Calling Structural Variants with Confidence from Short-Read Data in Wild Bird Populations.

Comprehensive characterization of structural variation in natural populations has only become feasible in the last decade. To investigate the population genomic nature of structural variation, reproducible and high-confidence structural variation callsets are first required. We created a population-scale reference of the genome-wide landscape of structural variation across 33 Nordic house sparrows (Passer domesticus). To produce a consensus callset across all samples using short-read data, we compare heuristic-based quality filtering and visual curation (Samplot/PlotCritic and Samplot-ML) approaches. We demonstrate that curation of structural variants is important for reducing putative false positives and that the time invested in this step outweighs the potential costs of analyzing short-read-discovered structural variation data sets that include many potential false positives. We find that even a lenient manual curation strategy (e.g. applied by a single curator) can reduce the proportion of putative false positives by up to 80%, thus enriching the proportion of high-confidence variants. Crucially, in applying a lenient manual curation strategy with a single curator, nearly all (>99%) variants rejected as putative false positives were also classified as such by a more stringent curation strategy using three additional curators. Furthermore, variants rejected by manual curation failed to reflect the expected population structure from SNPs, whereas variants passing curation did. Combining heuristic-based quality filtering with rapid manual curation of structural variants in short-read data can therefore become a time- and cost-effective first step for functional and population genomic studies requiring high-confidence structural variation callsets.

A chromosome-level assembly of the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus genome with annotation of its repetitive elements.

Callosobruchus maculatus is a major agricultural pest of legume crops worldwide and an established model system in ecology and evolution. Yet, current molecular biological resources for this species are limited. Here, we employ Hi-C sequencing to generate a greatly improved genome assembly and we annotate its repetitive elements in a dedicated in-depth effort where we manually curate and classify the most abundant unclassified repeat subfamilies. We present a scaffolded chromosome-level assembly, which is 1.01 Gb in total length with 86% being contained within the 9 autosomes and the X chromosome. Repetitive sequences accounted for 70% of the total assembly. DNA transposons covered 18% of the genome, with the most abundant superfamily being Tc1-Mariner (9.75% of the genome). This new chromosome-level genome assembly of C. maculatus will enable future genetic and evolutionary studies not only of this important species but of beetles more generally.

Germline mutation rate is elevated in young and old parents in Caenorhabditis remanei.

The effect of parental age on germline mutation rate across generations is not fully understood. While some studies report a positive linear relationship of mutation rate with increasing age, others suggest that mutation rate varies with age but not in a linear fashion. We investigated the effect of parental age on germline mutations by generating replicated mutation accumulation lines in Caenorhabditis remanei at three parental ages ("Young T1" [Day 1], "Peak T2" [Day 2], and "Old T5" [Day 5] parents). We conducted whole-genome resequencing and variant calling to compare differences in mutation rates after three generations of mutation accumulation. We found that Peak T2 lines had an overall reduced mutation rate compared to Young T1 and Old T5 lines, but this pattern of the effect varied depending on the variant impact. Specifically, we found no high-impact variants in Peak T2 lines, and modifiers and up- and downstream gene variants were less frequent in these lines. These results suggest that animals at the peak of reproduction have better DNA maintenance and repair compared to young and old animals. We propose that C. remanei start to reproduce before they optimize their DNA maintenance and repair, trading the benefits of earlier onset of reproduction against offspring mutation load. The increase in offspring mutation load with age likely represents germline senescence.

Y-Linked Copy Number Polymorphism of Target of Rapamycin Is Associated with Sexual Size Dimorphism in Seed Beetles.

