Germline proliferation trades off with lipid metabolism in .

Little is known about the metabolic basis of life-history trade-offs but lipid stores seem to play a pivotal role. During reproduction, an energetically highly costly process, animals mobilize fat reserves. Conversely, reduced or curtailed reproduction promotes lipid storage in many animals.

Hyper-Cryptic radiation of a tropical montane plant lineage.

Species are seen as the fundamental unit of biotic diversity, and thus their delimitation is crucial for defining measures for diversity assessments and studying evolution. Differences between species have traditionally been associated with variation in morphology. And yet, the discovery of cryptic diversity suggests that the evolution of distinct lineages does not necessarily involve morphological differences.

The Tracking of Moist Habitats Allowed (Arecaceae) to Cover the Elevation Gradient of the Northern Andes.

The topographic gradients of the Tropical Andes may have triggered species divergence by different mechanisms. Topography separates species' geographical ranges and offers climatic heterogeneity, which could potentially foster local adaptation to specific climatic conditions and result in narrowly distributed endemic species. Such a pattern is found in the Andean centered palm genus .

Taxon-specific or universal? Using target capture to study the evolutionary history of rapid radiations.

Target capture has emerged as an important tool for phylogenetics and population genetics in nonmodel taxa. Whereas developing taxon-specific capture probes requires sustained efforts, available universal kits may have a lower power to reconstruct relationships at shallow phylogenetic scales and within rapidly radiating clades. We present here a newly developed target capture set for Bromeliaceae, a large and ecologically diverse plant family with highly variable diversification rates.

Drosophila Evolution over Space and Time (DEST): A New Population Genomics Resource.

Drosophila melanogaster is a leading model in population genetics and genomics, and a growing number of whole-genome data sets from natural populations of this species have been published over the last years. A major challenge is the integration of disparate data sets, often generated using different sequencing technologies and bioinformatic pipelines, which hampers our ability to address questions about the evolution of this species. Here we address these issues by developing a bioinformatics pipeline that maps pooled sequencing (Pool-Seq) reads from D.

Targeted Capture of Hundreds of Nuclear Genes Unravels Phylogenetic Relationships of the Diverse Neotropical Palm Tribe Geonomateae.

The tribe Geonomateae is a widely distributed group of 103 species of Neotropical palms which contains six ecologically important understory or subcanopy genera. Although it has been the focus of many studies, our understanding of the evolutionary history of this group, and in particular of the taxonomically complex genus , is far from complete due to a lack of molecular data. Specifically, the previous Sanger sequencing-based studies used a few informative characters and partial sampling.

Wild tomato endosperm transcriptomes reveal common roles of genomic imprinting in both nuclear and cellular endosperm.

Genomic imprinting is a conspicuous feature of the endosperm, a triploid tissue nurturing the embryo and synchronizing angiosperm seed development. An unknown subset of imprinted genes (IGs) is critical for successful seed development and should have highly conserved functions. Recent genome-wide studies have found limited conservation of IGs among distantly related species, but there is a paucity of data from closely related lineages.

Incidence and developmental timing of endosperm failure in post-zygotic isolation between wild tomato lineages.

Background And Aims: Defective hybrid seed development in angiosperms might mediate the rapid establishment of intrinsic post-zygotic isolation between closely related species. Extensive crosses within and among three lineages of wild tomatoes (Solanum section Lycopersicon) were performed to address the incidence, developmental timing and histological manifestations of hybrid seed failure. These lineages encompass different, yet fairly recent, divergence times and both allopatric and partially sympatric pairs.

Genomic Imprinting in the Endosperm Is Systematically Perturbed in Abortive Hybrid Tomato Seeds.

Hybrid seed failure represents an important postzygotic barrier to interbreeding among species of wild tomatoes (Solanum section Lycopersicon) and other flowering plants. We studied genome-wide changes associated with hybrid seed abortion in the closely related Solanum peruvianum and S. chilense where hybrid crosses yield high proportions of inviable seeds due to endosperm failure and arrested embryo development.

Adaptive evolution and segregating load contribute to the genomic landscape of divergence in two tree species connected by episodic gene flow.

Speciation often involves repeated episodes of genetic contact between divergent populations before reproductive isolation (RI) is complete. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) holds great promise for unravelling the genomic bases of speciation. We have studied two ecologically divergent, hybridizing species of the 'model tree' genus Populus (poplars, aspens, cottonwoods), Populus alba and P.

