weaning. Comparison of the raising cost for heifers with BRD and those without a recorded history of BRD resulted in an estimated cost per incident case occurring in the first 120 days of age of $252 or $282, depending upon whether anticipated future milk production differences were considered or not. Current market conditions contributed to a cost estimate that is significantly higher than previously published estimates, driven in part by the losses associated with selective culling of a subset of heifers that experienced BRD.


Author(s):  
Charles D. Phillips ◽  
Kathleen M. Spry

RÉSUMÉTrès peu de recherches ont été effectuées sur les pensionnaires des maisons de soins ayant manifestés des troubles mentaux chroniques sans démence avant leur entrée en institution. Les données du Minimum Data Set for Nursing Home Resident Assessment and Care Screening (MDS) de 1993 ont été utilisées pouranalyser les différences dans les caractéristiques et les soins se rapportant à ce type de pensionnaires par rapport aux autres pensionnaires. Cette enquête portait sur 70 000 pensionnaires du Kansas, du Maine, du Mississippi et du Dakota du Sud. Les caractéristiques des pensionnaires qui éprouvaient ce type de troubles mentaux chroniques étaient plus fréquemment les suivantes: sexe masculin, 65 ans et plus, bénéficiaires de Medicaid, moins médicalement inaptes et niveau plus élevé de problèmes de comportements. Ces pensionnaires reçoivent aussi davantage de médicaments psychotropes et suivant une thérapie, la prévalence de la thérapie étant cependant moins éleveé. Les informations recueillies pourraient laisser croire que les soins accordés à ces pensionnaires ne sont pas des plus appropriés.


Author(s):  
Sara Fuentes-Soriano ◽  
Elizabeth A. Kellogg

Physarieae is a small tribe of herbaceous annual and woody perennial mustards that are mostly endemic to North America, with its members including a large amount of variation in floral, fruit, and chromosomal variation. Building on a previous study of Physarieae based on morphology and ndhF plastid DNA, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of the tribe using new sequence data from two nuclear markers, and compared the new topologies against previously published cpDNA-based phylogenetic hypotheses. The novel analyses included ca. 420 new sequences of ITS and LUMINIDEPENDENS (LD) markers for 39 and 47 species, respectively, with sampling accounting for all seven genera of Physarieae, including nomenclatural type species, and 11 outgroup taxa. Maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian analyses showed that these additional markers were largely consistent with the previous ndhF data that supported the monophyly of Physarieae and resolved two major clades within the tribe, i.e., DDNLS (Dithyrea, Dimorphocarpa, Nerisyrenia, Lyrocarpa, and Synthlipsis)and PP (Paysonia and Physaria). New analyses also increased internal resolution for some closely related species and lineages within both clades. The monophyly of Dithyrea and the sister relationship of Paysonia to Physaria was consistent in all trees, with the sister relationship of Nerisyrenia to Lyrocarpa supported by ndhF and ITS, and the positions of Dimorphocarpa and Synthlipsis shifted within the DDNLS Clade depending on the employed data set. Finally, using the strong, new phylogenetic framework of combined cpDNA + nDNA data, we discussed standing hypotheses of trichome evolution in the tribe suggested by ndhF.


2021 ◽  
pp. emermed-2020-210412
Author(s):  
Richard Hotham ◽  
Colin O'Keeffe ◽  
Tony Stone ◽  
Suzanne M Mason ◽  
Christopher Burton

BackgroundEDs globally are under increasing pressure through rising demand. Frequent attenders are known to have complex health needs and use a disproportionate amount of resources. We hypothesised that heterogeneity of patients’ reason for attendance would be associated with multimorbidity and increasing age, and predict future attendance.MethodWe analysed an anonymised dataset of all ED visits over the course of 2014 in Yorkshire, UK. We identified 15 986 patients who had five or more ED encounters at any ED in the calendar year. Presenting complaint was categorised into one of 14 categories based on the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS). We calculated measures of heterogeneity (count of ECDs categories and entropy of categories) and examined their relationship to total number of ED visits and to patient characteristics. We examined the predictive value of these and other features on future attendance.ResultsMost frequent attenders had more than one presenting complaint type. Heterogeneity increased with number of attendances, but heterogeneity adjusted for number of attendances did not vary substantially with age or sex. Heterogeneity was associated with the presence of one or more contacts for a mental health problem. For a given number of attendances, prior mental health contact but not heterogeneity was associated with further attendance.ConclusionsHeterogeneity of presenting complaint can be quantified and analysed for ED use: it is increased where there is a history of mental disorder but not with age. This suggests it reflects more than the number of medical conditions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ori Swed ◽  
Jae Kwon ◽  
Bryan Feldscher ◽  
Thomas Crosbie