The Y chromosome is theorized to facilitate evolution of sexual dimorphism by accumulating sexually antagonistic loci, but empirical support is scarce. Due to the lack of recombination, Y chromosomes are prone to degenerative processes, which poses a constraint on their adaptive potential. Yet, in the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus segregating Y linked variation affects male body size and thereby sexual size dimorphism (SSD). Here, we assemble C. maculatus sex chromosome sequences and identify molecular differences associated with Y-linked SSD variation. The assembled Y chromosome is largely euchromatic and contains over 400 genes, many of which are ampliconic with a mixed autosomal and X chromosome ancestry. Functional annotation suggests that the Y chromosome plays important roles in males beyond primary reproductive functions. Crucially, we find that, besides an autosomal copy of the gene target of rapamycin (TOR), males carry an additional TOR copy on the Y chromosome. TOR is a conserved regulator of growth across taxa, and our results suggest that a Y-linked TOR provides a male specific opportunity to alter body size. A comparison of Y haplotypes associated with male size difference uncovers a copy number variation for TOR, where the haplotype associated with decreased male size, and thereby increased sexual dimorphism, has two additional TOR copies. This suggests that sexual conflict over growth has been mitigated by autosome to Y translocation of TOR followed by gene duplications. Our results reveal that despite of suppressed recombination, the Y chromosome can harbor adaptive potential as a male-limited supergene.

Selection on Accessible Chromatin Regions in Capsella grandiflora.

Accurate estimates of genome-wide rates and fitness effects of new mutations are essential for an improved understanding of molecular evolutionary processes. Although eukaryotic genomes generally contain a large noncoding fraction, functional noncoding regions and fitness effects of mutations in such regions are still incompletely characterized. A promising approach to characterize functional noncoding regions relies on identifying accessible chromatin regions (ACRs) tightly associated with regulatory DNA. Here, we applied this approach to identify and estimate selection on ACRs in Capsella grandiflora, a crucifer species ideal for population genomic quantification of selection due to its favorable population demography. We describe a population-wide ACR distribution based on ATAC-seq data for leaf samples of 16 individuals from a natural population. We use population genomic methods to estimate fitness effects and proportions of positively selected fixations (α) in ACRs and find that intergenic ACRs harbor a considerable fraction of weakly deleterious new mutations, as well as a significantly higher proportion of strongly deleterious mutations than comparable inaccessible intergenic regions. ACRs are enriched for expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and depleted of transposable element insertions, as expected if intergenic ACRs are under selection because they harbor regulatory regions. By integrating empirical identification of intergenic ACRs with analyses of eQTL and population genomic analyses of selection, we demonstrate that intergenic regulatory regions are an important source of nearly neutral mutations. These results improve our understanding of selection on noncoding regions and the role of nearly neutral mutations for evolutionary processes in outcrossing Brassicaceae species.

Khoe-San Genomes Reveal Unique Variation and Confirm the Deepest Population Divergence in Homo sapiens.

The southern African indigenous Khoe-San populations harbor the most divergent lineages of all living peoples. Exploring their genomes is key to understanding deep human history. We sequenced 25 full genomes from five Khoe-San populations, revealing many novel variants, that 25% of variants are unique to the Khoe-San, and that the Khoe-San group harbors the greatest level of diversity across the globe. In line with previous studies, we found several gene regions with extreme values in genome-wide scans for selection, potentially caused by natural selection in the lineage leading to Homo sapiens and more recent in time. These gene regions included immunity-, sperm-, brain-, diet-, and muscle-related genes. When accounting for recent admixture, all Khoe-San groups display genetic diversity approaching the levels in other African groups and a reduction in effective population size starting around 100,000 years ago. Hence, all human groups show a reduction in effective population size commencing around the time of the Out-of-Africa migrations, which coincides with changes in the paleoclimate records, changes that potentially impacted all humans at the time.

Genome-wide association study identified novel candidate loci affecting wood formation in Norway spruce.

Norway spruce is a boreal forest tree species of significant ecological and economic importance. Hence there is a strong imperative to dissect the genetics underlying important wood quality traits in the species. We performed a functional genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 17 wood traits in Norway spruce using 178 101 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) generated from exome genotyping of 517 mother trees. The wood traits were defined using functional modelling of wood properties across annual growth rings. We applied a Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO-based) association mapping method using a functional multilocus mapping approach that utilizes latent traits, with a stability selection probability method as the hypothesis testing approach to determine a significant quantitative trait locus. The analysis provided 52 significant SNPs from 39 candidate genes, including genes previously implicated in wood formation and tree growth in spruce and other species. Our study represents a multilocus GWAS for complex wood traits in Norway spruce. The results advance our understanding of the genetics influencing wood traits and identifies candidate genes for future functional studies.