The genetic architecture of a complex trait: Resistance to multiple toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis in the dengue and yellow fever vector, the mosquito Aedes aegypti.

The bacterial insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) is an increasingly popular alternative to chemical insecticides for controlling mosquito populations. Because Bti toxicity relies on the action of four main toxins, resistance to Bti is very likely a complex phenotype involving several genes simultaneously.

Chemical and biological insecticides select distinct gene expression patterns in Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Worldwide evolution of mosquito resistance to chemical insecticides represents a major challenge for public health, and the future of vector control largely relies on the development of biological insecticides that can be used in combination with chemicals (integrated management), with the expectation that populations already resistant to chemicals will not become readily resistant to biological insecticides. However, little is known about the metabolic pathways affected by selection with chemical or biological insecticides. Here we show that Aedes aegypti, a laboratory mosquito strain selected with a biological insecticide (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, Bti) evolved increased transcription of many genes coding for endopeptidases while most genes coding for detoxification enzymes were under-expressed.

Gene expression patterns and sequence polymorphisms associated with mosquito resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis toxins.

Background: Despite the intensive use of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) toxins for mosquito control, little is known about the long term effect of exposure to this cocktail of toxins on target mosquito populations. In contrast to the many cases of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry toxins observed in other insects, there is no evidence so far for Bti resistance evolution in field mosquito populations. High fitness costs measured in a Bti selected mosquito laboratory strain suggest that evolving resistance to Bti is costly.

Persistence and recycling of bioinsecticidal Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis spores in contrasting environments: evidence from field monitoring and laboratory experiments.

Sprays of commercial preparations of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis are widely used for the control of mosquito larvae. Despite an abundant literature on B.

Insecticide-driven patterns of genetic variation in the dengue vector Aedes aegypti in Martinique Island.

Effective vector control is currently challenged worldwide by the evolution of resistance to all classes of chemical insecticides in mosquitoes. In Martinique, populations of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti have been intensively treated with temephos and deltamethrin insecticides over the last fifty years, resulting in heterogeneous levels of resistance across the island. Resistance spreading depends on standing genetic variation, selection intensity and gene flow among populations.

Investigating the genetics of Bti resistance using mRNA tag sequencing: application on laboratory strains and natural populations of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti.

Mosquito control is often the main method used to reduce mosquito-transmitted diseases. In order to investigate the genetic basis of resistance to the bio-insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti), we used information on polymorphism obtained from cDNA tag sequences from pooled larvae of laboratory Bti-resistant and susceptible Aedes aegypti mosquito strains to identify and analyse 1520 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Larval midgut modifications associated with Bti resistance in the yellow fever mosquito using proteomic and transcriptomic approaches.

Background: Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) is a natural larval mosquito pathogen producing pore-forming toxins targeting the midgut of Diptera larvae. It is used worldwide for mosquito control.

Two methods to easily obtain nucleotide sequences from AFLP loci of interest.

Genome scans based on anonymous Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) markers scattered throughout the genome are becoming an increasingly popular approach to study the genetic basis of adaptation and speciation in natural populations. A shortcoming of this approach is that despite its efficiency to detect signatures of selection, it can hardly help pinpoint the specific genomic region(s), gene(s), or mutation(s) targeted by selection. Here, we present two methods to be undertaken after performing an AFLP-based genome scan to easily obtain the sequences of AFLP loci detected as outliers by population genomics approaches.

In silico fingerprinting (ISIF): a user-friendly in silico AFLP program.

The Amplified fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) is one of the cost-effective and useful fingerprinting techniques to study non-model species. One crucial AFLP step in the AFLP procedure is the choice of restriction enzymes and selective bases providing good-quality AFLP profiles. Here, we present a user-friendly program (ISIF) that allows carrying out in silico AFLPs on species for which whole genome sequences are available.

Identifying insecticide resistance genes in mosquito by combining AFLP genome scans and 454 pyrosequencing.

AFLP-based genome scans are widely used to study the genetics of adaptation and to identify genomic regions potentially under selection. However, this approach usually fails to detect the actual genes or mutations targeted by selection owing to the difficulties of obtaining DNA sequences from AFLP fragments. Here, we combine classical AFLP outlier detection with 454 sequencing of AFLP fragments to obtain sequences from outlier loci.