Adaptive evolution and loss of a putative magnetoreceptor in passerines.

Migratory birds possess remarkable accuracy in orientation and navigation, which involves various compass systems including the magnetic compass. Identifying the primary magnetosensor remains a fundamental open question. Cryptochromes (Cry) have been shown to be magnetically sensitive, and Cry4a from a migratory songbird seems to show enhanced magnetic sensitivity in vitro compared to Cry4a from resident species. We investigate Cry and their potential involvement in magnetoreception in a phylogenetic framework, integrating molecular evolutionary analyses with protein dynamics modelling. Our analysis is based on 363 bird genomes and identifies different selection regimes in passerines. We show that Cry4a is characterized by strong positive selection and high variability, typical characteristics of sensor proteins. We identify key sites that are likely to have facilitated the evolution of an optimized sensory protein for night-time orientation in songbirds. Additionally, we show that Cry4 was lost in hummingbirds, parrots and Tyranni (Suboscines), and thus identified a gene deletion, which might facilitate testing the function of Cry4a in birds. In contrast, the other avian Cry (Cry1 and Cry2) were highly conserved across all species, indicating basal, non-sensory functions. Our results support a specialization or functional differentiation of Cry4 in songbirds which could be magnetosensation.

On the estimation of genome-average recombination rates.

The rate at which recombination events occur in a population is an indicator of its effective population size and the organism's reproduction mode. It determines the extent of linkage disequilibrium along the genome and, thereby, the efficacy of both purifying and positive selection. The population recombination rate can be inferred using models of genome evolution in populations. Classic methods based on the patterns of linkage disequilibrium provide the most accurate estimates, providing large sample sizes are used and the demography of the population is properly accounted for. Here, the capacity of approaches based on the sequentially Markov coalescent (SMC) to infer the genome-average recombination rate from as little as a single diploid genome is examined. SMC approaches provide highly accurate estimates even in the presence of changing population sizes, providing that (1) within genome heterogeneity is accounted for and (2) classic maximum-likelihood optimization algorithms are employed to fit the model. SMC-based estimates proved sensitive to gene conversion, leading to an overestimation of the recombination rate if conversion events are frequent. Conversely, methods based on the correlation of heterozygosity succeed in disentangling the rate of crossing over from that of gene conversion events, but only when the population size is constant and the recombination landscape homogeneous. These results call for a convergence of these two methods to obtain accurate and comparable estimates of recombination rates between populations.

The Site/Group Extended Data Format and Tools.

Comparative sequence analysis permits unraveling the molecular processes underlying gene evolution. Many statistical methods generate candidate positions within genes, such as fast or slowly evolving sites, coevolving groups of residues, sites undergoing positive selection, or changes in evolutionary rates. Understanding the functional causes of these evolutionary patterns requires combining the results of these analyses and mapping them onto molecular structures, a complex task involving distinct coordinate referential systems. To ease this task, we introduce the site/group extended data format, a simple text format to store (groups of) site annotations. We developed a toolset, the SgedTools, which permits site/group extended data file manipulation, creating them from various software outputs and translating coordinates between individual sequences, alignments, and three-dimensional structures. The package also includes a Monte-Carlo procedure to generate random site samples, possibly conditioning on site-specific features. This eases the statistical testing of evolutionary hypotheses, accounting for the structural properties of the encoded molecules.

Experimental Evaluation of a Direct Fitness Effect of the De Novo Evolved Mouse Gene Pldi.

De novo evolved genes emerge from random parts of noncoding sequences and have, therefore, no homologs from which a function could be inferred. While expression analysis and knockout experiments can provide insights into the function, they do not directly test whether the gene is beneficial for its carrier. Here, we have used a seminatural environment experiment to test the fitness of the previously identified de novo evolved mouse gene Pldi, which has been implicated to have a role in sperm differentiation. We used a knockout mouse strain for this gene and competed it against its parental wildtype strain for several generations of free reproduction. We found that the knockout (ko) allele frequency decreased consistently across three replicates of the experiment. Using an approximate Bayesian computation framework that simulated the data under a demographic scenario mimicking the experiment's demography, we could estimate a selection coefficient ranging between 0.21 and 0.61 for the wildtype allele compared to the ko allele in males, under various models. This implies a relatively strong selective advantage, which would fix the new gene in less than hundred generations after its emergence.

Fine-Scale Map Reveals Highly Variable Recombination Rates Associated with Genomic Features in the Eurasian Blackcap.

Recombination is responsible for breaking up haplotypes, influencing genetic variability, and the efficacy of selection. Bird genomes lack the protein PR domain-containing protein 9, a key determinant of recombination dynamics in most metazoans. Historical recombination maps in birds show an apparent stasis in positioning recombination events. This highly conserved recombination pattern over long timescales may constrain the evolution of recombination in birds. At the same time, extensive variation in recombination rate is observed across the genome and between different species of birds. Here, we characterize the fine-scale historical recombination map of an iconic migratory songbird, the Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), using a linkage disequilibrium-based approach that accounts for population demography. Our results reveal variable recombination rates among and within chromosomes, which associate positively with nucleotide diversity and GC content and negatively with chromosome size. Recombination rates increased significantly at regulatory regions but not necessarily at gene bodies. CpG islands are associated strongly with recombination rates, though their specific position and local DNA methylation patterns likely influence this relationship. The association with retrotransposons varied according to specific family and location. Our results also provide evidence of heterogeneous intrachromosomal conservation of recombination maps between the blackcap and its closest sister taxon, the garden warbler. These findings highlight the considerable variability of recombination rates at different scales and the role of specific genomic features in shaping this variation. This study opens the possibility of further investigating the impact of recombination on specific population-genomic features.