An Ultra-Dense Haploid Genetic Map for Evaluating the Highly Fragmented Genome Assembly of Norway Spruce (Picea abies).

Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) is a conifer species of substanital economic and ecological importance. In common with most conifers, the P. abies genome is very large (∼20 Gbp) and contains a high fraction of repetitive DNA. The current P. abies genome assembly (v1.0) covers approximately 60% of the total genome size but is highly fragmented, consisting of >10 million scaffolds. The genome annotation contains 66,632 gene models that are at least partially validated (www.congenie.org), however, the fragmented nature of the assembly means that there is currently little information available on how these genes are physically distributed over the 12 P. abies chromosomes. By creating an ultra-dense genetic linkage map, we anchored and ordered scaffolds into linkage groups, which complements the fine-scale information available in assembly contigs. Our ultra-dense haploid consensus genetic map consists of 21,056 markers derived from 14,336 scaffolds that contain 17,079 gene models (25.6% of the validated gene models) that we have anchored to the 12 linkage groups. We used data from three independent component maps, as well as comparisons with previously published Picea maps to evaluate the accuracy and marker ordering of the linkage groups. We demonstrate that approximately 3.8% of the anchored scaffolds and 1.6% of the gene models covered by the consensus map have likely assembly errors as they contain genetic markers that map to different regions within or between linkage groups. We further evaluate the utility of the genetic map for the conifer research community by using an independent data set of unrelated individuals to assess genome-wide variation in genetic diversity using the genomic regions anchored to linkage groups. The results show that our map is sufficiently dense to enable detailed evolutionary analyses across the P. abies genome.

Functional and evolutionary genomic inferences in Populus through genome and population sequencing of American and European aspen.

The Populus genus is one of the major plant model systems, but genomic resources have thus far primarily been available for poplar species, and primarily Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray), which was the first tree with a whole-genome assembly. To further advance evolutionary and functional genomic analyses in Populus, we produced genome assemblies and population genetics resources of two aspen species, Populus tremula L. and Populus tremuloides Michx. The two aspen species have distributions spanning the Northern Hemisphere, where they are keystone species supporting a wide variety of dependent communities and produce a diverse array of secondary metabolites. Our analyses show that the two aspens share a similar genome structure and a highly conserved gene content with P. trichocarpa but display substantially higher levels of heterozygosity. Based on population resequencing data, we observed widespread positive and negative selection acting on both coding and noncoding regions. Furthermore, patterns of genetic diversity and molecular evolution in aspen are influenced by a number of features, such as expression level, coexpression network connectivity, and regulatory variation. To maximize the community utility of these resources, we have integrated all presented data within the PopGenIE web resource (PopGenIE.org).

RPASE: Individual-based allele-specific expression detection without prior knowledge of haplotype phase.

Variation in gene expression is believed to make a significant contribution to phenotypic diversity and divergence. The analysis of allele-specific expression (ASE) can reveal important insights into gene expression regulation. We developed a novel method called RPASE (Read-backed Phasing-based ASE detection) to test for genes that show ASE. With mapped RNA-seq data from a single individual and a list of SNPs from the same individual as the only input, RPASE is capable of aggregating information across multiple dependent SNPs and producing individual-based gene-level tests for ASE. RPASE performs well in simulations and comparisons. We applied RPASE to multiple bird species and found a potentially rich landscape of ASE.

A major locus controls local adaptation and adaptive life history variation in a perennial plant.

BACKGROUND: The initiation of growth cessation and dormancy represent critical life-history trade-offs between survival and growth and have important fitness effects in perennial plants. Such adaptive life-history traits often show strong local adaptation along environmental gradients but, despite their importance, the genetic architecture of these traits remains poorly understood. RESULTS: We integrate whole genome re-sequencing with environmental and phenotypic data from common garden experiments to investigate the genomic basis of local adaptation across a latitudinal gradient in European aspen (Populus tremula). A single genomic region containing the PtFT2 gene mediates local adaptation in the timing of bud set and explains 65% of the observed genetic variation in bud set. This locus is the likely target of a recent selective sweep that originated right before or during colonization of northern Scandinavia following the last glaciation. Field and greenhouse experiments confirm that variation in PtFT2 gene expression affects the phenotypic variation in bud set that we observe in wild natural populations. CONCLUSIONS: Our results reveal a major effect locus that determines the timing of bud set and that has facilitated rapid adaptation to shorter growing seasons and colder climates in European aspen. The discovery of a single locus explaining a substantial fraction of the variation in a key life-history trait is remarkable, given that such traits are generally considered to be highly polygenic. These findings provide a dramatic illustration of how loci of large-effect for adaptive traits can arise and be maintained over large geographical scales in natural populations.