From an obscure sector synonymous with mercenaryism, the private military and security industry has grown to become a significant complementing instrument in military operations. This rise has brought with it a considerable attention. Researchers have examined the role of private military and security companies in international relations as well as the history of these companies, and, above all, the legal implications of their use in the place of military organizations. As research progresses, a significant gap has become clear. Only a handful of studies have addressed the complex of issues associated with contractors’ demographics and lived experience. This article sheds some light over this lacuna, examining contractors’ demographics using descriptive statistics from an original data set of American and British contractors who died in Iraq between the years 2003 and 2016. The article augments our understanding of an important population of post-Fordist-contracted workforce, those peripheral workers supplementing military activity in high-risk occupations with uncertain long-term outcomes.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pier Francesco Palamara ◽  
Jonathan Terhorst ◽  
Yun S. Song ◽  
Alkes L. Price

AbstractInterest in reconstructing demographic histories has motivated the development of methods to estimate locus-specific pairwise coalescence times from whole-genome sequence data. We developed a new method, ASMC, that can estimate coalescence times using only SNP array data, and is 2-4 orders of magnitude faster than previous methods when sequencing data are available. We were thus able to apply ASMC to 113,851 phased British samples from the UK Biobank, aiming to detect recent positive selection by identifying loci with unusually high density of very recent coalescence times. We detected 12 genome-wide significant signals, including 6 loci with previous evidence of positive selection and 6 novel loci, consistent with coalescent simulations showing that our approach is well-powered to detect recent positive selection. We also applied ASMC to sequencing data from 498 Dutch individuals (Genome of the Netherlands data set) to detect background selection at deeper time scales. We observed highly significant correlations between average coalescence time inferred by ASMC and other measures of background selection. We investigated whether this signal translated into an enrichment in disease and complex trait heritability by analyzing summary association statistics from 20 independent diseases and complex traits (average N=86k) using stratified LD score regression. Our background selection annotation based on average coalescence time was strongly enriched for heritability (p = 7×10−153) in a joint analysis conditioned on a broad set of functional annotations (including other background selection annotations), meta-analyzed across traits; SNPs in the top 20% of our annotation were 3.8x enriched for heritability compared to the bottom 20%. These results underscore the widespread effects of background selection on disease and complex trait heritability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Sun ◽  
Chi-Chun Huang ◽  
Yu-Wei Tseng ◽  
Tulshi Laxmi Suwal ◽  
Meng-Jou Chi ◽  
...  

The Chinese pangolin Manis pentadactyla is critically endangered because of over-exploitation and illegal trafficking and includes three subspecies. However, the taxonomic status of the three subspecies of the Chinese pangolin has not been well resolved, which impedes regional conservation and illegal trade traces. In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of M. p. pentadactyla, an endemic subspecies of the Chinese pangolin in Taiwan, was determined. The complete mitogenome of M. p. pentadactyla is 16,570 base pairs (bp) in length with 13 protein-coding genes (PCG), 23 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNAs and a 1164 bp control region. The overall base composition of the genome showed a slight A + T bias (59.9%), positive AT skew (0.1515) and negative GC skew (-0.3406), which is similar to that of other pangolins. All PCGs started with a typical ATN codon and all tRNAs were typical cloverleaf-shaped secondary structures, except for tRNA-Ser(GCU). Phylogenetic analysis indicated a monophyletic relationship for M. p. pentadactyla and M. p. aurita and was monophyletic for M. p. pentadactyla, but paraphyletic for M. p. aurita. The paraphyly of M. p. aurita resulted from an incomplete lineage sorting. This study enriched the mitogenome database of the Chinese pangolin and the molecular information obtained should be very useful for future research on mitogenome evolution and genetic diversification in M. pentadactyla.


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