Analysing quantitative trait loci of sexual antagonism in fruitflies

果蝇性对抗数量性状位点分析

• 批准号: NE/G019452/1
• 负责人: Max Reuter
• 金额: $ 68.51万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FG019452%2F1
• 关键词: Analysing; quantitative; trait; loci; sexual

Evolutionary biologists have long been fascinated by the differences between the sexes. Males and females can differ profoundly in appearance and behaviour, in the example of the mallard so much so that the sexes were initially described as members of different species. Past research has shown that sexual dimorphism has arisen in response to differing male and female reproductive roles. Females usually produce large and energetically costly eggs. Their reproductive performance, or 'fitness', is therefore limited by their ability to acquire resources and survive. Males, in contrast, produce large amounts of tiny and cheap sperm. Accordingly, their fitness is in most cases limited by their ability to attract mates, which can involve bright colouration and extravagant displays or exaggerated weaponry to defend a territory of high quality. While it is understood why the sexes differ, the question of how males and females diverge has not been resolved. The underlying problem is that males and females cannot evolve independently because the sexes generally share almost all of their genes. Thus, any difference between the sexes is not caused by a different content of genes, but rather relies on a different subset of genes being used in males and females. However, recent results indicate that the evolution of this differential use of genes is incomplete. Studies in a variety of organisms, ranging from fruitflies to deer, have demonstrated that genomes that improve performance in males often tend to decrease performance in females and vice versa. This data indicates that there are genes that affect male and female performance in opposite directions but are not differentially expressed in the two sexes. So far, these so-called sexually antagonistic genes have only been indirectly inferred by comparing the performance of males and females that are members of the same family (and hence can be expected to share a proportion of their genes). Nothing is known about the identity of the genes that cause antagonism, or their function in the organism or how they evolve. This project will fill this gap in our knowledge. We will identify the genomic regions that have opposite effects on male and female performance and determine where they are located and which genes they contain. Further, we will investigate to what extent sexual antagonism can prevent genes that code for high performance in one sex from spreading through the population, due to their negative effect on the other sex. Finally, we will study the patterns of DNA evolution of loci involved in antagonism in order identify the exact nucleotide sites responsible for differences in sex-specific performance. Doing so will allow us to infer for how long sexual antagonism has persisted at these loci. By addressing these multiple aspects, our project will provide information that will help us to understand the factors that prevent some genes from being differentially expressed. Thus we will deepen our general understanding of how differences between males and females can evolve.

进化生物学家长期以来一直对两性之间的差异着迷。在绿头鸭的例子中，雄性和雌性在外表和行为上可能会有很大的不同，以至于性别最初被描述为不同物种的成员。过去的研究表明，性别二型性是对不同的男性和女性生殖角色的反应。雌性通常会产生巨大且耗费能量的卵。因此，它们的繁殖能力或“适合度”受到它们获取资源和生存能力的限制。相比之下，男性会产生大量微小而廉价的精子。因此，它们的适合性在大多数情况下受到它们吸引配偶的能力的限制，这可能包括色彩鲜艳和奢华的展示，或者为了保卫高质量的领土而夸张的武器。虽然已经理解了性别差异的原因，但男性和女性如何分化的问题还没有得到解决。根本的问题是，男性和女性不能独立进化，因为两性通常共享几乎所有的基因。因此，性别之间的任何差异并不是由不同的基因含量引起的，而是取决于男性和女性使用的不同的基因子集。然而，最近的结果表明，这种基因差异使用的进化是不完整的。对各种生物的研究，从果蝇到鹿，都证明了提高雄性性能的基因组往往会降低雌性的性能，反之亦然。这一数据表明，有一些基因以相反的方向影响男性和女性的表现，但在两性中没有差异表达。到目前为止，这些所谓的性对抗基因只是通过比较属于同一家庭成员的男性和女性的表现(因此可以预期分享一部分基因)来间接推断的。关于引起拮抗的基因的身份，或者它们在生物体中的功能，或者它们是如何进化的，我们一无所知。这个项目将填补我们知识上的这一空白。我们将确定对男性和女性表现有相反影响的基因组区域，并确定它们的位置和包含哪些基因。此外，我们将研究性对抗能在多大程度上阻止编码一种性别高表现的基因在人群中传播，因为它们对另一种性别产生负面影响。最后，我们将研究参与拮抗的基因座的DNA进化模式，以确定导致性别特异性表现差异的确切核苷酸位置。这样做将使我们能够推断这些基因座的性对抗持续了多长时间。通过解决这些多个方面，我们的项目将提供信息，帮助我们了解阻止某些基因差异表达的因素。因此，我们将加深对男性和女性之间的差异如何演变的总体理解。

项目成果

Under-dominance constrains the evolution of negative autoregulation in diploids.

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002992
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: PLoS computational biology
• 影响因子: 4.3
• 作者: Stewart AJ;Seymour RM;Pomiankowski A;Reuter M
• 通讯作者: Reuter M

On the Genetic Architecture of Cytoplasmic Incompatibility: Inference from Phenotypic Data

• DOI: 10.1086/670612
• 发表时间: 2013-07-01
• 期刊: AMERICAN NATURALIST
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Nor, Igor;Engelstaedter, Jan;Charlat, Sylvain
• 通讯作者: Charlat, Sylvain

Rapid evolution of the intersexual genetic correlation for fitness in Drosophila melanogaster.

• DOI: 10.1111/evo.12892
• 发表时间: 2016-04
• 期刊: Evolution; international journal of organic evolution
• 作者: Collet JM;Fuentes S;Hesketh J;Hill MS;Innocenti P;Morrow EH;Fowler K;Reuter M
• 通讯作者: Reuter M

Genetic drift in antagonistic genes leads to divergence in sex-specific fitness between experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster.

拮抗基因的遗传漂变导致果蝇实验群体之间性别特异性适应性的差异。

• DOI: 10.1111/evo.12032
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: Evolution; international journal of organic evolution
• 作者: Hesketh J

The evolution and consequences of sex-specific reproductive variance.

• DOI: 10.1534/genetics.113.156067
• 发表时间: 2014-01
• 期刊: Genetics
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: Mullon C;Reuter M;Lehmann L
• 通讯作者: Lehmann L