Tracking the NGS revolution: managing life science research on shared high-performance computing clusters.

Background: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has transformed the life sciences, and many research groups are newly dependent upon computer clusters to store and analyze large datasets. This creates challenges for e-infrastructures accustomed to hosting computationally mature research in other sciences. Using data gathered from our own clusters at UPPMAX computing center at Uppsala University, Sweden, where core hour usage of ∼800 NGS and ∼200 non-NGS projects is now similar, we compare and contrast the growth, administrative burden, and cluster usage of NGS projects with projects from other sciences. Results: The number of NGS projects has grown rapidly since 2010, with growth driven by entry of new research groups. Storage used by NGS projects has grown more rapidly since 2013 and is now limited by disk capacity. NGS users submit nearly twice as many support tickets per user, and 11 more tools are installed each month for NGS projects than for non-NGS projects. We developed usage and efficiency metrics and show that computing jobs for NGS projects use more RAM than non-NGS projects, are more variable in core usage, and rarely span multiple nodes. NGS jobs use booked resources less efficiently for a variety of reasons. Active monitoring can improve this somewhat. Conclusions: Hosting NGS projects imposes a large administrative burden at UPPMAX due to large numbers of inexperienced users and diverse and rapidly evolving research areas. We provide a set of recommendations for e-infrastructures that host NGS research projects. We provide anonymized versions of our storage, job, and efficiency databases.

Sharing of photobionts in sympatric populations of Thamnolia and Cetraria lichens: evidence from high-throughput sequencing.

In this study, we explored the diversity of green algal symbionts (photobionts) in sympatric populations of the cosmopolitan lichen-forming fungi Thamnolia and Cetraria. We sequenced with both Sanger and Ion Torrent High-Throughput Sequencing technologies the photobiont ITS-region of 30 lichen thalli from two islands: Iceland and Öland. While Sanger recovered just one photobiont genotype from each thallus, the Ion Torrent data recovered 10-18 OTUs for each pool of 5 lichen thalli, suggesting that individual lichens can contain heterogeneous photobiont populations. Both methods showed evidence for photobiont sharing between Thamnolia and Cetraria on Iceland. In contrast, our data suggest that on Öland the two mycobionts associate with distinct photobiont communities, with few shared OTUs revealed by Ion Torrent sequencing. Furthermore, by comparing our sequences with public data, we identified closely related photobionts from geographically distant localities. Taken together, we suggest that the photobiont composition in Thamnolia and Cetraria results from both photobiont-mycobiont codispersal and local acquisition during mycobiont establishment and/or lichen growth. We hypothesize that this is a successful strategy for lichens to be flexible in the use of the most adapted photobiont for the environment.

Bacteria colonising Penstemon digitalis show volatile and tissue-specific responses to a natural concentration range of the floral volatile linalool.

Bacteria on floral tissue can have negative effects by consuming resources and affecting nectar quality, which subsequently could reduce pollinator visitation and plant fitness. Plants however can employ chemical defences to reduce bacteria density. In North American, bee-pollinated Penstemon digitalis, the nectar volatile S-(+)-linalool can influence plant fitness, and terpenes such as linalool are known for their antimicrobial properties suggesting that it may also play a role in plant-microbe interactions. Therefore, we hypothesized linalool could affect bacterial growth on P. digitalis plants/flowers. Because P. digitalis emits linalool from nectar and nectary tissue but not petals, we hypothesised that the effects of linalool could depend on tissue of origin due to varying exposure. We isolated bacteria from nectary tissue, petals and leaves, and compared their growth relative to control using two volatile concentrations representing the natural emission range of linalool. To assess whether effects were specific to linalool, we compared results with the co-occurring nectar volatile, methyl nicotinate. We show that response to floral volatiles can be substance and tissue-origin specific. Because linalool could slow growth rate of bacteria across the P. digitalis phyllosphere, floral emission of linalool could play a role in mediating plant-bacteria interactions in this system.

