Publications by authors named "Joseph Jalinsky"
Article Synopsis
- Researchers sequenced and analyzed the genomes and transcriptomes of two New Zealand snail species, Potamopyrgus estuarinus and Potamopyrgus kaitunuparaoa, to understand their evolutionary context as relatives of the freshwater snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum.
- Both species share a similar set of genes related to meiosis and sperm functions, indicating obligate sexual reproduction and laying the groundwork for studying P. antipodarum's unique biological traits, including its sexual and asexual lineages.
- Though P. kaitunuparaoa appears to be the closest relative to P. antipodarum, significant gene flow through introgression occurs between the two species; however, the mitochondrial genome acts as a
Article Synopsis
- - Recent advancements in long-read sequencing, specifically PacBio technology, have enabled researchers to sequence entire mitochondrial genomes, which allows for deeper exploration of their structure and recombination.
- - A study on two New Zealand freshwater snail species revealed a previously undetected ∼1.7 kb noncoding region and a mitochondrial genome structure similar to plant chloroplasts, consisting of a large single-copy region and inverted repeats.
- - The findings show evidence of "flip-flop" recombination and distinct haplotypes in the snails' mitochondrial genomes, prompting new questions about the role of inverted repeats in the evolution of these genomes.
Once-useful traits that no longer contribute to fitness tend to decay over time. Here, we address whether the expression of mating-related traits that increase the fitness of sexually reproducing individuals but are likely less useful or even costly to asexual counterparts seems to exhibit decay in the latter. is a New Zealand freshwater snail characterized by repeated transitions from sexual to asexual reproduction.
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- - The study investigates how asexual reproduction affects genome evolution, particularly in the New Zealand freshwater snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, which has both asexual and sexual lineages that compete with each other.
- - Using whole-genome sequencing, researchers analyzed the abundance of rDNA (genes for rRNAs) and found unique gene cluster architectures and significant differences between asexual and sexual individuals.
- - The results show that asexual P. antipodarum have many more copies of rDNA and histone genes compared to sexual ones, indicating that the shift to asexuality leads to notable genomic changes that could impact their biological functions.
Intraspecific genetic variation can drive phenotypic variation even across very closely related individuals. Here, we demonstrate that genetic differences between snails are a major contributor to wide variation in menthol anesthesia success in an important freshwater snail model system, Potamopyrgus antipodarum. Anesthesia is used to immobilize organisms for experiments and surgical procedures and to humanely mitigate pain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHow changes in selective regimes affect trait evolution is an important open biological question. We take advantage of naturally occurring and repeated transitions from sexual to asexual reproduction in a New Zealand freshwater snail species, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, to address how evolution in an asexual context-including the potential for relaxed selection on male-specific traits-influences sperm morphology. The occasional production of male offspring by the otherwise all-female asexual P.
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