Biology, Zoology

Understanding how speciation occurs and how reproductive barriers contribute to population structure at a genomic scale requires elucidating the genetic architecture of reproductive isolating barriers. In particular, it is crucial to determine if loci underlying reproductive isolation are genetically linked or if they are located on sex chromosomes, which have unique inheritance and population genetic properties. Bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei) and rainwater killifish (L. parva) are closely related species that have diverged across a salinity gradient and are reproductively isolated by assortative mating, hybrid male infertility, viability of hybrid offspring at high salinities, as well as reduced overall fitness of F2 offspring and backcrosses to L. goodei. We conducted QTL mapping in backcrosses between L. parva and L. goodei to determine the genetic architecture of sex determination, mate attractiveness, fertility, and salinity tolerance. We find that the sex locus appears to ...

Large chromosomal rearrangements are thought to facilitate adaptation to heterogeneous environments by limiting genomic recombination. Indeed, inversions have been implicated in adaptation along environmental clines and in ecotype specialization. Here, we combine classical ecological studies and population genetics to investigate an inversion polymorphism previously documented in Europe among natural populations of the seaweed fly along a latitudinal cline in North America. We test if the inversion is present in North America and polymorphic, assess which environmental conditions modulate the inversion karyotype frequencies, and document the relationship between inversion karyotype and adult size. We sampled nearly 2000 flies from 20 populations along several environmental gradients to quantify associations of inversion frequencies to heterogeneous environmental variables. Genotyping and phenotyping showed a widespread and conserved inversion polymorphism between Europe and America....

Understanding how speciation occurs and how reproductive barriers contribute to population structure at a genomic scale requires elucidating the genetic architecture of reproductive isolating barriers. In particular, it is crucial to determine if loci underlying reproductive isolation are genetically linked or if they are located on sex chromosomes, which have unique inheritance and population genetic properties. Bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei) and rainwater killifish (L. parva) are closely related species that have diverged across a salinity gradient and are reproductively isolated by assortative mating, hybrid male infertility, viability of hybrid offspring at high salinities, as well as reduced overall fitness of F2 offspring and backcrosses to L. goodei. We conducted QTL mapping in backcrosses between L. parva and L. goodei to determine the genetic architecture of sex determination, mate attractiveness, fertility, and salinity tolerance. We find that the sex locus appears to ...

Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) form the boundary between insects and their environments and often act as essential cues for species, mate and kin recognition. This complex polygenic trait can be highly variable both among and within species, but the causes of this variation, especially the genetic basis, are largely unknown. In this study, we investigated phenotypic and genetic variation of CHCs in the seaweed fly, C. frigida, and found that composition was affected by both genetic (sex and population) and environmental (larval diet) factors. We subsequently conducted behavioral trials that show CHCs are likely used as a sexual signal. We identified general shifts in CHC chemistry as well as individual compounds and found that the methylated compounds, mean chain length, proportion of alkenes, and normalized total CHCs differed between sexes and populations. We combined this data with whole genome re-sequencing data to examine the genetic underpinnings of these differences. We identi...

Large chromosomal rearrangements are thought to facilitate adaptation to heterogeneous environments by limiting genomic recombination. Indeed, inversions have been implicated in adaptation along environmental clines and in ecotype specialisation. Here, we combine classical ecological studies and population genetics to investigate an inversion polymorphism previously documented in Europe among natural populations of the seaweed fly Coelopa frigida along a latitudinal cline in North America. We test if the inversion is present in North America and polymorphic, assess which environmental conditions modulate the inversion karyotype frequencies, and document the relationship between inversion karyotype and adult size. We sampled nearly 2,000 flies from 20 populations along several environmental gradients to quantify associations of inversion frequencies to heterogeneous environmental variables. Genotyping and phenotyping showed a widespread and conserved inversion polymorphism between Eu...

A key step in understanding the genetic basis of different evolutionary outcomes (e.g., adaptation) is to determine the roles played by different mutation types. To do this we must simultaneously consider different mutation types in an evolutionary framework. Here we propose a research framework that directly utilizes the most important characteristics of mutations, their population genetic effects, to determine their relative evolutionary significance. We review known population genetic effects of different mutation types and show how these may be connected to different evolutionary outcomes. We provide examples of how to implement this framework and pinpoint areas where more data, theory and synthesis are needed. Linking experimental and theoretical approaches to examine different mutation types simultaneously is a critical step towards understanding their evolutionary significance.

Supergenes are genomic regions containing sets of tightly linked loci that control multi-trait phenotypic polymorphisms under balancing selection. Recent advances in genomics have uncovered significant variation in both the genomic architecture as well as the mode of origin of supergenes across diverse organismal systems. Although the role of genomic architecture for the origin of supergenes has been much discussed, differences in the genomic architecture also subsequently affect the evolutionary trajectory of supergenes and the rate of degeneration of supergene haplotypes. In this review, we synthesize recent genomic work and historical models of supergene evolution, highlighting how the genomic architecture of supergenes affects their evolutionary fate. We discuss how recent findings on classic supergenes involved in governing ant colony social form, mimicry in butterflies, and heterostyly in flowering plants relate to theoretical expectations. Furthermore, we use forward simulati...

Across a species range, multiple sources of environmental heterogeneity, at both small and large scales, create complex landscapes of selection, which may challenge adaptation, particularly when gene flow is high. One key to multidimensional adaptation may reside in the heterogeneity of recombination along the genome. Structural variants, like chromosomal inversions, reduce recombination, increasing linkage disequilibrium among loci at a potentially massive scale. In this study, we examined how chromosomal inversions shape genetic variation across a species range and ask how their contribution to adaptation in the face of gene flow varies across geographic scales. We sampled the seaweed fly Coelopa frigida along a bioclimatic gradient stretching across 10° of latitude, a salinity gradient, and a range of heterogeneous, patchy habitats. We generated a chromosome-level genome assembly to analyze 1,446 low-coverage whole genomes collected along those gradients. We found several large n...