TY - JOUR
T1 - Molecular Evolution of Ecological Specialisation
T2 - Genomic Insights from the Diversification of Murine Rodents
AU - Roycroft, Emily
AU - Achmadi, Anang
AU - Callahan, Colin M.
AU - Esselstyn, Jacob A.
AU - Good, Jeffrey M.
AU - Moussalli, Adnan
AU - Rowe, Kevin C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.
PY - 2021/7/1
Y1 - 2021/7/1
N2 - Adaptive radiations are characterized by the diversification and ecological differentiation of species, and replicated cases of this process provide natural experiments for understanding the repeatability and pace ofmolecular evolution.During adaptive radiation, genes related to ecological specialization may be subject to recurrent positive directional selection. However, it is not clear to what extent patterns of lineage-specific ecological specialization (includingphenotypic convergence) are correlatedwithsharedsignatures of molecular evolution. To test this, we sequenced whole exomes from a phylogenetically dispersed sample of 38 murine rodent species, a group characterized bymultiple, nested adaptive radiations comprising extensive ecological and phenotypic diversity.We found that genes associatedwithimmunity, reproduction, diet, digestion, and taste have been subject to pervasive positive selection during the diversification of murine rodents.We also found a significant correlation between genome-wide positive selection and dietary specialization, with a higher proportion of positively selected codon sites in derived dietary forms (i.e., carnivores and herbivores) than in ancestral forms (i.e., omnivores). Despite striking convergent evolution of skull morphology and dentition in two distantly related worm-eating specialists, we did not detect more genes with shared signatures of positive or relaxed selection than in a nonconvergent species comparison. Although a small number of the genes we detected can be incidentally linked to craniofacial morphology or diet, protein-coding regions are unlikely to be the primary genetic basis of this complex convergent phenotype.Our results suggest a linkbetween positive selection and derived ecological phenotypes, andhighlight specific genes and general functional categories that may have played an integral role in the extensive and rapid diversification of murine rodents.
AB - Adaptive radiations are characterized by the diversification and ecological differentiation of species, and replicated cases of this process provide natural experiments for understanding the repeatability and pace ofmolecular evolution.During adaptive radiation, genes related to ecological specialization may be subject to recurrent positive directional selection. However, it is not clear to what extent patterns of lineage-specific ecological specialization (includingphenotypic convergence) are correlatedwithsharedsignatures of molecular evolution. To test this, we sequenced whole exomes from a phylogenetically dispersed sample of 38 murine rodent species, a group characterized bymultiple, nested adaptive radiations comprising extensive ecological and phenotypic diversity.We found that genes associatedwithimmunity, reproduction, diet, digestion, and taste have been subject to pervasive positive selection during the diversification of murine rodents.We also found a significant correlation between genome-wide positive selection and dietary specialization, with a higher proportion of positively selected codon sites in derived dietary forms (i.e., carnivores and herbivores) than in ancestral forms (i.e., omnivores). Despite striking convergent evolution of skull morphology and dentition in two distantly related worm-eating specialists, we did not detect more genes with shared signatures of positive or relaxed selection than in a nonconvergent species comparison. Although a small number of the genes we detected can be incidentally linked to craniofacial morphology or diet, protein-coding regions are unlikely to be the primary genetic basis of this complex convergent phenotype.Our results suggest a linkbetween positive selection and derived ecological phenotypes, andhighlight specific genes and general functional categories that may have played an integral role in the extensive and rapid diversification of murine rodents.
KW - Murinae
KW - adaptive radiation
KW - comparative genomics
KW - convergent evolution
KW - exome capture
KW - positive selection
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108909113&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/gbe/evab103
DO - 10.1093/gbe/evab103
M3 - Article
C2 - 33988699
AN - SCOPUS:85108909113
SN - 1759-6653
VL - 13
JO - Genome Biology and Evolution
JF - Genome Biology and Evolution
IS - 7
M1 - evab103
ER -