LTR Retrotransposons Show Low Levels of Unequal Recombination and High Rates of Intraelement Gene Conversion in Large Plant Genomes.

The accumulation and removal of transposable elements (TEs) is a major driver of genome size evolution in eukaryotes. In plants, long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons (LTR-RTs) represent the majority of TEs and form most of the nuclear DNA in large genomes. Unequal recombination (UR) between LTRs leads to removal of intervening sequence and formation of solo-LTRs. UR is a major mechanism of LTR-RT removal in many angiosperms, but our understanding of LTR-RT-associated recombination within the large, LTR-RT-rich genomes of conifers is quite limited. We employ a novel read-based methodology to estimate the relative rates of LTR-RT-associated UR within the genomes of four conifer and seven angiosperm species. We found the lowest rates of UR in the largest genomes studied, conifers and the angiosperm maize. Recombination may also resolve as gene conversion, which does not remove sequence, so we analyzed LTR-RT-associated gene conversion events (GCEs) in Norway spruce and six angiosperms. Opposite the trend for UR, we found the highest rates of GCEs in Norway spruce and maize. Unlike previous work in angiosperms, we found no evidence that rates of UR correlate with retroelement structural features in the conifers, suggesting that another process is suppressing UR in these species. Recent results from diverse eukaryotes indicate that heterochromatin affects the resolution of recombination, by favoring gene conversion over crossing-over, similar to our observation of opposed rates of UR and GCEs. Control of LTR-RT proliferation via formation of heterochromatin would be a likely step toward large genomes in eukaryotes carrying high LTR-RT content.

Haploid selection within a single ejaculate increases offspring fitness.

An inescapable consequence of sex in eukaryotes is the evolution of a biphasic life cycle with alternating diploid and haploid phases. The occurrence of selection during the haploid phase can have far-reaching consequences for fundamental evolutionary processes including the rate of adaptation, the extent of inbreeding depression, and the load of deleterious mutations, as well as for applied research into fertilization technology. Although haploid selection is well established in plants, current dogma assumes that in animals, intact fertile sperm within a single ejaculate are equivalent at siring viable offspring. Using the zebrafish Danio rerio, we show that selection on phenotypic variation among intact fertile sperm within an ejaculate affects offspring fitness. Longer-lived sperm sired embryos with increased survival and a reduced number of apoptotic cells, and adult male offspring exhibited higher fitness. The effect on embryo viability was carried over into the second generation without further selection and was equally strong in both sexes. Sperm pools selected by motile phenotypes differed genetically at numerous sites throughout the genome. Our findings clearly link within-ejaculate variation in sperm phenotype to offspring fitness and sperm genotype in a vertebrate and have major implications for adaptive evolution.

Genomic analysis reveals major determinants of cis-regulatory variation in Capsella grandiflora.

Understanding the causes of cis-regulatory variation is a long-standing aim in evolutionary biology. Although cis-regulatory variation has long been considered important for adaptation, we still have a limited understanding of the selective importance and genomic determinants of standing cis-regulatory variation. To address these questions, we studied the prevalence, genomic determinants, and selective forces shaping cis-regulatory variation in the outcrossing plant Capsella grandiflora We first identified a set of 1,010 genes with common cis-regulatory variation using analyses of allele-specific expression (ASE). Population genomic analyses of whole-genome sequences from 32 individuals showed that genes with common cis-regulatory variation (i) are under weaker purifying selection and (ii) undergo less frequent positive selection than other genes. We further identified genomic determinants of cis-regulatory variation. Gene body methylation (gbM) was a major factor constraining cis-regulatory variation, whereas presence of nearby transposable elements (TEs) and tissue specificity of expression increased the odds of ASE. Our results suggest that most common cis-regulatory variation in C. grandiflora is under weak purifying selection, and that gene-specific functional constraints are more important for the maintenance of cis-regulatory variation than genome-scale variation in the intensity of selection. Our results agree with previous findings that suggest TE silencing affects nearby gene expression, and provide evidence for a link between gbM and cis-regulatory constraint, possibly reflecting greater dosage sensitivity of body-methylated genes. Given the extensive conservation of gbM in flowering plants, this suggests that gbM could be an important predictor of cis-regulatory variation in a wide range of plant species.

