Traits Underlying Experimentally Evolved Dispersal Behavior in .

Unlabelled: Dispersal is an important behavior in many animals, with profound effects on individual fitness and the evolutionary trajectories of populations. This is especially true within taxa with particular life-history strategies, for example those that exploit ephemeral habitat. Further, dispersal is commonly seen to be part of behavioral syndromes - suites of traits that covary across behavioral contexts.

Life history correlations and trade-offs resulting from selection for dispersal in Tribolium castaneum.

Dispersal is an important facet of the life history of many organisms and is, therefore, subject to selective pressure but does not evolve in isolation. Across nature, there are examples of dispersal syndromes and life history strategies in which suites of traits coevolve and covary with dispersal in combinations that serve to maximize fitness in a given ecological context. The red rust flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is a model organism and globally significant post-harvest pest that relies on dispersal to reach new patches of ephemeral habitat.

Genetic architecture of dispersal behaviour in the post-harvest pest and model organism Tribolium castaneum.

Dispersal behaviour is an important aspect of the life-history of animals. However, the genetic architecture of dispersal-related traits is often obscure or unknown, even in well studied species. Tribolium castaneum is a globally significant post-harvest pest and established model organism, yet studies of its dispersal have shown ambiguous results and the genetic basis of this behaviour remains unresolved.

Endophytic fungi related to the ash dieback causal agent encode signatures of pathogenicity on European ash.

Tree diseases constitute a significant threat to biodiversity worldwide. Pathogen discovery in natural habitats is of vital importance to understanding current and future threats and prioritising efforts towards developing disease management strategies. Ash dieback is a fungal disease of major conservational concern that is infecting common ash trees, Fraxinus excelsior, in Europe.

Distinct Life Histories Impact Dikaryotic Genome Evolution in the Rust Fungus Puccinia striiformis Causing Stripe Rust in Wheat.

Stripe rust of wheat, caused by the obligate biotrophic fungus Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici, is a major threat to wheat production worldwide with an estimated yearly loss of US $1 billion.

Albugo candida race diversity, ploidy and host-associated microbes revealed using DNA sequence capture on diseased plants in the field.

Physiological races of the oomycete Albugo candida are biotrophic pathogens of diverse plant species, primarily the Brassicaceae, and cause infections that suppress host immunity to other pathogens. However, A. candida race diversity and the consequences of host immunosuppression are poorly understood in the field.

The ash dieback invasion of Europe was founded by two genetically divergent individuals.

Accelerating international trade and climate change make pathogen spread an increasing concern. Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, the causal agent of ash dieback, is a fungal pathogen that has been moving across continents and hosts from Asian to European ash. Most European common ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) are highly susceptible to H.

Building a locally diploid genome and transcriptome of the diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus.

The genome of the cold-adapted diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus is characterized by highly diverged haplotypes that intersperse its homozygous genome. Here, we describe how a combination of PacBio DNA and Illumina RNA sequencing can be used to resolve this complex genomic landscape locally into the highly diverged haplotypes, and how to map various environmentally controlled transcripts onto individual haplotypes. We assembled PacBio sequence data with the FALCON assembler and created a haplotype resolved annotation of the assembly using annotations of a Sanger sequenced F.

Evolutionary genomics of the cold-adapted diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus.

The Southern Ocean houses a diverse and productive community of organisms. Unicellular eukaryotic diatoms are the main primary producers in this environment, where photosynthesis is limited by low concentrations of dissolved iron and large seasonal fluctuations in light, temperature and the extent of sea ice. How diatoms have adapted to this extreme environment is largely unknown.

Genetic architecture and evolution of the S locus supergene in Primula vulgaris.

Darwin's studies on heterostyly in Primula described two floral morphs, pin and thrum, with reciprocal anther and stigma heights that promote insect-mediated cross-pollination. This key innovation evolved independently in several angiosperm families. Subsequent studies on heterostyly in Primula contributed to the foundation of modern genetic theory and the neo-Darwinian synthesis.

The effects of recombination, mutation and selection on the evolution of the Rp1 resistance genes in grasses.

Plant immune genes, or resistance genes, are involved in a co-evolutionary arms race with a diverse range of pathogens. In agronomically important grasses, such R genes have been extensively studied because of their role in pathogen resistance and in the breeding of resistant cultivars. In this study, we evaluate the importance of recombination, mutation and selection on the evolution of the R gene complex Rp1 of Sorghum, Triticum, Brachypodium, Oryza and Zea.

Evidence for suppression of immunity as a driver for genomic introgressions and host range expansion in races of Albugo candida, a generalist parasite.

How generalist parasites with wide host ranges can evolve is a central question in parasite evolution. Albugo candida is an obligate biotrophic parasite that consists of many physiological races that each specialize on distinct Brassicaceae host species. By analyzing genome sequence assemblies of five isolates, we show they represent three races that are genetically diverged by ∼1%.

Multiple FLC haplotypes defined by independent cis-regulatory variation underpin life history diversity in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Relating molecular variation to phenotypic diversity is a central goal in evolutionary biology. In Arabidopsis thaliana, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) is a major determinant of variation in vernalization--the acceleration of flowering by prolonged cold. Here, through analysis of 1307 A.

Ultra-deep Illumina sequencing accurately identifies MHC class IIb alleles and provides evidence for copy number variation in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata).

We address the bioinformatic issue of accurately separating amplified genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) from artefacts generated during high-throughput sequencing workflows. We fit observed ultra-deep sequencing depths (hundreds to thousands of sequences per amplicon) of allelic variants to expectations from genetic models of copy number variation (CNV). We provide a simple, accurate and repeatable method for genotyping multigene families, evaluating our method via analyses of 209 b of MHC class IIb exon 2 in guppies (Poecilia reticulata).

Can parasites use predators to spread between primary hosts?

Parasites typically have low reproductive fitness on paratenic hosts. Such hosts offer other significant inclusive fitness benefits to parasites, however, such as increased mobility and migration potential. The parasite fauna of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) is dominated by the directly transmitted ectoparasites Gyrodactylus bullatarudis and Gyrodactylus turnbulli.

Inference of selection based on temporal genetic differentiation in the study of highly polymorphic multigene families.

The co-evolutionary arms race between host immune genes and parasite virulence genes is known as Red Queen dynamics. Temporal fluctuations in allele frequencies, or the 'turnover' of alleles at immune genes, are concordant with predictions of the Red Queen hypothesis. Such observations are often taken as evidence of host-parasite co-evolution.

Parasites pitched against nature: Pitch Lake water protects guppies (Poecilia reticulata) from microbial and gyrodactylid infections.

SUMMARY The enemy release hypothesis proposes that in parasite depleted habitats, populations will experience relaxed selection and become more susceptible (or less tolerant) to pathogenic infections. Here, we focus on a population of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) that are found in an extreme environment (the Pitch Lake, Trinidad) and examine whether this habitat represents a refuge from parasites. We investigated the efficacy of pitch in preventing microbial infections in Pitch Lake guppies, by exposing them to dechlorinated water, and reducing gyrodactylid infections on non-Pitch Lake guppies by transferring them to Pitch Lake water.