Variation in Linked Selection and Recombination Drive Genomic Divergence during Allopatric Speciation of European and American Aspens.

Despite the global economic and ecological importance of forest trees, the genomic basis of differential adaptation and speciation in tree species is still poorly understood. Populus tremula and Populus tremuloides are two of the most widespread tree species in the Northern Hemisphere. Using whole-genome re-sequencing data of 24 P. tremula and 22 P. tremuloides individuals, we find that the two species diverged ∼2.2-3.1 million years ago, coinciding with the severing of the Bering land bridge and the onset of dramatic climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene. Both species have experienced substantial population expansions following long-term declines after species divergence. We detect widespread and heterogeneous genomic differentiation between species, and in accordance with the expectation of allopatric speciation, coalescent simulations suggest that neutral evolutionary processes can account for most of the observed patterns of genetic differentiation. However, there is an excess of regions exhibiting extreme differentiation relative to those expected under demographic simulations, which is indicative of the action of natural selection. Overall genetic differentiation is negatively associated with recombination rate in both species, providing strong support for a role of linked selection in generating the heterogeneous genomic landscape of differentiation between species. Finally, we identify a number of candidate regions and genes that may have been subject to positive and/or balancing selection during the speciation process.

Tuning fresh: radiation through rewiring of central metabolism in streamlined bacteria.

Most free-living planktonic cells are streamlined and in spite of their limitations in functional flexibility, their vast populations have radiated into a wide range of aquatic habitats. Here we compared the metabolic potential of subgroups in the Alphaproteobacteria lineage SAR11 adapted to marine and freshwater habitats. Our results suggest that the successful leap from marine to freshwaters in SAR11 was accompanied by a loss of several carbon degradation pathways and a rewiring of the central metabolism. Examples for these are C1 and methylated compounds degradation pathways, the Entner-Doudouroff pathway, the glyoxylate shunt and anapleuretic carbon fixation being absent from the freshwater genomes. Evolutionary reconstructions further suggest that the metabolic modules making up these important freshwater metabolic traits were already present in the gene pool of ancestral marine SAR11 populations. The loss of the glyoxylate shunt had already occurred in the common ancestor of the freshwater subgroup and its closest marine relatives, suggesting that the adaptation to freshwater was a gradual process. Furthermore, our results indicate rapid evolution of TRAP transporters in the freshwater clade involved in the uptake of low molecular weight carboxylic acids. We propose that such gradual tuning of metabolic pathways and transporters toward locally available organic substrates is linked to the formation of subgroups within the SAR11 clade and that this process was critical for the freshwater clade to find and fix an adaptive phenotype.

Natural Selection and Recombination Rate Variation Shape Nucleotide Polymorphism Across the Genomes of Three Related Populus Species.

A central aim of evolutionary genomics is to identify the relative roles that various evolutionary forces have played in generating and shaping genetic variation within and among species. Here we use whole-genome resequencing data to characterize and compare genome-wide patterns of nucleotide polymorphism, site frequency spectrum, and population-scaled recombination rates in three species of Populus: Populus tremula, P. tremuloides, and P. trichocarpa. We find that P. tremuloides has the highest level of genome-wide variation, skewed allele frequencies, and population-scaled recombination rates, whereas P. trichocarpa harbors the lowest. Our findings highlight multiple lines of evidence suggesting that natural selection, due to both purifying and positive selection, has widely shaped patterns of nucleotide polymorphism at linked neutral sites in all three species. Differences in effective population sizes and rates of recombination largely explain the disparate magnitudes and signatures of linked selection that we observe among species. The present work provides the first phylogenetic comparative study on a genome-wide scale in forest trees. This information will also improve our ability to understand how various evolutionary forces have interacted to influence genome evolution among related species.